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Can I use both Lightroom CC and Classic?

New Here ,
Oct 18, 2017 Oct 18, 2017

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Will I have any issues running Lightroom Classic on my desktop, and Lightroom CC on both my laptop and mobile?

I understand the libraries will be separate with Classic stored locally, and CC in the cloud, and I would have to move images manually to get them from one application  to the other, but I don't need all of my images in the cloud, and I am worried about space constraints.  At the same time, most of what I do is for social media, and the ability to edit wherever I am is often the best option.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Oct 18, 2017 Oct 18, 2017

You would not need to move anything manually because anything added to Lr CC gets uploaded to the cloud and down to LR Classic. The new Lr CC also manages disk space more efficiently using proxies (smart previews) to keep the overall footprint as minimal as possible on your laptop and mobile device. You would just need to be aware that each app stores smart previews separately. So there would be some duplication, although smart previews are compressed files.

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LEGEND ,
Oct 18, 2017 Oct 18, 2017

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You would not need to move anything manually because anything added to Lr CC gets uploaded to the cloud and down to LR Classic. The new Lr CC also manages disk space more efficiently using proxies (smart previews) to keep the overall footprint as minimal as possible on your laptop and mobile device. You would just need to be aware that each app stores smart previews separately. So there would be some duplication, although smart previews are compressed files.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 18, 2017 Oct 18, 2017

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If I migrated my LR Classic library to CC to take advantage of the cloud storage, could I still use LR Classic as a means to download and archive the originals and do more extensive edits?

I currently do this with photos I add via LR Mobile but usually delete them from CC once they are archived. In the new scenario, I would leave them on the Adobe cloud.

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LEGEND ,
Oct 18, 2017 Oct 18, 2017

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It would be best not to delete from Lr Classic but to drag folders within the Library e.g. to an external drive or similar archive storage.

But even better Lr CC has the option to automatically store a local copy of your original in addition to the one in the cloud. So I have a Segate 4TB ehd nominated as my archive in Lr CC prefs. Even if I disconnect it from time to time, Lr CC is smart enough to recognize it next time I reconnect to any port, without having to worry about drive letters or volumes.

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Explorer ,
Nov 05, 2017 Nov 05, 2017

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@99jon

Thank you for this, I've searched the web trying to find some answers.

I have a feeling you can clarify some things.


1. Are you saying that All Lr CC files (that are synced with the cloud) are automatically synced with Lr Classic? Or do I need to enable that somehow?

2. Where do Lr CC files appear in Lr Classic after they are synced?

3. Is it possible to import photos to Lr Classic as I always have, then choose only certain photos (or perhaps identify specific folders) which would be synced with Lr CC? If so please tell me how.

"You would not need to move anything manually because anything added to Lr CC gets uploaded to the cloud and down to LR Classic. The new Lr CC also manages disk space more efficiently using proxies (smart previews) to keep the overall footprint as minimal as possible on your laptop and mobile device. You would just need to be aware that each app stores smart previews separately. So there would be some duplication, although smart previews are compressed files." ā€“ 99jon

Thank you very much!

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 05, 2017 Nov 05, 2017

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Best I can tell, if you stay with LR Classic, Lightroom CC will see cloud files very much like the mobile apps:

  • Previews only will be synced to the cloud. Not full images. However, these can be edited from the cloud and the masters rendered in LR Classic later. For some purposes the previews are even enough to use.
  • Collections/Album you create will default to syncing to the cloud but it is a per collection setting
  • File folders canNOT be set to sync
  • Smart collections/albums canNOT be set to sync. So there is no way I've found to auto upload things as you add them. Closest I've found is to create a paired smart and regular collection and just drag all from the first to the latter from time to time. You don't get dups it just adds the new.

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Explorer ,
Nov 05, 2017 Nov 05, 2017

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Where is the setting to set a collection to sync to the cloud and be synced then to Lr CC?

When I right click on a collection the settings panel opens but it does not appear there. This Adobe page describes something I do not see:

How to sync Lightroom Classic CC desktop and the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC mobile app

This setting is not in my newest version of lightroom

NewCollection_SyncOption_marked.png

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LEGEND ,
Nov 06, 2017 Nov 06, 2017

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Smart previews, not originals are stored in the cloud from Syncā€™d collections in Lr Classic.

Ensure Lr Mobile is enabled under the Identity Plate.

You can also click to the left of any existing collection name to active the thunderbolt (sync) icon ā€“ see images below.

ID-Plate.jpg

SyncCollection.jpg

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Explorer ,
Nov 06, 2017 Nov 06, 2017

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Thanks 99jon

Turning on the syncing in the upper left corner was the step I was missing. Obvious to me now.

I appreciate the help.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 19, 2017 Oct 19, 2017

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Hi all and thank you 99jonā€‹ for your insights.

I'm as well trying to understand if/why working with both Classic and CC would make sense for me.

My current setup is LR Classic on both desktop & laptop, with my catalog syncing on Dropbox and the originals on my desktop.

  • LR CC would allow me to take advantage of the smart tags and free up space on my desktop. I also like the sleek interface.
  • LR Classic on the other hand has a reassuring folder structure, manually entered metadata (faces, keywords), editing tools and plugins that I would miss.

Please allow me to ask you how exactly the workflow would look like if I decided to migrate my library to LR CC, and still wanted to benefit from the advanced editing from LR Classic?

I understand the library would be at the CC format and the originals transferred to the cloud. Now if I decided to make basic edits on my desktop with CC, and advanced edits with Classic on the same image in a second step, how would this look like?

    • Can changes with both programs be applied non-destructively to the same image?
    • Would the experience be similar to opening a file in Classic with an external plug-in/software (Affinity Photo, MacPhun plug-ins)  and then saving the changes, closing Classic and going back to the CC interface?
    • Would the Classic changes be uploaded to the cloud as well?
    • Would Classic need to save a local copy of the file? (I'm already scared of having to deal with duplicates on the cloud & local storage, argh!)
    • How would these potential local files be synced between desktop and laptop?

Hope I'm not too confusing here, but I think it would be great if we could enjoy both the simplicity and future-oriented features of CC whilst still being able to use the advanced Classic tools.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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LEGEND ,
Oct 19, 2017 Oct 19, 2017

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Adobe recommends that you choose one or the other. I have been using both apps together which requires a bit of extra discipline, because there are a few caveats. The first concerns key wording. There is no sync from Lr CC to Lr Classic. So adding metadata would best be done in LR Classic. A Key word hierarchy would also be unrecognized; Lr CC only supports flat keywords but supplemented with the algorithms for smart tags. These aid search but are never written into metadata.

Lr CC would be great for travelling with a laptop. If staying for example in a hotel with a fast internet connection; you could import photos from camera storage card and start a basic workflow ā€“ culling, rating, and perhaps some editing. Originals are backed up to the cloud and when you get home are downloaded and waiting for you in Lr classic for more editing, keywording etc.

Because Lr CC works efficiently with proxies older photos no longer being edited or actively worked on will automatically drop out of the cache. So 1TB of storage effectively gives you the potential of greater capacity of proxies when working in Lr CC or Lr iOS and Lr Android. More clearly a 50mb file in the cloud may only require several KB of storage in the cache.

In summary you would not migrate your library under such a scenario. You would keep it in Lr Classic. So that would involve a cost choice between the Photography plan +20GB at $9.99 or Photography Plan +1TB at $19.99 (after first year discount) you may get a dropbox saving if you are paying for their storage.

If you elect to migrate and choose Lr CC only the cost with 1TB is $9.99

View at the bottom of the page, plans at the following link:

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html

-Changes can be applied non-destructively in all apps ā€“ you can revert to an original at any time.

-All editing will automatically sync between devicesā€“ so not like editing in an external editor.

-All Lr Classic editing is syncd up to the cloud and reflected in the proxies on all other devices.

-Lr Classic would store a local copy either in pictures or your nominated folder on external hard drive. So you would have an original local copy plus an original backed up in the cloud.

-Sync between Lr CC on laptop and Lr Classic on desktop is automatic, subject to the caveat regarding metadata.

-At present Lr Classic or Photoshop  would be needed to run plug-ins.

Finally, Victoria has produced a very useful flow chart.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-cc-vs-classic-features

Adobe FAQ

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/faq.html

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Participant ,
Oct 19, 2017 Oct 19, 2017

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Thanks for the information. It does seem like the workflow to try is LR CC on a laptop and LR Classic on the workstation.

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New Here ,
Oct 19, 2017 Oct 19, 2017

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Thank you for the description of the potential workflow

When you say

"-Sync between Lr CC on laptop and Lr Classic on desktop is automatic, subject to the caveat regarding metadata."

Would you happen to know:

1. I have an existing photo in a folder Pictures/2017/09/ that has already been imported to LR Classic, and has also been synced to the cloud using LR CC. I then modify the photo using CC on a tablet and it syncs to the cloud. When it syncs these changes back to LR Classic, are the changes reflected to the photo in its original folder Pictures/2017/09/ ?

2. I add a new photo to LR CC on my tablet. The photo then syncs to the cloud and down to LR Classic. Which folder does it sync to in Classic (and on the hard drive, of course)?

3. If I then move the photo to a different folder using LR Classic, does LR CC treat this as a "move", or does it delete and re-sync as if it is a new photo (assuming the new destination folder is also included in LR CC sync)?

Completely separate questions:

4. I read somewhere else that edit 'layers' in LR CC and LR Classic are not compatible (or additive, between them). Thus cumulative edits might not be 'peelable' backwards if you use both apps to edit. Do you know if that is the case?  When you say "Changes can be applied non-destructively in all apps ā€“ you can revert to an original at any time." I understand that you can go back to the original, but does this imply you can also step backwards through the layers of changes from both apps?

5. If I add keywords to a photo in LR Classic after the photo has been added/synced to LR CC, are those keywords synced/added to the photo in the cloud/CC?  [I understand that the reverse is not true - that keywords autogenerated in the CC cloud are not reflected in Classic metadata.]

I hope this is not too detailed/confusing. And thank you in advance for any clarity you can provide

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LEGEND ,
Oct 20, 2017 Oct 20, 2017

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  1. Yes
  2. You will have a folder something like ā€œFrom LR Mobileā€ but you can specify a named folder in Prefs in LR Classic.
  3. I believe this would be a Move (everything automatic) but I have not tested. I try to avoid moving because I have prefs set to a master folder on an external drive with all new photos going into dated sub-folders based on capture date.
  4. Only Lr Classic has the history panel. In Lr CC the latest edits are stored in the cloud and applied on saving/sharing/export. Or for original (raw) exports into an image+XMP sidecar.
  5. No not keywords but captions/titles will sync to Lr CC and mobile devices.

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New Here ,
Oct 21, 2017 Oct 21, 2017

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@99jon, thank you again. Very helpful.

re #4: I understand LR CC does not have a history panel, which is okay. What I was wondering is if changes made (say, on a RAW + XMP sidecar) in LR CC are recorded as 'steps' and reflected in the history sidebar of the Develop module when synced back to LR Classic.

So, rather than asking you to check, I realized I can easily check myself by using LR CC on the phone (which presumably records changes in the same way as LR CC desktop).  And the answer is Yes, the steps/layers of change in LR CC are indeed retained, as are changes in LR Classic. So I can go back and forth between the two transparently with all steps retained in sequence.  Although this probably sounds self evident... you never know with Adobe... so it is comforting to see data retained.

As an example: I have photo1.NEF and photo1.XMP which I crop and straighten in Classic. Then I later use LR CC on a tablet and do some color corrections and further crop the photo.  When photo1.NEF and photo1.XMP sync back to LR Classic, those four 'steps' are reflected in the sidebar history in LR Classic. Incidentally, the 'sync' from CC is also recorded as a history step.

Fun learning how the two ecosystems interact. Frustrating that things like keywords are not compatible or synchronized, as the horsepower to manage that must be pretty minor. I guess we just wait patiently for Adobe to include these features in future updates.

Again, thanks 99jon for your thoughtful input.

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LEGEND ,
Oct 21, 2017 Oct 21, 2017

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Yeah, the inability to sync keywords was deliberate to prevent corruption of the Lr Classic catalog where many customers have complex hierarchical keyword structures. Maybe it will come in future updates or it could be offered as a selectable preference, where Lr Classic users have a flat keywording structure?

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New Here ,
Oct 30, 2017 Oct 30, 2017

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Reading through these posts I think I'm starting to get a handle on it, but still not sure about a couple things.  Currently I do all my importing into LR Classic (automatically storing in folder structure with year and month sub folders) with a synced collection to LR Mobile (smart previews obviousl).  I'll do culling and initial edits in mobile, then finishing touches (if needed) and exporting from LR Classic.

What I'd like to switch to is having my full images in the cloud so I would have the option to export a full res image from the mobile apps, but I want to keep using LR classic for the editing tools still missing from CC (tone curve, split toning, etc).  I'm not really concerned about keywords right now.  So it SOUNDS like what I would need to do is from now on do my importing into LR CC or mobile apps and in the LR Classic preferences set the folder destination for photos from LR Mobile accordingly. Doing so would allow me to edit from Classic or CC and all edits would be "tied" to the same photo (one copy stored in the cloud, another copy on my local hard drive) within both programs, with the history of those edits showing in Classic. Am I right so far?

In that scenario, how would I get all my current photos with their edits into the cloud so full res export would be available for them through LR CC and mobile?  I assume the migration process would "break" the link between those photos in LR Classic and CC.  Would I do the migration process, abandon my current LR Classic catalog, then sync everything from LR CC back to Classic?  Or is there a better way?

Maybe I should just choose not to migrate and accept that everything currently in LR Classic will only be synced as a smart preview, but then start doing all my importing into LR CC from this point forward?

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LEGEND ,
Oct 31, 2017 Oct 31, 2017

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Yes, you got it. The migration tool in Lr Cc will send all of your originals to the cloud. However for a large catalog you would need more than double your existing file storage space, at least temporarily and it could take more than 24 hours to complete the upload and cross reference the Lr Classic catalog, depending on network speed. Adding new photos to Lr CC going forward would be a good alternative.

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New Here ,
Sep 27, 2018 Sep 27, 2018

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I was using LightRoom 5.2 and took a break for a year.

I came back to it and I can't use it.

I am an older consumer with a mac 10.8.5.

I find this stuff way beyond my comprehension.

should I just give up or is there a way to figure this out?

like simply.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 27, 2018 Sep 27, 2018

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If by "this stuff" you are referring to synchronizing collections or sharing images in the cloud, and you are using Lightroom 5.2, just forget about all of it because that version of Lightroom isn't compatible with any of that technology. It would be necessary for you to upgrade to at least the Creative Cloud photography plan and be using Lightroom Classic CC and the new cloud-based Lightroom CC in order to get into that stuff.

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New Here ,
Jan 13, 2018 Jan 13, 2018

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Hi,

Very useful information here!

So I tried this:

1. Imported some photos in LR Classic.

2. Added them to a collection which is set to sync to Lightroom CC.

3. Went to another computer, launched CC, and did some edits (crop, exposure, etc).

4. Went BACK to Classic, and was very happy to see that the CC edits showed up in Classic.

BUT, the history only showed "From Lr Mobile".

The .xmp's modification date corresponds to the time I would have made the changes in CC.

Did I miss something here?

Thanks!

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2018 Mar 08, 2018

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Hello 99jonā€‹ and thank you kindly for your significant contributions to this thread.  I have been ignoring CC being a long time committed Classic user, but recently decided to see if I could make the two work together.  From Classic to CC is simple enough, but I was lost going the other way and did discover that it works when I search the From LR Mobile collection set in LR Classic.

I hope that you will not mind a couple of questions, as you clearly have strong expertise here.

1.  Since for all intents, collections and albums are the same construct, is there a setting that I am missing that will make albums created on CC with images added only on CC sync back to Classic as unique collections without burying them in From LR Mobile?

2.  If I move a collection from inside From LR Mobile for organizational purposes, does it break the link with Lightroom CC?

3.  If I create a folder in CC, is that folder supposed to sync to Classic as a Collection Set?  I have tried creating a folder in CC and moving an album to it, but I do not see this organizational shift in Classic.

Thank you kindly.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 08, 2018 Mar 08, 2018

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I will only attempt to answer your question number 3. Creating a folder in Lightroom CC will NOT create a collection set in Lightroom Classic CC. From my limited experience with trying to use the two programs together, I think the best thing to do is to configure Lightroom Classic CC to store images coming from Lightroom CC in dated folders. Then, anything further will have to be done from within Lightroom Classic CC. The two programs are not really intended to be used together. So if you are trying to do that I would advise you to approach it very slowly and not expect a lot. Otherwise, you could become very frustrated. I have only started to really experiment with this recently.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 08, 2018 Mar 08, 2018

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Hi docchevalier

  1. Albums created in LrCC do not sync back to Lr Classic. Only the originals get downloaded into Lr Classic. In LR Classic preferences you can nominate a named folder/drive and optionally dated sub-folders based on date taken.
  2. The link is not broken in the LrCC eco system. You are simply moving folders in the Library and folders and images on your hard drive. Lr Classic will update the catalog links provided you carry out the move within the Lr Classic Library grid. Ensure sync is not paused under the identity plate or start sync after completing the move so that any metadata changes necessary are updated in the cloud.
  3. Folders in LrCC do not sync back to Lr Classic as collection sets. They are only an organizational tool in LrCC for keeping albums tidy.

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Explorer ,
Mar 28, 2018 Mar 28, 2018

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Hi,

i have been reading this thread with interest but beginning to get a little confused so perhaps I could outline what I am trying to achieve. Basically,the best of both worlds as I see it!

i have a desktop PC, a MBP laptop, iPhone and iPad

i presently use Classic on my desktop with my library and catalog on an external drive (My Images) in order that I can take it with me when using the MBP (Classic) away from home. This drive and the desktop are backed up to two other external drives several times a day. Clearly this is not ideal but better than nothing.

I am am attracted to CC primarily for its remote backup facility. I could do away with the My Images drive when away from home. Greater use of my iPhone and iPad.

As as I understand it I could use CC for importing to the cloud on my desktop, MBP, IPhone and iPad and also run Classic on the desktop for heavier editing.

1. Would/should my catalog be in the cloud?

2.  Am I correct in saying that at import files can be saved in two locations simultaneously?  If so, presumably at import to CC I could store a copy of the original file on a local drive?

3.  When a file is imported through CC it automatically appears in Classic?

4.  My understanding is that once a file is in the CC environment any editing done on any linked device is synced to the other devices using CC or Classic. Connect?

5. If the above is true surely Classic must be connected to the cloud?  If that is so would it not be possible to import and save to the cloud on the desktop through Classic rather than having to switch between them?

i would appreciate clarification on these points.

I recognise that much of this has been covered but there is so much information I am getting confused.

Thans is in advance.

John

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