To continue using LR CC or not?

[jhedleyj]

Operating System: macOS High Sierra 10.13.3
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):1.2 [ 20180131-1556-7f481f8 ] (Feb 1 2018)

My aim is to find a way of storing my photos in the Adobe Cloud.
I am not really convinced that CC is for me yet as it lacks some features that I find useful in LR Classic.
My question is this: I have both LR CC, LR Classic and LR CC Mobile installed and all are synced. I believe that the photos I imported directly into LR Classic (via a Collection) will be therefore synced to the Adobe Cloud but only as smart previews. From what I can understand, I believe that if import directly into LR Classic the cloud will only have smart previews and if I import directly into LR CC then the cloud will contain originals. (Where is the sense in that then?) Is it right that LR CC Mobile only edits and stores smart previews?
My inclination is to keep LR Classic and LR CC Mobile, remove LR CC, use LR CC Mobile for viewing and sharing but not editing, forget Adobe Cloud and use an alternative cloud like Dropbox. Any editing to be done in LR Classic and Photoshop as LR CC Mobile will only edit smart previews.
The bottom line, I suppose, is that I want Adobe Cloud to store originals from LR Classic but I don't think that is going to happen. If I want to store originals, I shall have to convert to using LR CC alone. LR Classic and CC are never going to be mutually syncable.
Please advise.

 

[tspear]

Most users consider the Adobe Lightroom CC to be version 1. If it does not have the features you require yet, then wait for the next release.
In the meantime continue with Lightroom CC Classic.
If you search on here you will find many discussions on how to try and leverage both.

Tim

 

[Jim Wilde]

Is it right that LR CC Mobile only edits and stores smart previews?

No. If an original has been uploaded to the cloud, LRCC Mobile allows you to download and edit either that original or a smart preview of it.

I agree that it looks unlikely at this time that Classic will upload originals, but that restriction is fairly easily circumvented is several ways. For instance, instead of importing first into Classic you could import instead into LRCC desktop. That'll upload the originals, but those originals will also be synced back down into Classic....so that all parts of the ecosystem will have the capability of using and editing originals (and some parts, e.g. LRCC mobile, will give you the choice of working either on the original or a smart preview of it).

Another way would be to import into Classic first, sync the smart previews, when that's finished import the same photos into LRCC which will then upload the originals with enough smarts to understand that it already has that file as a smart preview, and replaces it without any duplication. So again all parts of the system have access to the originals.

 

[jhedleyj]

I have decided to remove Lightroom CC and thereby empty the cloud, which is now going to be 1TB of redundant (paid for!) space, at least until Lightroom CC becomes more usable. I have added all of my photos to LR Classic and synced to LRCC since I have created Collections in LR Classic in the same format as that on my hard disk as per Victoria's recommendation. This way I can view my photos on my mobile equipment.

My iPhone (6) and iPad (2017) sync quite nicely except the Collection of videos created on the iPhone do not sync to LRCC Mobile. I do not understand why this should be (any ideas?) but I have created a Collection that is reserved solely for those.

As for off-site storage, I shall continue to use my Dropbox account. I do this by using Carbon Copy Cloner on a regular basis to copy my Pictures folder to the Dropbox folder which then syncs automatically. I realise that I have everything duplicated on my hard disk by doing this but that's life, I'm afraid. I use Time Machine for an on-site but off-computer backup on an external HD.

So, I shall wait for LRCC to show some signs of further development and continue to use LR Classic as long as I reasonably can before Adobe finally pull the plug on it.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

As for off-site storage, I shall continue to use my Dropbox account. I do this by using Carbon Copy Cloner on a regular basis to copy my Pictures folder to the Dropbox folder which then syncs automatically. I realise that I have everything duplicated on my hard disk by doing this but that's life, I'm afraid

No, it's not. You can do this without the use of Carbon Copy Cloner and without duplication. What you need to do is find a utility that can make so-called 'symbolic links'. Google for it. A symbolic link is like an alias, but it works at a deeper level. If you make a symbolic link of your Pictures folder (or some folder inside it) and you place this symbolic link inside your Dropbox folder, then the Dropbox app will 'follow' the link and will not copy the symbolic link itself to the Dropbox servers, but the contents of the folder that it points to. So in your local Dropbox folder you only have the link (no duplication), but when you log into Dropbox with a browser and look at the link on the Dropbox server, you will see that it's not a single small file, but the entire folder.

 

[Jim Wilde]

My iPhone (6) and iPad (2017) sync quite nicely except the Collection of videos created on the iPhone do not sync to LRCC Mobile. I do not understand why this should be (any ideas?) but I have created a Collection that is reserved solely for those.

Videos do not sync to the cloud from LR Classic. So if you create it on the iPhone, it will sync to the cloud and all other LRCC apps, as well as down into Classic if the Classic catalog is sync enabled. When the sync download of the video is completed, you will see that the "synced icon" on the thumbnail in Classic is removed (because it cannot sync back to the cloud). So if you remove the video from the cloud, in the expectation of re-syncing from Classic, that won't happen....to get it back to LRCC on your iPhone you'll need to import it into either LRCC desktop or LRCC Web.

Speaking personally, I don't find the Classic/LRCC hybrid workflow too onerous, and all my images have been synced to the cloud as full originals. I'd rather have that than just smart previews in the cloud. But that's just my way, other users will have their own different ways.

 

[jhedleyj]

So if I import into Classic, the photos are then automatically synced to LRCC and thereby automatically uploaded to the Cloud as originals. If I edit in Classic, the edited photos are synced to LRCC and hence into the Cloud. If I edit in LRCC then the edited photos are uploaded to the Cloud. Am I right so far? But are the files I edited in LRCC synced back to Classic? If not how do I get them there? I prefer to edit in Classic.

 

[Jim Wilde]

So if I import into Classic, the photos are then automatically synced to LRCC and thereby automatically uploaded to the Cloud as originals. If I edit in Classic, the edited photos are synced to LRCC and hence into the Cloud. If I edit in LRCC then the edited photos are uploaded to the Cloud. Am I right so far? But are the files I edited in LRCC synced back to Classic? If not how do I get them there? I prefer to edit in Classic.

No, you're getting that wrong, in particular you need to understand that all these synced apps do not sync directly with each other, they only sync directly to/from the Cloud. So even though you may run Classic and LRCC on the same computer at the same time, they do not talk directly to each other, the communication is always via the Cloud.

And unfortunately they do not sync equally. All of the LRCC apps (desktop, mobile, web) will always upload to the cloud the full original of any file that is directly imported into it, and that happens automatically. But Classic will only upload smart previews of any images directly imported into it, and that is NOT an automatic process, i.e. you have to manually enable syncing for all the images that you want to sync. However, all originals that have been sync-uploaded from any of the LRCC apps will download as full originals into the Classic catalog, provided the latter is sync-enabled.

When you edit in any of the LRCC apps, or edit any synced images in Classic, the edits are synced up to the cloud and thence back down to all the other synced apps. So if you prefer to edit in Classic, that's no problem if the image you are editing is sync-enabled, as the edits will sync up to the Cloud and then back down to your other synced devices.

 

[jhedleyj]

OK. What I now see is that if I directly import into LRCC then originals are synced into the cloud and will be imported into LR Classic as originals (which I can happily edit if I want to). But LR Classic will then sync only smart previews back to the cloud. It seems that any edited photos from LR Classic will be viewable only as smart previews in LRCC and other IOS apps. If I want to have access to edited originals I will have to import and edit them in LRCC and basically ignore LR Classic then. Perhaps I should consider that scenario to preserve my access to originals in the cloud. If I want to use Classic and want access to originals then I shall be unable to use the cloud and LRCC. I am happy to do either of these scenarios but I am paying to use the cloud and therefore do not want to waste it.

So it looks like I shall be using LRCC and the IOS Mobile apps and uninstalling LR Classic. It seems that to run the two systems side-side by-side is a touch mind-bending.

 

[Jim Wilde]

No, you're still not understanding fully. Yes, if you import into LRCC those originals are uploaded to the cloud, and then download into the sync-enabled Classic catalog. But those photos are not then re-synced as smart previews back to the cloud, i.e. they remain in the cloud ecosystem as originals, and can be edited on any of the synced devices/apps, and those edits sync across the whole ecosystem as well. It is only files which are imported into Classic, and sync-enabled, which are uploaded as Smart Previews, and they remain as smart previews in the ecosystem. Even then it's possible to replace those smart previews in the cloud with originals, but that's getting a bit further into the complexities. Best you understand the way it is currently designed, and devise your workflow accordingly.