Still having a brain block on storing a local copy

[JP Hess]

I apologize in advance. But I still don't understand this concept. Whether I have the option to store a local copy at the specified location checked or not, Lightroom CC seems to store the copy on my local hard drive and add the images to my Lightroom Classic CC catalog. I'm just trying to understand why. The catalog is linked, but not migrated.

[JP Hess]

Incidentally, I failed to mention that I'm using both Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC on the same Windows 10 PC. I don't have any mobile devices, and don't plan on having any mobile devices in the future. My wife has a laptop, but there's no Lightroom installed on it at this point. That's a whole different story that we won't get into at this point.

[john beardsworth]

The key is to imagine that you didn't use real Lightroom. Since you do, the whole local copy stuff is indeed pointless. But imagine you decided to go cloud-dependent.... In that case, you might want local copies for your own backup purposes, or did generate files on mobile devices and didn't want to rely on the one copy in Adobe's cloud.

[JP Hess]

In other words, just don't worry about it. Right?

[john beardsworth]

Depends what you mean by "it"?

If you shot images with your phone and were using your wife's laptop and wanted to work offline, maybe having local copies would be handy at times. But I think it's a bit of a crude or oversimplified feature. Just like if you could run LrMobile on your own computer which already has LrClassic, LRCC doesn't offer you much benefit. Other than satisfying your curiosity!

[JP Hess]

Here's what I'm understanding that "maybe" I could do. If I install Lightroom CC on my wife's laptop and link it to my cloud account I would be able to see the images I now have in the cloud. I'm thinking that if I downloaded images to the laptop that they would then sync to my desktop Lightroom Classic CC. Is that right?

[99jon]

Yes you are right Jim. In fact I use LRCC & LR Classic on different machines to avoid conflicts such as with keywords, captions etc. I’ve noted these conflicts can occur where both LRCC & LR Classic are installed on the same computer.

The ability to store a local copy is really designed for those using only LRCC. LR Classic customers already have their originals stored in local folders.

LRCC manages the default cache intelligently. So it is possible to preview all photos anywhere even if there is insufficient disk space to store all originals on the computer hard drive. When you start working in LRCC an original will be downloaded on the fly, when not available on local disk e.g. for editing, exporting  or printing.

Some LRCC customers prefer to keep a local copy of all photos e.g. for any occasion when a network connection is not available. However this entails allocating space manually or setting a maximum storage limit in preferences for an internal or external hard drive. I prefer not to sacrifice the intelligent default cache as I’m very rarely on a plane or train or without wifi.

See this link – Technical questions – Where are my photos stored?

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

[JP Hess]

Thanks. I'll read the link. But here's the crux of my question. If I install Lightroom CC on my wife's laptop and link to my account, it should see the images I have already uploaded. Right? Then, if I upload images on her laptop they will download to my Lightroom Classic CC. Right? That's all I need to know. Don't care about keywords or any of that stuff.

[99jon · Accepted solution]

Yes & yes if using the same Adobe ID on both machines.

Going forward, import all new shots into LRCC on your wife's laptop.

All originals will be in the cloud and downloaded into your LR Classic catalog & folders.

[JP Hess]

Thank you! That is what I suspected. I understand that things aren't going to seem quite right just using the two programs on a single computer. But venturing onto using my wife's laptop is kind of like walking on eggs. It's something I don't really intend to do. However, should we decide to take a little trip for a few days I can see the benefit of downloading images using Lightroom CC on her laptop and not having to worry about losing them. That's all I needed to know. Again, thank you for clearing that up for me.

[99jon]

Glad to help Jim. Even for us ACPs it takes time to get our heads around the LRCC eco system!