Question before subscribing to the photography plan

[Terrixy]

Hi there,

I'm impressed by the flexibility provided by the photography plan, especially in that you can sync edits between mobile devices and the desktop app. Before subscribing to the plan, I have one question about my specific use case.

My primary apps of use will be the Lightroom Classic (desktop) and the Lightroom mobile. Say I travel often with only my camera and phone. I take e.g. 50 pictures in raw format on my journey, download them to my phone via OTG, and do some quick edits in Lightroom mobile. I understand these edits can be sync'ed to Adobe cloud. My question is once I get home, transfer the raw files from the camera to my computer and create a new catalog for them in Lightroom Classic, will the edits on cloud be sync'ed to the newly created catalog? If so, that would provide a nice and time-saving starting point for desktop editing.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Terrixy

[Theresa J · Accepted solution]

Terrix,

The workflow you describe is sorta possible, but still pretty much a confusing mess. Here’s how it works.

1. Files uploaded to Lightroom on a mobile device are uploaded to the cloud. The original raw files go to the cloud. They do not stay on your device. - This part is good!
2. If your LIghtroom Classic catalog is set up for Mobile Sync, those images will also get downloaded to your computer. This is the screwy part, because they actually live in two places, in the cloud and on your computer.
3. Only one Classic catalog can be set up for Mobile Sync. If you have a catalog at home already set up for sync, and create a new catalog when you get back from your trip, you can’t sync the new catalog. Therefore the new catalog will not see the edits you made on you mobile device.
4. Whatever catalog you have set up for sync will see edits made in Lr Mobile. This is good. The challenge is figuring out how to manage the actual files. Ideally you don’t want them in two locations (cloud and computer). Also eventually you will want to remove them from sync without losing the images and the edits.

I recently took a trip and used my iPad only. I made it work, but it took some advanced file management skills when I got back home. I don’t recommend my workflow, so I am not even going to outline what I did. But it is possible. I just haven’t figured out a smooth workflow for the files yet.

[JP Hess]

Just don't try to work with more than one catalog in Classic. There really isn't any need to unless you want a catalog that DOESN'T synchronize with the cloud for some of your images.

[Terrixy]

Thanks Theresa and Jim! I can live with a single catalog.

What worries me now is the mobile part you mentioned. My impression was the Classic CC (not the new CC) would only sync previews to the cloud. So you mean the mobile app on the other hand will upload raws to the cloud? That's a bit scary as the cloud storage is only 20G and can quickly be filled up. So I guess I'll have to delete the raws on the cloud every time I come back from travel. Maybe this is not so efficient as I thought to my workflow (mobile platform for quick culls and edits and physical way for raw transfer) after all.

Thank you!

[Theresa J]

The workflow isn't efficient, but it is possible. When you upload images to Lightroom using a mobile device, it is the same as uploading with Lightroom CC (not the classic version) on a desktop. The full raw images go to the Cloud. With Lightroom sync set up on your desktop with Classic, they ALSO get downloaded to your computer. So if you understand what you are doing, you can delete them from the Cloud after you get home and confirm that they are also on your computer.

[Terrixy]

Many thanks Theresa for your help! I guess that's my best option for now. I don't worry or care much about the raw files on the cloud as I'll still rely on physical medium or my phone for raw transfer to my desktop.

Thanks!

Terrixy