I'd like to first say I know you are trying to help me and I appreciate that. I am not saying you are wrong, I would just like to simply explain all these tests I have been doing based on what other users have guided me to do. I have 60k image in Lightroom classic, all of which were imported into classic and all of which are synced in collections, and with smart previews available in CC. Yesterday I reimported 1,000 image into CC. I opened classic, and it DID NOT re download new copies. Sync is turned on. It says up to date. I have checked every local location and done searches of all connected drives. It did not happen. I was told to do this by another user, and a screenshot has been posted below in my response to Jim. So reimported already synced image does not add another copy. My next test was this which I did a matter of minutes ago. I imported an image that was not in either catalog to CC. CC uploaded it and stored it in the local folder where I specified in the preferences. I opened classic and yes the full res copy downloaded there as well. In Classics preferences I had turned OFF "specify location for synced images" so it downloaded the original to my default drive. I then imported another image that was in neither library into CC. But this time I checked the box to specifly location for synced images as well as the one to be sorted by date, within the Classic preferences. This image also synced, downloaded the original, but this time it went to my specified folder and DID NOT download another to the default folder. This was as I expected it to do. I know this discussion has gotten off topic. I orignally asked about getting all of my already imported files into this file structure, and I know I will need to do that manually. But the conversation morphed into this alternative workflow I would like to use, and it sure seems like it works, judging by several tests I have done. Nothing I have done has given me extra copies locally. I will again state my goal. I will be re importing all previously imported files to CC. Im not sure why you think that will add extra copies, it simply doesn't. If it has already been synced, CC is able to identify that the smart preview is already there and the number of "synced images" doesnt actually change when I import these images. That number has stayed the same from day one. All it does is add a copy to the cloud, and to the local folder designated in the prefs. Maybe this is a new feature, I don't know. But I've re imported 300gb of images this week, the synced images number has not changed, nor has my hard drive space, and sync is turned on in Classic I assure you. I just watched images the new images sync with my own two eyes. So as far as my new import workflow-My goal was to have full res access in LR Classic, LR CC, and LR Mobile. I planned on having the cloud copy, a local copy, and an additional backup copy as I always have. So I import my photos to CC. This gives me my cloud copy and my local copy in the folder specified in CC's preferences. Now I set the synced folder location in Classic to be on the additional backup drive. So yes Classic will dowload another full res copy to this drive. Now I have access to the full res files there as well. Maybe I explained this wrong in the above posts. But this is my goal, seems to work just as planned, and I'm not really sure why anyone thinks it won't. Again I appreciate your imput and trying to help. I think this could be a really great workflow for people who want to have full res access in both apps so I am making sure it does what I need before promoting it. I hope this all makes sense.
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