Rebuild smart previews in the cloud

[evikne71]

I have edited a lot of smart previews in LR Classic without the originals connected. The photos are synced to the cloud in different shared galleries. I guess the quality could have been even better if I could rebuild the smart previews in the cloud from the originals. So is it a way to force them to rebuild?

[Jao vdL · Accepted solution]

The smart previews do not need rebuilding. They will not change based on any develop settings. They are downscaled raw data that is compressed with a jpeg-like algorithm (though not exactly jpeg as it retains the original bit depth). The only way to get higher quality rendering is if you upload the actual raw originals. This cannot be done from Lightroom Classic but you can do using the Lightroom CC desktop application. It will recognize that the raw file you are uploading is one it already has and place the raw file right with the smart preview online.

[evikne71]

Thank you for the answer!

But in this thread I was told that edited smart previews would make better exports if they were updated from the originals first. Maybe they misunderstood my question slightly. Of course I will get better results when exporting from the originals. What I actually meant was if the smart previews would be better if they were updated from the originals after editing. And according to your answer they wouldn't? And I assume that smart previews behave similarly either they are stored locally or in the cloud?

[JohanElzenga]

ernstv21515445  wrote

Thank you for the answer!

But in Exporting from edited smart previews  I was told that edited smart previews would make better exports if they were updated from the originals first. Maybe they misunderstood my question slightly. Of course I will get better results when exporting from the originals. What I actually meant was if the smart previews would be better if they were updated from the originals after editing. And according to your answer they wouldn't? And I assume that smart previews behave similarly either they are stored locally or in the cloud?

You misunderstand what is said in that thread. Exports do not get better if the smart previews get updated, exports get better if they can be rendered from the original full size raw data instead of from (smaller and compressed) smart preview data.

[evikne71]

OK. So the smart previews themselves will not get any better, even if I connect to the source files?

[Jao vdL]

No indeed. Smart previews are always exactly the same. They are independent

of what edits you did. They are always rendered directly from the source

raw data and there is no influence of any develop settings you have done.

On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 5:18 AM ernstv21515445 <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[evikne71]

Thank you very much! Then I learned something new today.