LR Classic CC - Any happy campers?

[stevevp]

Operating System: W10

Lightroom Version: 2015.12
(Please go to Help menu > System Info to double check the exact version number)

Question or Description of Problem:
I am keen to give Classic a go and upgrade from the latest/final LRCC2015.12. I have my catalog backed up, have nothing "mission critical" to lose and would just like to get on with it. However, there seems to be a dearth of success stories on this forum. I know it's early days and it is human nature to only post the negative comments but I would be interested to know how seamless anyone has found the upgrade to be. And a specific question, are there any incompatibilities with the new processing version which will affect previous work?

 

[Kees Kort]

No problems here with installation of LR Classic 7. I was lucky to have read first the forum, so I noted the advanced tab and LR 2015 is still active working as a fall back. I noted no special things in using LR Classic, no speed increase, but that was already good in earlier versions of LR. I am not complaining, seems good work. I have not looked into Lightroom CC, perhaps later.

 

[stevevp]

No worries Steve, I got it!

:thumbsup:

Just have to say it like a farmer!

Arrrrrrr! (Although that's probably more pirate than farmer!)

 

[Ian Consterdine]

The only issue I have with Lightroom Classic is when I drag images from Photo Mechanic into Lightroom to import them, it seems to spend a while thinking about importing them before it actually starts populating the Library. Once its started, it zips through them quickly. As I'm importing an average of 200 at any one time, the lag is frustrating. Everything else appears quicker though

 

[MarkNicholas]

You can put me in the "Happy Camper" category. Once I figured out that Lightroom CC is only a preview of the direction Lightroom might be headed and that Lightroom Classic is the update that we have been waiting for. The transition has gone smoothly.
I did take a 6000 image subset of important images from my master catalog and migrate that to Lightroom Cloud app. That went well, including keeping a local copy go my master images. As an added bonus, I now have these 6000 images sync'd to my master catalog as well.
Upgrading the subscription and getting the additional 1TB of Cloud storage begins to make Lightroom Mobile a viable product.

Cletus, has Stockholm syndrome kicked in so quickly ?

 

[Bob_B]

I hope I haven't missed this in a previous post, but has anyone moved from v5.7 to LR Classic? Any problems? I've got to upgrade sooner or later, hence my questions.

 

[jmj2001]

I upgraded without problems to Lightroom Classic CC on my home desktop PC. Since that still runs Windows 7, I don't have the option to install the new Lightroom CC. However the 1 TB storage is attractive so I am pondering the upgrade anyway. I suppose I could install Lightroom CC on my Windows 10 laptop under the same licence. However I wouldn't want it to take up too much space on the SSD (photography is not the main purpose of my laptop!). Does anyone know if I could limit that somehow?

Would LR Classic try to upload everything to the cloud or just the collections that are presently marked for upload to Lightroom Web/Mobile?

Do I understand correctly that I could use Lightroom CC as "Lightroom Mobile for Windows 10" on my laptop? By this, I mean that I could import new RAW files from my cameras and process them while travelling. I would hope that there is no need to keep copies of them on the SSD after uploading to the cloud and back down to the PC running LR Classic at home. My full catalogue is about 400 GB at the moment and I definitely want to keep the images in their folder structure on the PC at home.

Presently, when I do this with Lightroom Web or Lightroom Mobile on my tablet or phone, the RAW files eventually land in dated folders on the LR Classic PC at home. Will that still happen?

From what I have read, I think that the answers to the above questions are Yes but I would appreciate if anyone could confirm from their experience.

 

[Jim Wilde]

I upgraded without problems to Lightroom Classic CC on my home desktop PC. Since that still runs Windows 7, I don't have the option to install the new Lightroom CC. However the 1 TB storage is attractive so I am pondering the upgrade anyway. I suppose I could install Lightroom CC on my Windows 10 laptop under the same licence. However I wouldn't want it to take up too much space on the SSD (photography is not the main purpose of my laptop!). Does anyone know if I could limit that somehow?

Yes you can, in several ways. First, LRCC needs space on the local hard drive (your SSD in this case) for it's catalog and previews cache. However, you can control the amount of available free space which LRCC can use by a slider in the Preferences>Local Storage setting. See attached:



Note also there's an option to store a local copy of ALL originals, which you would either keep unchecked or, maybe better still, allocate the location for the originals to an external drive as per my screenshot. It wouldn't matter if you subsequently started LRCC with that external drive attached, the app will tell you and will manage the situation intelligently until the drive is next connected.

Would LR Classic try to upload everything to the cloud or just the collections that are presently marked for upload to Lightroom Web/Mobile?

No. Assuming you've already got synced collections in your catalog, the upgrade process creates the upgraded catalog and takes over syncing duties from the old catalog. What was synced before will remain synced, nothing new will sync until you want it to.

Do I understand correctly that I could use Lightroom CC as "Lightroom Mobile for Windows 10" on my laptop? By this, I mean that I could import new RAW files from my cameras and process them while travelling. I would hope that there is no need to keep copies of them on the SSD after uploading to the cloud and back down to the PC running LR Classic at home. My full catalogue is about 400 GB at the moment and I definitely want to keep the images in their folder structure on the PC at home.

Yes, spot on. If you import direct from card, the originals are first copied to the SSD (or different location if you've specified it) pending upload. Once the upload is complete, those originals will be managed as per your preferences. If you've elected to keep ALL originals locally, then obviously they will stay. If you haven't, LRCC will keep originals and smart previews in accordance with the slider value you've set. If you need a picture to edit, and it's not held locally, there'll be a pause while the smart preview/original is downloaded. It's all a matter of getting it setup the way you want it, then let LRCC take care of it for you.

But if you first copy the new files to your SSD, then add them to LRCC, the app will NOT delete the first manual copy that you made, you'll need to do that yourself.

Presently, when I do this with Lightroom Web or Lightroom Mobile on my tablet or phone, the RAW files eventually land in dated folders on the LR Classic PC at home. Will that still happen?

Yes, if you just remember to check the Preferences>Lightroom CC tab in LR Classic to make sure the options to download to your specified location and folder structure are still checked following the catalog upgrade. They should be.

Hope I've covered everything, let me know if you need more info.

 

[jmj2001]

Yes you can, in several ways. First, LRCC needs space on the local hard drive (your SSD in this case) for it's catalog and previews cache. However, you can control the amount of available free space which LRCC can use by a slider in the Preferences>Local Storage setting. See attached:

View attachment 9970

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hope I've covered everything, let me know if you need more info.

JIm, Thanks a lot for the very fast and complete answer. Exactly what I hoped for and I am trying all that on the laptop now. Very much appreciated - John

 

[Bob_B]

I upgraded without problems to Lightroom Classic CC on my home desktop PC. Since that still runs Windows 7, I don't have the option to install the new Lightroom CC.

So, one cannot install nor run Lightroom CC on Windows 7? Is that correct?

 

[Linwood Ferguson]

So, one cannot install nor run Lightroom CC on Windows 7? Is that correct?

I don't know whether it will not run, or just was not tested, but that is what they said.

Now you can run Lightroom CC Web on any supported browser, I think.

Adobe Creative Cloud system requirements\

Classic will run on windows 7 with SP 1. Interestingly it says 64 bit only, though I thought LR6 (which is on the same page) ran in 32 bit as well:

Lightroom Classic CC system requirements

 

[clee01l]

Classic will run on windows 7 with SP 1. Interestingly it says 64 bit only, though I thought LR6 (which is on the same page) ran in 32 bit as well:

I think the LR6 specs of 64 bit only were changed with a dot release.

 

[Bob_B]

Thanks Ferguson. I hope that Win7 was just not tested. I hope to get more information on the compatibility between Win7 and Lightroom CC. I'll post if I do.

 

[RobOK]

I did take a 6000 image subset of important images from my master catalog and migrate that to Lightroom Cloud app. That went well, including keeping a local copy go my master images. As an added bonus, I now have these 6000 images sync'd to my master catalog as well.
Upgrading the subscription and getting the additional 1TB of Cloud storage begins to make Lightroom Mobile a viable product.

I can understand migrating some as a Trial, but if you are not using LR CC, then stick with Classic and sycn Collections of interest. Then you can use CC on the Smart Previews and not need a the TB cloud option? Unless I miss your intent?

 

[clee01l]

I can understand migrating some as a Trial, but if you are not using LR CC, then stick with Classic and sycn Collections of interest. Then you can use CC on the Smart Previews and not need a the TB cloud option? Unless I miss your intent?

I plan to use LRCC to put Lightroom "Everywhere". I found Lightroom Mobile totally inadequate for real post processing. The biggest missing piece of Lightroom Mobile is that it was not Mobile if your mobile platform was a real computer. You still needed to use the Export/Import as Catalog function to get image back to the Master Catalog. Now With LRCC, I think I can install only that on my Laptop and Maintain my Master Catalog with LR Classic on the Desktop. This will be a big help when traveling with a laptop.
With LRCC on the laptop, I can import travel images, do some basic culling and post processing and manage my finished work on the desktop running LR Classic. All of my images will be found in my master catalog on the iMac including local full size image copies.

I did the test with LRCC on 6000 images and learned a lot about how the two products interrelate. I also learned that I will need to properly prepare my master catalog collections before I migrate this to LRCC. A workflow based entirely upon Smart Collections gets translated to not very useful Static Collections in the cloud.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

So, one cannot install nor run Lightroom CC on Windows 7? Is that correct?

Won’t install. It uses newer APIs that aren’t in Windows 7. Classic definitely still runs on 7 though.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[jmj2001]

Since my earlier post, I have gone ahead and tested my setup with LR Classic on a "home" desktop PC running Windows 7 and LR CC on a "travelling" Windows 10 laptop. My characterisation of LR CC as "Lightroom Mobile for Windows 10" seems quite accurate. I can import some new RAW images on the laptop and they look just like a LR Mobile collection when they get back to LR Classic on the desktop.
I realise that I cannot get any RAW files which I imported directly to LR Classic to upload to the cloud. Only smart previews of these will get to the laptop.
So my last question is: I could later upgrade my home PC to Windows 10 and install LR CC beside Classic and go through the process of updating the catalogue for LR CC. Then, presumably, LR CC could (eventually!) upload all my past RAW and other original files to the cloud. But would LR Classic and LR CC both stay in sync thereafter?

 

[Jim Wilde]

I realise that I cannot get any RAW files which I imported directly to LR Classic to upload to the cloud. Only smart previews of these will get to the laptop.
So my last question is: I could later upgrade my home PC to Windows 10 and install LR CC beside Classic and go through the process of updating the catalogue for LR CC. Then, presumably, LR CC could (eventually!) upload all my past RAW and other original files to the cloud. But would LR Classic and LR CC both stay in sync thereafter?

You're right that you can't directly get LR Classic originals uploaded to the cloud, though there are indirect methods which are beginning to surface quite quickly on this forum and doubtless others. I know that Victoria is planning a series of blog posts to cover the topic of a shared Classic-LRCC workflow, which will no doubt cover your questions. Give us time to get together and produce something. Keep watching.

 

[PhilBurton]

I also learned that I will need to properly prepare my master catalog collections before I migrate this to LRCC. A workflow based entirely upon Smart Collections gets translated to not very useful Static Collections in the cloud.

Cletus,

Since you were once kind enough to send me your smart collections catalog as a guide for my own use, I was wondering how you could manage with LRCC.

Adobe seems to be saying that users should stay with Classic or migrate over to LR CC, but not try to use both. That recommendation won't stop people from trying, of course.

 

[clee01l]

There are some workable solutions for using the best of both. Jim Wilde, myself and others are trying to develop a set of best practices. As Jim says, "Keep watching"

 

[Johan Elzenga]

One simple example of how you could use both: Look at Lightroom CC as the desktop version of Lightroom Mobile. That means that from now on, you can synchronize images to the cloud as you always did with Lightroom CC2015, but now your laptop is like an iPad with a keyboard. Install Lightroom CC on it and use it as if it was another iPad.

 

[rob211]

I like it but for the naming. Sheesh. Maybe they should have called it Kirk, and the new one Picard, and so on. :eek2: Maybe they just don't wanna ever name it without the "lightroom" in the name.

The bad part is that they still haven't done as much (anything) as I'd like with say text search. Or local synch of Classic to the cloud. The addition of the new local adjustment options is particularly nice, but it seems they never wanna work on the boring old organizational and metadata aspects of Lr.

 

[Jimmsp]

One simple example of how you could use both: Look at Lightroom CC as the desktop version of Lightroom Mobile. That means that from now on, you can synchronize images to the cloud as you always did with Lightroom CC2015, but now your laptop is like an iPad with a keyboard. Install Lightroom CC on it and use it as if it was another iPad.

That is a simple way indeed, but I for one don't need it. As of now, any photos I take with my iphone are sent to the cloud via LR Mobile, and then LR Classic syncs them back to the desktop. I can't see myself doing any serious editing on the phone -- I don't currently use a tablet except as a e-reader. I certainly don't want to send my 30 mb raw files to the cloud and then download them again to a tablet or another pc to edit with LR Classic and often PS.

What I could see doing on a tablet is culling, initial rating, and adding key words. If I could do that on a tablet, and have that info sync back to my desktop pc where I have my raw files stored, I'd probably buy a tablet. But it would mean only sending smart files/previews to the cloud via LR CC. Not sure if that is an option.

 

[msmack]

I was going to wait a couple of weeks but then I forgot I was going to wait and upgraded to the Classic version today. So far so good. I just came back from a trip and I had 2000 photos to Import. Very impressed how quickly the import went and how quickly I was able to view the images.

A little trouble with the Range Mask as it is OFF and I don't know how to get in ON. I will deal with that later.

IMHO, we are destined to end up with a Cloud Version as it is obvious that is the way Adobe plans to go. It makes sense to them and will earn them more money, but for today, I guess they didn't want to deal with everyone kicking and screaming.

 

[tspear]

IMHO, we are destined to end up with a Cloud Version as it is obvious that is the way Adobe plans to go. It makes sense to them and will earn them more money, but for today, I guess they didn't want to deal with everyone kicking and screaming.

I guess you have not read many forums. There is a lot of screaming....

Tim

 

[Hoggy]

Yeah, Classic's looking pretty good. I've been tracking the bugs as they all roll in, and they're fairly quiet for a x.0 release. Most of the issues are GPU issues on Windows, and there's not THAT many reports even then. Very few Mac users reporting issues at this stage, other than a couple of crashers on High Sierra.

Yep, I'm one of those without GPU acceleration working since 2015.10.1... Do you happen to have any word on the progress of that? I wasn't able to find any release notes for Classic that would have stated it still wasn't fixed - like there were for all prior LR releases. (Win 10, AMD A8-3500M APU w/ integrated Radeon HD6620G graphics -- problem with ALL drivers I've tried until the last one available for this ~2012 machine.)

However, having said that.. With Classic - at first any edits were taking about 20-30 seconds to show up. But it now seems like it was just doing some 'background' housekeeping on a newly converted catalog. And now, Classic (aka REAL) seems to be a good bit faster than 2015.10.1 - 2015.10.12 with the GPU still disabled. And brushwork pretty much seems to keep up as your drawing, rather than 2 or more seconds after completely stopping pointer movement (imagine that!). I haven't done any import yet, though I'd imagine I'd notice what speedups others are reporting there. And the new range masking it finally got is truly wonderful - pretty much takes away the need for brushing out areas in landscapes.

So, some badly needed changes, which would be a good direction. I just don't like the deja-vu of Classic being a near impossibility to find on Adobe's site (AFAIK, only one blurb on one page). A link that someone posted on the other larger thread, where Adobe was advertising the features of all it's programs.. Not even the area where it said 'photography bundle/package' mentioned Classic - it wasn't even mentioned ONCE, not even in super-tiny print!

And for me there will never be any of the: Baby LR, Noooo! -- ehh, oh well, what are ya gonna do -- Please take my money now, Adobe, please! ..... That Adobe is herding us towards like sheep/cattle. I will never stand for even a single catalog on their servers, let alone images - I have less than zero interest in anything mobile. I don't for a second think any of this is a marketing blunder... A Billion dollar virtual-monopoly planned this.