Import Do I really need Smart Previews

[CliffDillard]

Lightroom Version Number

6.0

Operating System

1. Windows 10

As I understand it Smart Previews are great for working offline, not connected to the original raw files, making it easy to work off of only the catalog file, syncing data at a later time. I am an amateur photographer. I work solely off my desktop and my photos reside on that desktop's hard drive (backed up to external drives). Since I am not interested in using my catalog on a separate device, like my laptop, do I need Smart Previews? I understand they are another level of backup, albeit smaller than the original files, but I have my raw files backed up to two other external drives so I am confident I am OK. Are there other benefit of Smart Previews that I should consider? Thanks

 

[Johan Elzenga]

No, you don't need smart previews. They are not another level of backups. By the way: I notice you use Lightroom 6.0. That is a very old version. Why don't you update to 6.14? Quite a few bugs were fixed in those 14 updates...

Download Photoshop Lightroom

 

[CliffDillard]

Thanks. And I just checked my software and I have indeed updated it to 6.14. I will post correctly next time.

 

[johnbeardy]

There is another benefit - in Preferences, Performance, see "Use Smart Previews instead of Originals for image editing". Depending on your screen size, this can speed up your Develop work.

Smart previews are also a form of backup. A weak backup, one you should never need, but better than nothing if you lose the originals and the backed-up originals.