Is there a way to make the smart previews 3000 pixels?

Thanks guys, have been playing and testing a bit more. There must be something I am not getting. I exported 3000 pixel jpg's via dropbox to my ipad. I notice that if I hit the crop/ratio section and hit the 11x8.5 format my pics do get accepted by Foap, which is an agency for phone photography. I do also upload pics from my big camera though and that is where the whole thing baffles me. I do need to get my big files to ipad or iphone since Foap does not work from desktop. So I had a setup to go from LR desktop to LRmobile and then on to Foap. Since I changed to smart previews I could not upload to Foap anymore because I kept getting the too small file warning every time.

I found that the smart previews are in fact dng files, which I did not know before, I thought that the smart previews were jpg's. If I apply the 8.5x11 ratio to those smart previews, they are big enough for Foap. If i hit the 7x5 they are not big enough. I thought that the ratio was not really image size related but only gave a ratio for cropping. If I hit the 8.5x11 ratio, do I upsample my image?

This might be the lousiest explanation you ever read, I am flemish speaking really and have a hard time explaining technical things in english.

Am I wrong in thinking that the ratio of a photograph can be applied to either 3000 pixels or 1500 pixels, without actually changing the total size in mb's of the photograph? Or has my brain changed to mush from too much overthinking? I have also tried to find an answer in Julianne Kost her movies, but she goes rather quickly over the ratio panel. Normally I have no problems with sizing and ratio's... I also never thought about it before... Alzheimers strikes I think!

Anyway, if I keep hitting the 8.5x11 ratio I am good. So my problem is solved even if I can't explain why... Anybody here who can explain in toddler level what I am missing? Thanks in advance...

Hi guys, thank you all so much for your input. The reason for me to work with smart previews is mostly that I only have a 32 gig ipad, so I am really worried to fill it up. We do travel a lot and I easily shoot 4000 pics on a trip of 14 days, so I am always looking for storage. I am still not quiet sure that while we travel, I will not run out of space and I am not a hundred percent sure that if I remove pics from my ipad that the original will stay on my cloud or sync to my desktop at home.

In the mean time I have found that if I click the 8.5x11 in the crop tool my images are big enough, but it seems to default to the 3x2 aspect, and that aspect is not nearly enough for Foap. I am not even mentioning Alamy here. There minimum size has to be 24 megs. I am shooting full frame.

It's all a big heap of logic reasoning... Which is my main problem. I have been sick and five sedations in one summer took care of half of my braincells. Never mind. Bygones... as Richard Fish would say ;o)))

It's like magic...

Guess I can keep the 8.5 rule of thumb as a working solution for now... And will stay on the desktop if my big files need to go to Alamy. I am still a bit confused between the ratio and pixelcount...

Don't bother for me Rob because I can work around. You are saying what I thought or have been thinking, but I somehow think that adjusting the ratio does change the pixel count in LR mobile. You can't really export from LR mobile, all you can do is save to camera roll. I would think that "save to camera roll" is the same as save as, where saving is not really (or is it?) exporting. In that line of thinking: if I would export from LR to jpeg with 3000 widest side, it somehow should not end up in the camera roll measuring smaller... Which it does unless I chip on the 8.5 to 11 ratio...

It does not make sense to me, but then I can work with it without it making sense, so on we go. Thanks for all your input again. I learned in this little thread...

Thanks to anyone who participated.