jimac1953 wrote I have around 5K images synched from my desktop to my iPad and iPhone and the whole process works really well. I like being able to browse, sort and edit images on my mobile devices. I loaded the desktop CC app on my Mac and to me it just looked like the same thing I had on my iPad. I was a little afraid that Adobe had taken up the Apple approach of dumbing down their desktop apps to look and function like their mobile apps. I decided to migrate a test catalog into the desktop CC app to see if that would reveal anything new. I made a test catalog of around 50 images to experiment with. I had some problems getting it to work. For one thing I had to open the new catalog the LR Classic before it would load. Once it did load, I started to play around with it and noticed a few things. The new images showed up in LR CC on all my devices along with all the previously synced images. Also, during the migration LR CC had made a copy of all 50 imager to a new location. After looking around on the web a little I found out I could delete those duplicate images, which I did with no ill effects. I guess LR CC needs to create the duplicate images for some reason which I can’t seem to find out anything about, but those images are never used by LR CC again. I also noticed there is also a “Lightroom Library.lrlibrary” file in my pictures directory. I googled this file but I can’t find anything about it. I guess it’s an image library similar to the one used by Apple Photos, but that is just a guess. I also noticed there is a Lightroom CC folder that is used to download and locally store original images from the cloud when I edit them in LR CC. It also appears that the process used by LR CC, regardless if it’s on my mac or my mobile devices is different for the files loaded under LR CC and those that were originally synced using Lightroom Classic. The two process can co-exist, but images worked on under one process are separate and not shared with the other process. Seems like you take one or the other. |
I haven't checked out those links that the others have provided, so I don't know it they've answered your questions.
So if it helps, I'm happy to try to answer some of the indirect questions that you've asked here:
1. Yes, the LRCC desktop app has been designed (and LR for mobile has been re-designed) so that there is a common look and feel when using any of the LRCC apps, no matter which device or browser you might be using. I'm sure some pros will regard this as "dumbing down", though I prefer to think it as "simplifying" to make them more appealing to the target audience (which in the first version at least is NOT the working professional). There are a lot of potential users, who want to be mobile, but equally would like to do some editing on the many pictures they take, and who have been put off by the perceived complexity of Lightroom with its requirements for file and catalog management.
2. Following on from that, it then becomes more logical when thinking about why LRCC on the desktop copies existing hard drive images when they are imported/added. Those images may well be currently "managed" by a different app (be that Lightroom Classic, or Capture 1, or ON1, etc.), so it makes sense (to me at least) for LRCC to start with a copy of those images which it can be more certain will not be removed/renamed/deleted during what could be a very lengthy upload process. To say that those copied images will not be used again may be incorrect.....there is an LRCC option to store a copy of all originals locally, if that option is checked that initial copy would form part of those stored local copies.
3. The "Lightroom Library.lrlibrary" is effectively the local version of the LRCC "catalog/cache", i.e. image/album/folder information, stored thumbnails and smart previews, and the default location for any locally stored originals. Note that a different name and default location is used under Windows 10. In line with the thinking of obscuring "catalog management", the only thing a user needs to concern themselves with is the space impact of the catalog/cache on the main system drive (which is the default location), and controls to manage this can be found on the LRCC Preferences>Local Storage tab. It's also possible to relocate any stored originals to a different drive (but cannot be a NAS), and if you change the location after some originals have already been stored locally then you'll see that LRCC will move them to the new location, no user involvement is needed. One other thing.....although the more savvy user will be thinking about maintaining their own backups of the "library", it really isn't necessary as it can be recreated from the cloud if needed, i.e. delete the "library", restart LRCC and the "library" is automatically rebuilt....though of course there'll be some download activity as the thumbnails/previews caches are rebuilt.
4. I'm not 100% certain what your last point about "different processes" means, but yes there are some differences between what happens if uploading a file from Classic or from any of the LRCC apps (desktop, phone, tablet, Web). If you set an image file to sync from within LR Classic, only a Smart Preview will be uploaded. The file will show up in the same collection/album across the whole eco-system, but it'll only exist as that Smart Preview. It can be edited in exactly the same way as an original file, but when it comes to downloading/sharing from any LRCC app the full resolution is not available, the max file size is limited to 2650 long edge. When you upload from any of the LRCC apps, however, the full-size original is always uploaded into the cloud (though it is possible to only subsequently download/view a Smart Preview of that original in LRCC for desktop and LRCC for phone/tablet). In LR Classic, however, that full original will be downloaded into whatever location you have set in the LR Classic>Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab. That copy of the original is separate and independent of any locally stored copy which LRCC may be "managing".
5. Other differences are centred around the fact that the LRCC apps are full members of the cloud eco-system, but LR Classic is not (it's more of an associate member). As a consequence, some things do not sync between Classic and the cloud, notably keywords and location data (GPS coordinates DO sync if they exist in Classic, but not any data in the "Location" fields), but they will sync between the LRCC apps. One current useful piece of information is that when initiating syncing of images from LR Classic to the cloud, IF the metadata held in the Classic catalog is written to XMP (either automatically or by Ctrl/Cmd+S) BEFORE initiating sync, then all that existing metadata (including keywords and location data) will be uploaded to the cloud and will thus be available in any of the LRCC apps.. Note, though, that is a one-way, one-time transfer, there is no subsequent syncing of that data between Classic and LRCC.
Hope that helps.
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