How do I clear space that Lightroom Mobile is using on my phone/tablet?

Does your phone or tablet ever complain it’s running out of space? Perhaps you need to import a large number of photos from a camera or memory card, or you need a large amount of space for another app.

If you’ve already done all the obvious things, like deleting large apps you don’t use and offloading downloaded Netflix videos, you can check what else is taking up space using Storage Settings on iOS. On Android, the location of storage information varies, for example, Device Care on Samsung.

But what if Lightroom’s using too much space? Firstly, never ever delete the app unless you’re certain everything is safely synced to the cloud. Lightroom’s pretty good at automatically clearing its caches when your device starts to run low on space, but you can clear its cache manually.

Clear the Cache

First, check how much space Lightroom is using on your device by tapping on the … menu (iOS/iPadOS) / hamburger menu (Android) and going to App Settings > Local Storage. Then you can free up space by tapping the Clear Cache button. This only removes cached files that are already safely stored in the cloud, so you don’t need to worry about accidentally deleting originals that haven’t been uploaded yet.

Clear Locally Stored Albums

Albums marked to “store locally” are protected when clearing the cache, so these photos remain available for offline editing. If you still need to clear more space, you can also clear these protected caches.

Any albums marked to store locally show a small blue icon, like this…

Tap the album’s … icon and toggle Store Locally off. This makes the album part of the standard Photo cache, which is managed automatically and can be cleared using the Clear Cache button.

The Android app has an additional handy feature for finding locally stored albums. Go to App Settings > Local storage > Manage locally stored albums, check the albums you want to clear and tap Offload selected albums.