Migration Idea from LR Classic to LR CC and retain full usage of both applications

[jayc57139230]

Hello, I don't think I've seen this one yet, I currently have LR Classic set up to only sync certain collections into LR CC, but the limitations of the smart previews in CC lead me to think about this other migration method to try:

What do you think about

1. Prepping and migrating your entire catalog to Lightroom CC's cloud (Assuming you get the right storage package to accommodate all your files)

2. Create a new catalog in your Classic

3. Turn on sync with Lightroom Mobile in that new catalog in Classic and have your entire catalog in the LR CC cloud sync back down into Classic

Now you get originals in the cloud you can access anywhere, not just smart previews, while also retaining the powerful editing capabilities of Lightroom Classic to work on all your images. I'm assuming that new edits made in Classic for those photos in the LR CC cloud will sync nicely back up.  There are definite perks with having all originals in the cloud, for when you wish to export or print on your non-desktop device or simply away from home. I'd hate to give all of those new features up but LR Classic is still too powerful to give up completely too.

There would certainly be things to watch out for as far as prepping your catalog file correctly with the collection sets and collections, managing your keywords..etc.  Would also be wise to make sure you tick the option to store a copy of originals on your hard drive still, or simply just never delete those originals off your local drive.

Thoughts on this particular migration case? am I missing something big or could this potentially be a viable and relatively pain-free "foot-in-both-camps" use case?

[lennyw65997435]

This is exactly what I'm doing, currently in phase 3... Created an empty Classic CC Catalogue and enabled Sync. The download is going super slow (1 picture per minute or so). After 30 min. of syncing, 50 photos are downloaded of 15'000... Much slower than the previous upload to the cloud form LR CC. Also, in the Collections tab in LR classic, under "from LR mobile", it currently shows just about half of the albums I have in CC (in the Cloud and/or on the desktop program). Hope it speeds up, but overall, I think the system is not really working as it should. After migration e.g., there were quite a lot of albums missing in LR cc, they just didn't sync properly and I had to do it manually.

Unfortunately, this workflow should have been implemented and explained by Adobe before they launched the new LR CC. Because most of the Classic Users  would want to benefit from the Cloud Storage and accessibility of the original raw files on their mobile devices.

[jayc57139230]

Thanks for your reply. Would you mind following up after it's all downloaded back on your new Classic catalog and report on its usability? Most curious to see if your edits done in Classic will sync back up nicely to the cloud "catalog".

Yes it's unfortunate Adobe kind of left its users up to figure out all these things for themselves.

[Jcubed04 · Accepted solution]

This is also what I'm currently doing.

Just like lennyw65997435, I'm also in phase 3 and the photos from the cloud are slowly being downloaded into Classic. Even though the process is still on going, I have edited some photos in Classic and can confirm the edits go back into the cloud and are synced to CC on both desktop and mobile.

Of course, I will continue to import all new photos into CC so that the full-res Raws are uploaded to the cloud and synced back to Classic (where more extensive editing tools are available).

I did this because I find it more orderly to have all my Classic photos stored in "Mobile Downloads.lrdata", rather than just having all the new ones there and all the old ones in their original folders with date names.

One more tidbit: I could not find "Convert to DNG" in CC. However, after importing a Raw in CC and syncing it to the cloud, I have found that using "Convert to DNG" in Classic works fine. (I.e, the DNG replaces the Raw file within the cloud).

[jayc57139230]

That is promising to hear and good to know I'm not alone in utilizing this particular migration method and workflow. It seems like a good usage scenario that'll fit many's needs but again is unfortunately not obvious in any Adobe documentation.

Could you elaborate a little further on what you meant by having all your photos stored in  "Mobile Downloads.lrdata"?

In Classic, under preferences and Lightroom CC tab, under "Specify location for Lightroom CC ecosystem's images", do you have this turned on?

Also in Lightroom CC, under preferences and Local Storage tab, do you have "Store a copy of ALL originals locally" turned on?

These two settings have been confusing me as they seem to be referring to the same exact functionality - saving a copy of all original photos from the cloud somewhere on your computer, so I wonder if I have both ticked on will that mean I will now I have 2 copies of the same original photos? If so, what if I just tick one of them on? Which one is more ideal?

Any thoughts on this?