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Hello .. and I hope you can help.

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stevebright3

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Aug 1, 2022
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Hi all

My name is Steve and I'm an englishman lurking in Wales. I've joined this forum because I use Lightroom (version 5.4) for cataloging my photographs (amateur photographer), of which I have just north of 20,000.

My primary issue/concern is that I don't know where LIghtroom is pulling my photos from. I can navigate to the catalog file, but the list of files I see in the @Photos@ folder aren't in sync with those that I see when I go into lightroom, so I'm stumped.

I'd like to tidy up my photos and start cataloging etc, but sadly I feel I'm currently missing the basics. Can anyone help, or point me in teh direction of an article that may help get me back on the right path?

Thanks very much indeed for any and all help offered.

Steve
 
I would suggest you read the free "Lightroom" eBook by Victoria. Download from- https://www.lightroomqueen.com/
You will find information like this-
2022-08-02 07_19_00-lightroom-cc1-quick-start.pdf - Foxit PDF Reader.jpg
 
Rob: Ver 5.4 has no cloud.
Steve: Lightroom only shows images that have been Imported. What LR Import does is register the image address in the Catalog. If you have a high level folder with 6 subfolders and you only Import 4 subfolders, the other two will not show up in LR until they are Imported.
 
Rob: Ver 5.4 has no cloud.
Actually, that is the confusing problem, which is only getting worse. "Version 5.4" could refer to version of the very old Lightroom 5 (predecessor of Lightroom Classic), but more likely it refers to Lightroom (desktop, cloudy, whatever you want to call it) which is indeed at version 5.4 right now. This is the Lightroom version that stores the images in the cloud. Just imagine the confusion when Lightroom (desktop) 6 is going to be released (probably at Adobe Max this October)...
 
Thanks guys. Thats what I found confusing. Its labelled as "Classic Cloud". Once there was "Classic" OR "Cloud". Now it appears to be "Classic Cloud" or just "Classic", at least with my photography subscription anyway
The real confusing thing for me here is that I dont recall actually putting these pictures in the cloud. That would have taken some time to do. Yet they must be there as I cant find them locally. I want to move things about and tidy things up, but am scared to do anythgin until I properly understnad whats happening, as I dont want to run the risk of losing any of my photographs.
 
There are two subscription packages. The 'Lightroom' plan includes only Lightroom 5.4 (Lightroom desktop) and 1 TB cloud space. The 'Photography' plan includes Lightroom Classic and Photoshop and only 20 GB cloud space, because Lightroom Classic does not use the cloud. What makes it confusing is that Lightroom desktop is also included, but mainly to try it out. You won't go very far with 20 GB cloud space if you would use Lightroom desktop as your main editor. Both plans include Lightroom mobile.
 
Thanks Johan I'm just realising this. I do indeed have the photography plan that comes with 20GB, and I have indeed maxed that out, although hardly surprising with over 20,000 photos/videos in my library.
So now I'm confused more. If i have maxed out my 20GB of space, and yet when I fire up Lightroom it shows I have 20,024 images, where is it pulling hem from? Can't be from my 20GB of storage as thats WAY too many photos to fit (they are mostly raw).

This may well be a very stupid question, but is there a way within Lightroom itself to understand where it's pulling the files from?
 
Confusion #2 - Within Lightroom itself, I also have a mismatch between the catalog of photos (20,024), and what my catalog "Final Catalog-2" is showing (19,028), as shown in the attached pic.
 

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Confusion #2 - Within Lightroom itself, I also have a mismatch between the catalog of photos (20,024), and what my catalog "Final Catalog-2" is showing (19,028), as shown in the attached pic.
This shows that you migrated a Lightroom Classic catalog to Lightroom desktop, which is not a good idea if you have the Photography plan. The screenshot also shows that 'Final Catalog-2' is still a work in progress, so I guess that is exactly because you try to migrate a Lightroom Classic catalog to the cloud without having enough space for that. Lightroom shows 20024 pictures, but it is still trying to upload them all.

The mismatch does not mean anything. The difference is approx. 1000 pictures, which simply means these are pictures that did not come from 'Final Catalog-2' but from somewhere else. Your phone perhaps?
 
Thanks Johan, I really appreciate your help. I think the best thing for me to probably do is fork out another £10 per month and get myself 1TB rather than 20GB, then let this catalog finish sorting itself out. Then once I have everythign in the one place I can start tidying things up, removing duplicates etc etc
 
Hmmm ... have upgraded to 1TB but those catalog files dont appear to now be updating. Maybe I should leave it and see if it kicks itself back off?
 
Catalog thumbnail has a spinny wheel implying its updating but it appears after 10 minutes to have done nothing.

Going to change tack and install the Classic version of Lightroom so that everything is on the desktop. Then I'll pull all photos together and tidy up (remove duplicates etc), then probably trash the cloud version as its not going to be big enough without spending an extra £10 per month on additional storage.
 
Thanks Johan I'm just realising this. I do indeed have the photography plan that comes with 20GB, and I have indeed maxed that out, although hardly surprising with over 20,000 photos/videos in my library.
So now I'm confused more. If i have maxed out my 20GB of space, and yet when I fire up Lightroom it shows I have 20,024 images, where is it pulling hem from? Can't be from my 20GB of storage as thats WAY too many photos to fit (they are mostly raw).

This may well be a very stupid question, but is there a way within Lightroom itself to understand where it's pulling the files from?
The 20GB of Cloud storage is also misleading. If you sync Lrc images TO the cloud, Adobe does not actually send the original image. But instead, it sends a proxy images called a Smart DNG. This proxy image is referenced in LrC to a full size image that resides only on you loal disk drive. The SmartDNG has as it long edge a max of 2560 pixels and is suitable for editing and viewing in the Cloud products (Lightroom and Lightroom for the Web). These Proxy images do not count against your plan storage and you have an unlimited amount of space that can hold these proxy images. Your plan storage limits are only affected by full sized images that originate using the Lightroom app (either on the mobile device or your computer)
 
OK, so Lightroom Cloud only keeps a smart preview of the actual file, which we are saying is physically held locally on a disk drive, then what does the below mean, because that implies that the full file IS resident in the cloud storage. This is all so massively complicated.
 

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OK, having done a bunch of reading I think I'm finally getting a handle on this. I've got various versions of my photo collection on several external drives, and they differ in size/number of files. My cloud currently is a mismatch and I don't know whats where. My plan, to sort out my mess is to:

1. Create a new catalog file for ext disk 1 locally using LR classic.
2. Create a new catalog file for ext disk 2 locally using LR classic.
3. disconnect both external drives from my Mac (for my own peace of mind before doing step 4).
4. delete everythgin I currently have in Lightroom Cloud
5. Add the ext disk 1 library to LR Cloud, ensuring I am uploading the files and not just smart previews.
6. Add the ext disk 2 library to LR cloud, ensuring I am uploading the files and not just smart previews. I'll also look to exclude duplicates (assuming i can find an option to do that).

That then gives me one version of the truth in the cloud.
 
OK, so Lightroom Cloud only keeps a smart preview of the actual file, which we are saying is physically held locally on a disk drive, then what does the below mean, because that implies that the full file IS resident in the cloud storage. This is all so massively complicated.
The Smart preview is only for images that originate in Lightroom Classic. The Lightroom app does not "keep" image files (with an exception that I can discuss later). The Adobe cloud storage "keeps" a Library of All image files that have been imported to the Lightroom environment. This includes original Images imported from a Lightroom app on a mobile device or the Lightroom App on a computer AND any smart previews sync'd from Lightroom Classic
The screen shot is of the view of the syncing taking place in the cloud of the contents of the of the cloud in the Lightroom (cloudy) app. not Lightroom Classic. You can see the sync status in Lightroom Classic by viewing a similar dialog in Lightroom Classic .
The Exception to Local images is the cache and Preferences Local Storage setting for the Lightroom App on the computer not any mobile devices. If you check a checkbox labeled "Store a copy of all Originals". them Lightroom (cloudy) will download what ever app is available in the Adobe Cloud to the storage location that you defined in preferences. If Lightroom Classic is your primary app and repository locally, then you should not check this box sine this would result in duplicate copies of the originals stored locally.
 
Thanks Cletus, that makes much more sense. Still going to go ahead with my plan above, as I'm trying to get to "1 version of the truth" with my photo collection, and currently I cant work out what the gaos are, so better to go clean slate and rebuild. That way I have more confidence that everythign is catered for.

One last question though, once I have imported from external disk 1 into cloud and I look to then import the catalog from external disk 2 to add to that, is there an option to say "ignore if duplication", to save me having potential thousands of duplicate files?
 
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