Lightroom Classic and Adobe Cloud - How does it work?

[@georgsteiner2924]

THANK YOU!!! I have been looking for the information about how to easily get the images off the cloud into the LRC catalog for days! Your explanations are crystal clear and your method is exactly what I have been looking for. Brilliant

[@russellinesteinbuhler90]

I have been looking every where for this info. It is shockingly hard to find. Thank You! Thank You! thank you!!!

[@richardchubbUK]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the comment!

[@marcusineson]

This is exactly the information I needed thank you so much Richard. Really clear step by step description and demonstration. I dont know why you say you dont explain them well because your pace is great and makes things easy to follow. I have been using Lightroom Cloud for my travels and really need to get legacy stuff out of the cloud and into my Classic catalogue. Having watched this I am confident this will be done today. Thank you again.

[@richardchubbUK]

Glad it was helpful, thanks for the kind words and for commenting

[@richascolese480]

Thank you. I asked this question after viewing your last video, and you responded. Great job, hope you channel takes off.

[@richardchubbUK]

Thanks for the kind words, I hope so too! All the best, and thanks as always for watching and commenting

[@Theachen7]

Thank you so much for this! I’ve been looking for a good explanation for exactly how it works, and how you can make sure things synced via the cloud is safely saved locally so the cloud space can be tidied.

[@evenatienzaart]

Thank you, Richard. Excellent work. But one has to wonder why Adobe makes the process so opaque, requiring vloggers like you to clarify and explicate their products.

[@richardchubbUK]

Good question! I think the info is out there somewhere, but from what I have seen it is very wordy. Hopefully this helped, thanks for watching.

[@Sadieazuki]

Brilliant video - I wish I had watched it two years ago!

[@richardchubbUK]

My pleasure, thanks for taking the time to comment

[@richascolese480]

Thanks again, presentation was excellent

[@richardchubbUK]

Nice of you to say so , very kind of you.

[@CollectedLight1]

Richard - Very nice, and comprehensive description. I stumbled on this technique and plan several years ago and it has worked well for me. I strictly adhere to my rule that all imports are handled in LR CC (either by import on the desktop, or through LR app on the phone). I refer to that cloud catalog as the Single Source of Truth (SSOT), and am comfortable that everything has one solid instance in the cloud. One tidying up time saver to your method: In LR Classic, in Settings, you can specify a location on your local drive for the synced photos. You can also, as I do, create new Month/Year subfolders as they sync. This eliminates the use of that awkwardly named folder that is the default local synced location. This just automates that step, and eliminates one thing that I would need to remember. Of course everything still shows in All Synced Photos in LRC under Catalogs. A caveat for my use: I accept that I will use substantial storage on the Adobe Cloud, as well as an essentially equal amount on my local disks. But, I realize that I need full resolution files in at least two places, and this accomplishes that. Of course the SSOT has some slippage, in that some actions on LR Classic aren't easily replicated to LR CC - e.g., Virtual Copies. But, by and large, the system, plan, and SSOT have worked well for me. Keep up the good and informative work.

[@richardchubbUK]

Thanks for the comment, and sharing your workflow, and ideas. Always good to know how others are using what can be a complicated process to get your head around. It took me a while!! Thanks for watching!

[@BobTaylor50by50]

One final point I was waiting for you to make was in the last example, after deleting the files from the cloud, I assume you could go back to the folder in LrC and have it sync to the cloud so you can still see the photos on your device (as a smart preview) if desired? Is that correct?

[@TheSannaeriksson]

Thank you! Now I know how to proceed. 😊

[@kilbsy]

Hi Richard. Thanks for this detailed explanation. Just a quick question, if I have multiple catalogs on, say an older Mac, can I set the files on the other catalog to sync and then view them on another catalog and therefore avoid switching machines to edit a set of photos in putting together as new folio images from across all my catalogs.

[@jean-marietop1451]

Awesome job, Jim from France

[@richardchubbUK]

Many thanks Jim!!

[@CalvinLee]

Thank you Richard for the informative video. Here is my situation I need help with. I've always uploaded and edited the raws from shoots on the road with my iPhone/iPad. Now all the synced photos 3K+ photos (270gb) have sucked up all the space on my hard drive. I know I can move all downloaded photos from the cloud to an external drive but can we move the "Mobile Downloads.lrdata" which is a 270gb file to an external drive also without losing the link to the photos? Any help would be great. Thank you 🙏

[@martinfunke4555]

Very good explanation of a very complicated process. Thank you so much. There is one big issue, you didn't mention though. Normal keywords are not reliably synced, hierarchical keywords aren't synced at all and persons names aren't synced in any direction. Adobe support says, that's because LR can't manage hierarchical keywords. How ridiculous is that?

[@richardchubbUK]

Good point, but I have only just started using keywords properly to get them into Collections. Don't really use LR CC other than to get images to my Adobe portfolio website, and editing between iPad and Desktop so not encountered may issues. Does seem strange though, thanks for the view and the comment.

[@rogerwalton8160]

Great stuff - thanks.

[@richardchubbUK]

Pleasure, more coming soon!!! Thanks for watching

[@Kinadnuf]

Very helpful buddy, thank you. My whole LR thing is a mess anyway. Think I might just simply start a new Catalog to save my sanity - or what's left of it :) Cheers

[@GeoffGrant2010]

Really good coverage. I’d like to chat with you about an overview video about how and why to manage your images in LR Classic with some, not all, in LR CC. I think I want my library managed by LR Classic with all the metadata, key words, etc. I’d like to easily move images from my phone, including edits which I made with LR CC; and I’d like to keep some special collections, i.e. “Best”, certain events and locations, in the cloud so I can show them, edit them, have back up storage, etc. I’d love to chat with you about that. Thanks. Geoff

[@mrmintyhd7722]

How do you change your local storage location if your out of space on abode cloud

[@PaulMacnamara-n4k]

Hi Richard - many thanks for taking the time to make this video. I am really sorry though - The Creative cloud to me is just so complex - ALL I want to do is save images to the cloud as a backup if my HD on the MAC should fail. I don't want to sync to any other device other than my desktop MAC. Is there not an easy way to just save to the cloud from Lightroom. It all seems just so complex and ridiculously complicated - or maybe thats me ! Regards Paul Mac

[@richardchubbUK]

Hi Paul, first up, thanks for watching, much appreciated. I think perhaps on the individual devices, you can turn sync off, (or Pause Sync) so nothing comes down from the cloud to the device. Of course, this would also turn of images going the other way, ie from your device to the cloud. Not sure if that helps? I must admit, I use External Hard drives for back up, as it is cheaper for the volume of photos I have, so have never considered using Adobe CC for back up purposes.

[@corvanderlinden4650]

Richard, I read somewhere that the 'crazy' folder name(the long one) is your adobe id (timecode 15:12)

[@rogalaphotography]

I don't have Sync with Lightroom as an option when creating a new collection!

[@richardchubbUK]

Hmm, interesting. How many catalogues do you have? Are you certain the catalogue you have open is the one that is syncing with Lightroom Cloud? Check in the top right hand corner if Sync is enabled. If not, enable it, and it may tell you Lightroom Cloud is syncing another catalogue.You can force it to sync with the current one if you want to (or open the one it is syncing with), then reopen Lightroom and see what happens. Let me know if this works for you....

[@rogalaphotography]

@@richardchubbUK Ah ok that’s exactly what happened! I got an alert when I tried to sync my catalog. I’ll try it again!!! Thanks!!!

[@rogalaphotography]

@@richardchubbUK Sorry to get back to you so late. Well I still can't get that option to show when I create a new collection. I tried everything!

[@micky38]

Hope this helps, just had same issue. Some sync features were missing. I am working away from home using mobile connection, if I open Lightroom before the data connection is enabled then I get the issue. Shut LR, restart pc, connect data source, give a moment then open LR, all OK. It seem LR checks connection to very many Adobe servers on start, if it can’t get through then sync can be enable but doesn’t work. If this is not your issue, check that firewalls and antivirus are not blocking some connections. Good luck.

[@imhorsenaround]

But you didn’t verify that the photos taken by iPhone stay in the photo app on the phone after deleting from the creative cloud which is what I have been searching for and no one has answered that question. Innées to clear out cloud but all of those photos were uploaded into LR app on my phone because I did not realize that was happening. I don’t want to mess around and have photos removed from my actual phone photos app.

[@billyyoung234]

Hi Richard, Thanks for this Tutorial on what, to me, is a quite complicated situation with my Lightroom Apps, Desktop: LightroomClassic, LightroomCC Mobile: LightroomMobile CreativeCloud: On my LightroomClassic on my desktop, I do not seem to have the Folders that you have in LightroomClassic at 15:34 in the video, namely, iPhone Other Lightroom Device Other Lightroom Device Richards iMac 27" 4K ---> (obviously this is your Mac) Just recently, I had relocated my User Folder onto an External 2TB SSD, so maybe I broke the original links to these Folders, which were there originally, how can I reconnect them ? Apologies for the rambling question

[@richardchubbUK]

Firstly, thanks for watching. Regarding the folders, I did a bit of digging, and the iPhone folder is one of the folders in the Mobile Downloads.lrdata file. It is that impossibly long folder name that means nothing, that I mentioned in the video.. On my computer it is - /Users/richardchubb/Pictures/Lightroom/Mobile Downloads.lrdata/"IMPOSSIBLY LONG FOLDER NAME" I would suggest, syncing something from iPhone to Lightroom Classic, as explained here, kzbin.info/www/bejne/goavnoSVZ7yta6M, and perhaps the folders appear when somethings is synced. I must admit, I have never done anything intentional to get these folders to appear, and think they may appear once something has synced? I will see if I can try to find out for sure though.

[@billyyoung234]

@@richardchubbUK Thanks so much Richard for taking the time to answer my question, there is something not logical with LRC + LRCC desktop, I think you 're correct with your hypothesis, regarding syncing, I have looked at an older Catalogue from about a year ago, and there are 2 iPhone Folders !!!!!!!! with mostly duplicated Images in each of these Folders, containing a couple of thousand images. I believe they are from 2 of my previous iPhones, Maybe LRC needs some way of De-authorising Devices, or could it be as simple as just renaming the Target Folders ? I commend you for trying to get your head around the Cloud / Devices / Apps /Syncing / etc Thanks again

[@JustMe-Amr]

One thing that you can do is NOT let Lightroom (CC or Classic) choose where to sync stuff to but, instead, choose the locations yourself so that you can have control of your organization. On your phone you can set up an album called “iPhone photos” and have LR mobile “auto add from camera roll” into that album (by clicking on the … and toggling that choice.) On your desktop on LR Classic you will now have a corresponding collection that will sync those photos in. On your computer in LR Classic go to your your folders section and create a folder where you want to put your iPhone photo originals (instead of having LR choose.) In the options you can have LR sync the mobile photos to that folder. I believe that you can also do that by right clicking on the folder. By doing this, all you have to do to ensure that your cloud storage is under control is, on occasion, deleting the synced photos from the collection or album called “iPhone photos” that you had created.

[@Bravada]

It never works, and I spend more time trying to fix issues. There is no way to see what images are not in a collection, so it's totally pointless other than for one-off events or viewing. I have no idea how to find if a file is an original or a linked file. It's 2024, and it's still a dinosaur and a piece of junk. Stats never match and spend more time trying to figure out the issue. Only synch a collection or it will get a mess. And more often than not it will not synch. To clarify for reviewers when the photos were taken around the office, the Lightroom app camera was used, not Apple. This is pointless as no way to see the photo you just took with Lightroom unless manually checking !, Better free apps than this junk. Better syncing your Apple photos to Lightroom. The only benefit is to fill up your cloud to force you to buy more storage as you do not realise the scam Adobe is pulling. It took me 10 minutes to synch a single photo from my iPhone to MacBook Pro and still no sign of it in the cloud lol

[@compaadres88]

The cloud is so annoying. It needs to go away.

[@Viet-n2s]

Adobe should allocate better engineers to make the cloud thing clear and smart. It's terrible that we have to pay a big amount of money every month for this dump!