Comments needed about moving from LR classic to LR mobile on iPad

[DGM]

Lightroom Version Number

LR Classic 9.3 release

Operating System

1. macOS 10.13 High Sierra

So, my iPad Pro (2018 vintage) died and my Mac Book Pro vintage 2011 is getting too far behind in OS versions. I don't want to buy both iPad and new Mac so I am thinking about going to a new iPad Pro and moving from LR classic to LR mobile. I currently use LR classic and sync most photos to Lr mobile anyway. I think I can get familiar with editing in LR mobile but the big issue would just be file structure for saving photos. I am not a professional but use LR classic to load vacation photos shot raw with Nikon and to load camera roll photos from my iPhone and my wife's iPhone (eventually I put together shot "vacation" videos using selcts from all sources). Getting everything in one place I load all into a local folder (2020 or example) and have LR place photos in folders by date (2020-06-03, etc.). I later move old years off laptop to a network drive and also backup to Dropbox.

In LR mobile I could load photos in to folders but not sure how to get LR to "auto organize by date".

Any comments about LR mobile, work flow, and iPad selection as my one and only "computer" connection would be helpful. Or should I still look to get a laptop s well.

 

[Jim Wilde]

In LR mobile I could load photos in to folders but not sure how to get LR to "auto organize by date".

Well, you can't really load photos into "folders" in the same way as you would using Lr Classic. Folders in the cloud apps are equivalent to Collections Sets in Classic, i.e. they are simply a way to organise Albums into sets. The physical placement of your images in the cloud apps isn't really relevant, as the user can't access them that way. So any images that have been imported to the iPad or downloaded into the iPad from the cloud are stored in the app space on the device with the user not knowing (or needing to know) how they are physically organised. What is more relevant is how the user views the photos, and there are multiple ways to do that, which includes segmentation by date (which can be by years, months, days or even hours). Plus, you can set say All Photos to be sgemented by date, but use a different display order for albums.

If you do decide to make a complete switch from Classic to cloud, you will need to find a way to migrate the existing catalog. All the images that you have synced so far from Classic to the cloud are only Smart Previews - 2560px on the long edge - and not the full resolution original, so you need to replace them with the originals. The only way to migrate the catalog from Classic to cloud is by using the Lightroom desktop app.

Also, understand that you'll need to either change your current subscription plan (I assume you have the 20GB Photography Plan) to one which includes at least the 1TB of cloud space (either by switching your current subscription to the Lightroom-only plan or upgrading your current 20GB plan to add the 1TB of additional cloud space).