Importing photos from LR mobile

[mpwillis69]

For the longest time, I was able to import photos from my iPhone to Lightroom using a USB cable (I'm using an iPhone 6 and LR CC 2015.8 on a Lenovo PC running Windows 10). However, Lightroom no longer recognizes my iPhone, so I installed LR Mobile instead. My photos sync'd to Lightroom CC on my PC and appear in Collections under "From Lr mobile". So far, so good. Here's my question. Within Lightroom, my DSLR and older iPhone photos are found in the Folders tab. In Windows Explorer, the photos are saved and organized by year and month. For example, C:\Users\Mike\Pictures\My Lightroom Photos\2016\November

The photos from LR Mobile appear in a completely separate folder. For example: 

C:\Users\Mike\Pictures\Lightroom\Mobile Downloads.lrdata\cd6276ff71139754a25fa6accc26eea9b16ffb98e267173a448353e39b3d53f9

I've already changed the default save location for LR mobile so that my iPhone photos are now saved in a more user-friendly location. However, that doesn't solve my problem. Is there a way to import or move the photos from my phone so that they're saved in the same folders as the rest of my photos? I tried moving the sync'd iPhone photos using Import > Move in Lightroom CC, but now I'm seeing a bunch of broken links and errors.

Mike

[john beardsworth]

So the problem is photos already automatically imported from LrMobile before you set the folder location, and you want them moved from the old default folders to your preferred location? In Lightroom, just drag and drop them where you want.

[mpwillis69]

John, thank you for the suggestion! Two follwowup questions:

1. If I click and drag the photos within LR, will the photos be relocated on my hard drive, or does it just move the "pointer" for lack of a better word?

2. Part of the old workflow - where I imported photos from the iPhone via USB - was that the photos were automatically saved in the appropriate year/month folder. Is there a way to retain that using LR mobile?

Mike

[melissapiccone · Accepted solution]

I have my photos set up like you, decade, year, month. my photos come into my iPhone folder in LR and I just drag and drop them into the "right" folders for year and month. They are physically moved on my hard drive.

for question. Number 2 - I haven't figured out a way to do it.

[mpwillis69]

Thank you for clarifying, Melissa!

Now I just need to find an easy way to delete all the duplicates I accidentally created when I "moved" the photos.

Mike

[melissapiccone]

You and me both... I have thousands of duplicates...

[john beardsworth]

re 1, yes, they move on the hard drive.

re 2, in Preferences, Lightroom Mobile, use subfolders formatted by capture time. The setting below will create the year/month folders, and then each import date will get its own folder automatically. With a bit of fine tuning, you can have these two options pointing to the same folder structure as your regular camera imports.

NB This automatic works for future photos, not the existing photos which you'll need to move as above.

[melissapiccone]

You are right - I do have it set up this way, and it does work. It took me forever to figure it out. In the Specify location, point to your location... I will have to create a new location in 2020

[mpwillis69]

Awesome, John -- that's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!

Mike

[Gregard]

Located the "Imported Photos" folder from my iPhone, in the Finder. Then I quit Lightroom and moved the folder somewhere else. Then restarted Lightroom which now noticed that all those photos were missing. So I selected them all and deleted them. Then I did a new file-> Import and chose "move", and located the folder. Then all the photos were relocated into their right date structure.

And I've now turned on john beardsworth​ tip. Thanks! Hope future imports via Lightroom Mobile go to the right folders.