How to move files from lightroom.adobe.com to Lightroom desktop version (formerly noted as Mobile)? [was: Help!]

[heathere87804991]

Before I realized I had to download the Lightroom app to my desktop, I spent HOURS uploading 555 RAW files to my Lightroom account online. When I log in through lightroom.adobe.com, those photos are there but I can't figure out how to get them into my app.

Anyone know where these photos are actually being stored right now and how I can get them moved into my app without spending more hours uploading the same RAW files to my hard drive?

[Mohit Goyal]

Hi heathere,

There are two ways to add your images in Lightroom mobile app.

1. You need to create the image collection and sync that collections from Lightroom desktop to Lightroom mobile app.

2. You can directly add images from the mobile camera roll to Lightroom mobile app.

Lightroom mobile adds the smart preview for the images, not the complete image. Lightroom web shows you exactly the same images & collections you have on Lightroom mobile, It's just you can access your images on the web as well.

Thanks,

Mohit

[heathere87804991]

I haven't had any trouble seeing the images in the mobile app, Mohit. It's the DESKTOP app where I'm having issues.

I spent several hours uploading the RAW files through Adobe Photoshop Lightroom on the web & they are all there when I log on. However, this version of Lightroom does not have all the editing tools that the desktop version has and now I need to know how to move these photos TO the desktop version so that I can access those editing tools. I do NOT want to have to spend several more hours uploading the same files off my SD card.

Thank you.

[John Waller]

heathere87804991  wrote

Before I realized I had to download the Lightroom app to my desktop

Do you mean the Lightroom desktop application rather than Lightroom Mobile?

[heathere87804991]

Hi, John.

  Yes, that application exactly. I couldn't even find the download for quite some time, but I finally did and downloaded it last night. Problem is, now the photos that I have uploaded here - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - aren't showing up in that desktop application. I would really prefer to NOT spend several more hours uploading those same images to the desktop application, but the online version of Lightroom just doesn't have the editing capabilities of the application, so I need to move my images. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

~Heather

[JP Hess]

Lightroom Mobile is not intended to be a standalone, independent program. It is a companion program to Lightroom CC, which is the monthly subscription program. The basic subscription includes Lightroom and Photoshop, and is $9.99/month in the US.

The "normal" way to share images is to import them into the Lightroom desktop application. This isn't an upload process, it is simply importing or adding the images to the Lightroom catalog. Then collections are created in the Lightroom desktop application. These collections can then be shared with Lightroom Mobile.

Take note that there are two options for Lightroom. You can purchase a standalone license that will enable you to install the current version of Lightroom as Lightroom 6. That this will not give you access to the sharing option. In order to share images it is necessary for you to have a subscription to at least the Creative Cloud Photography Plan.

[heathere87804991]

The title of this post is misleading, Jim. I'm sorry for that. I don't have any problems with the Mobile app, so I'm not sure why Adobe decided to make my post about it.

[JP Hess]

Okay. But I think you have a misunderstanding of how Lightroom Mobile is designed to be used. Good luck. Adobe didn't decide to make your post about anything. You titled it, you wrote it, you posted it. I tried to give you a clarifying answer. But apparently you don't see the relevance.

[Theresa J]

Do you have the desktop Lightroom app installed on your computer?

Are you logged into your Creative Cloud subscription with the Creative Cloud desktop app?

Is Sync turned on in your desktop catalog?

Is both your mobile device and your desktop connected to the internet?

The images that you have uploaded to Lightroom.com are just smart previews of your images. You can't upload your RAW files there. The RAW files can be synced from a mobile device back to your desktop if you are connected, and signed in to your account on both ends.

How did you get the raw files on your mobile device? What did you do that made you think you were uploading them to the web version of LR? It's not clear how you started this whole process. Are they raw images that you captured with LR mobile on a phone, or images that you took with a camera? If you can walk me through your whole workflow, I can probably help you find your images and move them to your desktop LR.

[heathere87804991]

Hi, @Theresa J.

Yes, I NOW have the app installed on my computer. I hadn't been able to find it until the other evening.

Yes, I've been logged into my Creative Cloud subscription at all times and on all platforms.

Sync is definitely turned on.

Both devices have internet connections.

Here's my workflow: 1. RAW images shot with my Nikon D7100 DSLR on a 32 G SanDisk SDHC card. 2. Inserted the memory card into the card slot in my laptop.  3. Logged in to my Adobe CC account online since I couldn't find the desktop application at the time. 4. Clicked on "Add Photos" and spent over 2 hours waiting for the RAW files to upload (to be fair, there were over 500 images on the card). 5. When I log into my account & go to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom all the images are right there, but all the editing tools are not, which is where my issue started.

Thanks so much for your help!!

[Theresa J]

How and where did you log into your Adobe CC account?

Where did you click on 'Add Photos'?

The Raw files will not upload to the internet. So the question is, did they copy from the SanDisk to your laptop, and if so where?

When you log into your account and look for editing tools are you referring to Lightroom's online sync with a browser, or are you talking about the Lightroom application?

What do you see when you open the Lightroom application on your laptop?

How did you turn on Sync?

[elie_dinur · Accepted solution]

Heather - according to the workflow you outlined above, when you clicked on "Add Photos" in the internet application a folder/file navigation window should have opened, in which you apparently navigated to your SD card and selected the 500 NEF files. Is this right? If so, the original NEFs should still be on your card. (As Theresa said, what is at present stored in the cloud are low resolution versions.) Copying the originals to a folder in your computer will be much faster than the uploading was; the data link from a built-in card reader to an internal drive should be hundreds of times faster than the upload to even the best of broad-band web connections. Open the desktop app (presumably Lightroom CC 2015.8) and then open from the File menu the "Import Photos and Video" dialog. In the left side panel navigate to your card. In the central area select which NEFs you want to import. At the top select "Copy" and in the right side panel designate the computer folder destination.

If you have already invested time in editing the versions on the web, it will be possible to synchronize that editing to the desktop application's catalog.

[heathere87804991]

Hi, Elie.

  Your first reply is what I did and it worked. I'm finally seeing my photos in the Lightroom desktop app so now I feel like I can get to actually editing them!

  Thank you so much for your help!!

~Heather

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions!!!

[selondon]

Hi Theresa & Elie,

I may have misread some of the posts, but If heathere87804991 has uploaded RAWs direct into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom then are these not original resolution in the Cloud? (My understanding is that they are & I have just uploaded a .NEF and it seems to be 18MB).

If then all is okay in Lr Desktop (logged in and synced) these originals should automatically sync back to a "From Lr Mobile" folder, shouldn't they?

This may not be the normal way, but it should work.

[Theresa J]

I'm glad you got this working, and for the record I was wrong. You CAN upload raw files directly to Lightroom on the Web. If you have uploaded a RAW file there, you should also be able to download it from there. I got it to work on my desktop and a laptop. I guess this was a highly requested feature that was added late last year. I'm not sure I would use it though. It makes way more sense to me if my raw images are on my desktop computer and everything is synced to mobile via smart previews (which happens automatically during the sync process).

So I learned something new here. Thank you for your original post .

[selondon]

I only upload to Lightroom Web as I'm an ex-Adobe Revel customer and this is Adobe's solution closest to that (even though online storage isn't official yet). It allows me to share the high res files with family and friends and view my whole Catalog/Library in Lr Mobile. And gives me pretty much all the editing I need.

My knowledge of Lightroom Desktop is minimal and as such I am not quite sure the way it treats duplicates. If signed in, the RAWs uploaded to LrW will try to sync back from the Cloud at some point.

If the RAWs have also been added to Lr Desktop then is Lightroom clever enough to know it doesn't need to sync them back from the Cloud again (to the 'From LR Mobile' Folder).

I'm on a learning curve myself!

[Theresa J]

In my test, the raw file I uploaded did sync back to my desktop into the folder I have set up for Lightroom mobile syncing. When RAWs are added to the Lr Desktop and then synced to mobile, only a smart preview is uploaded. When you upload the RAW to Lr.com I don't know if Lightroom is clever enough to know if that RAW file is already part of your desktop catalog. I suspect not, which could get messy.

[elie_dinur]

Before posting here yesterday I did do a small experiment because although

I did put the mobile app on my phone a couple months ago I never did anything more with it than taking a shot or two with the phone and then downloading them to my desktop - because, to tell the truth, the idea of doing any "serious" photography with the phone seems pretty absurd to me. The idea of uploading Raw files from a memory card or from the computer never occurred to me until I read this thread and decided to do experimentally what Heather did by mistake. I went to the web link she provided and uploaded a recently shot Raw file that had already been imported to LR and copied to an external drive, but not yet edited. LR at this time was not open, so the upload was through my browser without LR being involved. I did a few arbitrary edits - changed the WB, added Exposure, changed the white and black points. I saw that if I had elected to download through the browser an RGB version of the edited image, it would be a low res jpg (Smart Preview size) so I didn't do that. I closed the browser and launched LR, and as soon as I navigated in Library to the folder from which I had uploaded the Raw, a Virtual Copy with the web editing appeared next to it. Pretty cool, actually.

[selondon]

After a few tests to confirm, mostly what I had experienced previously:

If you upload a file to Lr Web first, then try to Import the same file into synced LR Desktop, it will not (if 'Don't Import Suspected Duplicates' is ticked) as the Original has already been synced back to the Desktop.

If you Import a file into Lr Desktop first, share a Collection (with that file in, which will only then be a Smart Preview) to Lr Mobile, then try to upload the original to Lr Web, it will not, as it's considered a duplicate.

Both which are expected (although a bit of a shame you can't overwrite the Smart Preview in the Cloud/Lr Web with the Original).

I haven't tried to upload to both platforms, then turn sync on. I imagine some conflict will occur. Will test on my unused work account and see what happens.

[selondon]

I tested again with Lr Mobile Sync Paused in Lr Desktop.

I Imported XXXX.NEF into Lr Desktop.

I imported XXXX.NEF into Lr Web

And then unpaused the Sync in Lr Desktop.

The result was that there were two files in the Catalog.

XXXX.NEF that was the import from my HD and XXXX.NEF Copy that appeared in the Collection Synced back 'From LR Mobile'.

However when I selected XXXX.NEF copy and 'Show in Finder' it directed me to the location of the import from my HD (and not to the Mobile Downloads folder).

So, Lightroom must know not to duplicate on the HD even though there are two versions in the Catalog.

[Theresa J]

I suspected it worked like this, but as I said previously, this could get messy. Personally, right now I can't see a reason to upload RAW files to Lightroom.com, but maybe over time I will think of one.

[selondon]

Indeed Theresa, it works but the knowledge around it doesn't seem that abundant. And it can just confuse matters, using both workflows. Probably not advisable unless you have a clear handle on the process or until Adobe's Cloud offering matures.

One of the only reasons (mine at least) is to have your whole high resolution Catalog in the Cloud, but then unlike most, that's the solution I require.