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Icloud storage and Lightroom

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mrjinx00

New Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2021
Messages
2
Lightroom Version Number
Classic 10.3
Operating System
  1. macOS 11 Big Sur
Hi All,

I recently purchased a new Imac and I get messages almost daily about my icloud storage being full. I don't care for icloud and frankly don't want to use it but everything I have done on that computer and my laptop has been in the cloud. However, I'm concerned what disabling it will do to Lightroom. According to Apple, turning off icloud will remove the files from my computer. I have always had a fear about doing anything behind Lightroom's back as I don't want to end up with missing images etc...

I'm just not certain what the proper procedure is or if I am even explaining it correctly. My Lightroom catalog is on my Mac's hard drive and on an external SSD. According to Apple, disabling icloud will remove my lightroom catalog from my computer. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this before?

Thank you! I really appreciate the help!

Bobby
 
Adobe has no relationship with Apple iCloud storage. With Lightroom Classic, all of your photos are stored locally on your hard drive.

If you are automatically importing the same images in both Lightroom Classic and the Photos library, then Apple is storing a copy of your Photo inventory in the Apple iCloud. This could be the issue that you need to correct. By default Apple gives you 5GB of iCloud Storage. You can determine what is stored there. If you have an iPhone and perhaps an iPad, and choose to back these devices up to the cloud, the Backups can consume all of your iCloud free storage. Using Safari, navigate to iCloud. And look at which types of files are taking up your iCloud storage. You can if need be buy more iCloud storage.

Next you may want to disable the Photos app from start up and when it is not running, it won’t be importing image files to the Photos library. I do not use the photos app on my iMac or my phone. Choosing instead to use the Lightroom app for all of my photos and letting the Lightroom app sync its photos with my Lightroom Classic catalog.

There are other thing that we can discuss when you report back what you have found. I would also like to know the size of you SSD.
 
Cletus thank you for the response. Perhaps it was the way that Apple support explained it. What worried me was the Representative assured me that anything that I remove from Icloud.com would be removed from my hard drive. Just to prove the theory, I created a folder on my desktop, put a few photos in it, went to Icloud.com and deleted that folder and sure enough, it removed it from my desktop. My thinking was that the same thing would happen to my Lightroom catalog and Lightroom wouldn't know where to find it any longer.....if that makes any sense.

Somehow or another all of my Lightroom photos are being stored in the Desktop & documents folders. I have attached a screenshot for your reference. So in essence, simply unchecking that "desktop & documents" folder will remove the lightroom catalog from my computers hard drive.

My external SSD is 2TB.
 

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I have the check box labeled "Desktop and Documents folder" unchecked. Doing this will prevent MacOS from synching those folders (which includes the Pictures folder). You will then need to use TimeMachine or another system backup app to protect your Desktop and Documents data files from disk failure. With 2 TB of SSD you have plenty of local storage that you don't need to rely upon the iCloud. By doing this, those files will not be available in the cloud to be shared. You can however create a data folder inside the local iCloud folder on your iMac to store all of your documents that you want to share with other devices than can access iCloud.
 
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