Lightroom photo management

[Bobalu]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom (Cloud)

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I switched from LrC to LR (Cloud) recently and have a question. Photos in LrC were actually just links to the originals in my Windows Pictures Folder. This doesn't appear to be true in the Cloud version.? Asking because I moved some photos in my Pictures Folder which would have raised Holy Hell in LrC but didn't seem to affect the same photos in the Cloud version. So does LR (Cloud) make an actual copy when importing?
Thanks.

 

[Jim Wilde]

So does LR (Cloud) make an actual copy when importing?

Yes. It first copies them to the "Storage location for originals" as specified in the Preferences>Local Storage tab (you can change that location if you prefer), and from there Lightroom uploads them to the cloud. Once the initial import is finished, the original source for those imports is of no interest to Lightroom, the user can do whatever they like with them.

Once uploaded, Lightroom regards the cloud copies as the "masters", meaning that if you inadvertently do something to the locally stored copies there should be no consequences, Lightroom will simply download a copy from the cloud whenever it next needs a local copy (which it uses for performance reasons when editing). That's all pretty seamless, but if you do wish to changes the storage location for those originals, do it from within the Lightroom Preferences dialog and Lightroom will take care of moving them from the current to the new location. Moving them yourself outside Lightroom would simply result in a new folder being re-created in the specified location and new copies of the cloud masters would be downloaded again into the specified location.

 

[Bobalu]

Yes. It first copies them to the "Storage location for originals" as specified in the Preferences>Local Storage tab (you can change that location if you prefer), and from there Lightroom uploads them to the cloud. Once the initial import is finished, the original source for those imports is of no interest to Lightroom, the user can do whatever they like with them.

Once uploaded, Lightroom regards the cloud copies as the "masters", meaning that if you inadvertently do something to the locally stored copies there should be no consequences, Lightroom will simply download a copy from the cloud whenever it next needs a local copy (which it uses for performance reasons when editing). That's all pretty seamless, but if you do wish to changes the storage location for those originals, do it from within the Lightroom Preferences dialog and Lightroom will take care of moving them from the current to the new location. Moving them yourself outside Lightroom would simply result in a new folder being re-created in the specified location and new copies of the cloud masters would be downloaded again into the specified location.

Thanks, that was the clearest and most helpful response I've ever gotten. It stood to reason that LR would make a copy to send to the Cloud but, frankly, LrC has confused me so often in dealing with their non-destructive editing system that I've become wary (and in constant need of reassurance).
I'm really liking the simplicity and operation of LR more and more every day. Thanks again.