Migrate Lightroom Classic Catalog

[tekman]

Operating System: Windows 10 Home
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC v.1 & Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic v.7.0.1

I want to migrate my Lightroom Classic catalog to Lightroom CC, but before I do I have a few questions/concerns.
1. Will Lightroom Classic still use the same catalog that was migrated for the cloud and will I still be able to use it and then import images into LRCC after the migration is complete?
2. I have approximately 45,000 images that consumes about 650GB of disk space and plan to use a 5TB EHD with approximately 3.5TB of free space which I plan to use as Local storage of my images.
3. The first image below shows LRCC that I have experimented with and imported about 9500 images. Do I need to remove these before migration takes place or just delete the Folders and Albums?
4. The next image is from Lightroom Classic CC. I believe I understand correctly that only Collection Sets and Collections will migrate into LRCC cloud. My concern is whether the Collection structure that I have implemented will transfer.
5. Are the images that I currently have in Pictures on my internal drive remain or will they be deleted during the process?
6. Are than any other pit falls that I need to be aware of?

Image 1

Image 2

 

[clee01l]

1. Will Lightroom Classic still use the same catalog that was migrated for the cloud and will I still be able to use it and then import images into LRCC after the migration is complete?

Lightroom Classic and LRCC are two separate products. they do not share anything (except for some information about images)

2. I have approximately 45,000 images that consumes about 650GB of disk space and plan to use a 5TB EHD with approximately 3.5TB of free space which I plan to use as Local storage of my images.

LRCC local storage is a separate storage of your originals which are housed also in the cloud. It will duplicate the current storage requirements for your Lightroom Classic image inventory

3. The first image below shows LRCC that I have experimented with and imported about 9500 images. Do I need to remove these before migration takes place or just delete the Folders and Albums?

I would (and did) delete the 9500 images that you have loaded as a test to the cloud. If your cloud is empty, then the LRCC image inventory is cleaner and easier to understand. LRCC then becomes a mirror image of your Lightroom Classic catalog Collections (or as close as the current application will permit)

4. The next image is from Lightroom Classic CC. I believe I understand correctly that only Collection Sets and Collections will migrate into LRCC cloud. My concern is whether the Collection structure that I have implemented will transfer.

Collections and Smart Collections get migrated as static Albums, Collection Sets get migrated as folders. I found it easier to clean up the LRCC structure after migration with this exception. Dynamic Smart Collections are of little use to me as static albums. Isolating the Smart Collections from the Static Collections before migration made the deleting of the (formerly smart) albums easier to do from LRCC.

5. Are the images that I currently have in Pictures on my internal drive remain or will they be deleted during the process?

They will remain where they are. If you choose to "store a copy of all originals locally" in LRCC, then you will end up with two copies of each image. Note that the default local storage area is also in a package in your Pictures folder. You will want to move this to the 5TB EHD before the migration. You probably do not want to "store a copy of all originals locally" in LRCC and this redundancy does not protect you as a real system backup app would and could be dangerous as you can end up losing master images from the cloud and from the "store a copy of all originals locally" location in LRCC if you don't have a clear understanding of how Adobe manages cloud storage of images

6. Are than any other pit falls that I need to be aware of?

You need to have no missing image originals if you want to migrate all images in your catalog. There are several "gotchas" the LRCC will surprise you with if you don't have sufficient space in the "store a copy of all originals locally" location even if you are not permanently storing originals from your catalog there.

 

[tekman]

Thanks for the quick reply Cletus. I have a few follow-up questions if you will indulge me.

1. If you choose to "store a copy of all originals locally" in LRCC, then you will end up with two copies of each image.
Are you saying that I will have a the originals on my internal HDD, a copy on my ehd and the originals that were copied to the cloud?
2. Note that the default local storage area is also in a package in your Pictures folder. You will want to move this to the 5TB EHD before the migration.
Would that be the Folder "Lightroom CC"?
3. You probably do not want to "store a copy of all originals locally" in LRCC and this redundancy does not protect you as a real system backup app would and could be dangerous as you can end up losing master images from the cloud and from the "store a copy of all originals locally" location in LRCC if you don't have a clear understanding of how Adobe manages cloud storage of images.
So my best bet would be to not save files locally and gave the originals located in the cloud and the copies remaining on my internal HDD?

 

[clee01l]

Thanks for the quick reply Cletus. I have a few follow-up questions if you will indulge me.

1. If you choose to "store a copy of all originals locally" in LRCC, then you will end up with two copies of each image.
Are you saying that I will have a the originals on my internal HDD, a copy on my ehd and the originals that were copied to the cloud?

Yes, It is possible to have as many as 3 copies of your original: 1 with your Lightroom Classic catalog. 2 with your LightroomCC app One of these could be in the local folder IF "store a copy of all originals locally" is checked and the other of course in the cloud

2. Note that the default local storage area is also in a package in your Pictures folder. You will want to move this to the 5TB EHD before the migration.
Would that be the Folder "Lightroom CC"?

Only if you have relocated the ""store a copy of all originals locally" folder. When you installed LRCC there was a package folder labeled "Lightroom Library.lrlibrary" in your Pictures folder. Inside that package is a folder with a unique machine generated name (Mine is "e3eabcca0a7849b7b85c99004e5a4fb8"). If you choose a different location on your EHD, Lightroom CC creates the folder labeled "Lightroom CC" and the folder with a unique machine generated name is located there

3. You probably do not want to "store a copy of all originals locally" in LRCC and this redundancy does not protect you as a real system backup app would and could be dangerous as you can end up losing master images from the cloud and from the "store a copy of all originals locally" location in LRCC if you don't have a clear understanding of how Adobe manages cloud storage of images.
So my best bet would be to not save files locally and gave the originals located in the cloud and the copies remaining on my internal HDD?

That is my approach. My master image copies are locally stored and the path is defined in my Lightroom Classic Catalog. Lightroom CC stores originals in the cloud only and none locally because that is the state of my check box. If I import via the Cloud using a mobile app or LRCC on a distant laptop, those originals will be stored in the cloud and when the cloud sync's to my Lightroom Classic catalog, originals will be stored according to the scheme defined in my Lightroom Classic preferences.
Note: I've only been working with this a few days and while my approach appears reasonable and appears to be working. I have no guarantees that this is the best solution.

 

[tekman]

Thanks again Cletus. I have one additional question. Once the migration is complete will edits made in LRCC be available on the desktop in LR Classic and vice versa?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Only if you have relocated the ""store a copy of all originals locally" folder. When you installed LRCC there was a package folder labeled "Lightroom Library.lrlibrary" in your Pictures folder. Inside that package is a folder with a unique machine generated name (Mine is "e3eabcca0a7849b7b85c99004e5a4fb8"). If you choose a different location on your EHD, Lightroom CC creates the folder labeled "Lightroom CC" and the folder with a unique machine generated name is located there.

As I mentioned in another thread, the default location of the LRCC catalog and local file storage is different on Windows than it is on OSX (no, I don't know why, though I don't see that it matters). Generally speaking, knowing the specifics of the default location is less important than knowing the effect and consequences of the controls that are available on the "Local Storage" tab of the LRCC preferences.

So it's important to understand what could happen if, for example, you choose to "Store a Copy of All Originals Locally" without also changing the default location for those originals (i.e. you'd likely find the default drive running low on disk space).

Another thing to consider is why/when you might want to store a local copy, especially if trying to maintain a desktop-centric (i.e. based on Classic) workflow. I'm in the latter camp, and so I do not use or see the need to use the store a local copy option in LRCC. All my assets, no matter what the import source, will end up as full-rez originals inside my existing Classic folder scheme, which is rigorously backed up as it always has been. So my current use of the cloud is principally to facilitate access to all my files no matter where I am, or what iDevice I'm using. The fact that Adobe also backs them up in the cloud is just a bonus.

My thinking on that would be completely different if I ever fully migrate to LRCC and stop using LR Classic. Then I would certainly be using the option to store a local copy of all originals.

 

[tekman]

Still have a few questions:
1. If I delete the files that are currently on LRCC as trial, will the corresponding files in Classic remain?
2. After migration to LRCC should Sync in LR Classic remain off, if so, will changes made in LRCC be available on the desktop in LR Classic and vice versa?
3. Should all images imported into the LR ecosystem be done in LRCC and will they sync to Classic?

 

[Jim Wilde]

1. Yes. Deleting files via LRCC (or LRmobile, LRWeb) will remove them from the cloud. If you have an LR Classic catalog which is currently sync enabled, those deleted files will remain in the catalog/local hard drive, though their sync status will be removed.

2. It depends. If you used the migration tool to import an LR Classic catalog into LRCC, syncing of that specific catalog is subsequently disabled. This is because the intention of using the migration tool is a one-way, permanent transfer from Classic to LRCC, i.e. Adobe did not envisage you continuing to use that catalog in Classic in an ongoing syncing workflow. If you re-enable sync for that migrated catalog, results might be unpredictable, particularly in respect of the images that exist in both apps. But if everything gets hooked up OK, then yes you should be able to carry on syncing changes between Classic and LRCC.

3. User choice. The difference is that photos added to LRCC will upload as full originals, which will also download into Classic. Photos added to Classic will only sync when you specifically enable them (by adding them to either an existing synced collection, or adding to a new collection and setting that collection to sync, or just by adding them to the All Synced Photographs collection), but that upload will only be a smart preview, not the original. So work out what you're trying to achieve in an ongoing Classic + LRCC workflow and set things up accordingly.

 

[PhilBurton]

1. Yes. Deleting files via LRCC (or LRmobile, LRWeb) will remove them from the cloud. If you have an LR Classic catalog which is currently sync enabled, those deleted files will remain in the catalog/local hard drive, though their sync status will be removed.

2. It depends. If you used the migration tool to import an LR Classic catalog into LRCC, syncing of that specific catalog is subsequently disabled. This is because the intention of using the migration tool is a one-way, permanent transfer from Classic to LRCC, i.e. Adobe did not envisage you continuing to use that catalog in Classic in an ongoing syncing workflow. If you re-enable sync for that migrated catalog, results might be unpredictable, particularly in respect of the images that exist in both apps. But if everything gets hooked up OK, then yes you should be able to carry on syncing changes between Classic and LRCC.

3. User choice. The difference is that photos added to LRCC will upload as full originals, which will also download into Classic. Photos added to Classic will only sync when you specifically enable them (by adding them to either an existing synced collection, or adding to a new collection and setting that collection to sync, or just by adding them to the All Synced Photographs collection), but that upload will only be a smart preview, not the original. So work out what you're trying to achieve in an ongoing Classic + LRCC workflow and set things up accordingly.

All these issues should have been clarified by Adobe when they did the two-headed release.

So:

• Very poor naming system
• Incomplete information on how to use the two products together. They should have realized that many serious users would try to do that.

Had they addressed both of these points, there might have been a lot less angst in these forums.

Phil

 

[tekman]

Had they addressed both of these points, there might have been a lot less angst in these forums.

I agree whole-heartedly!!

 

[clee01l]

Incomplete information on how to use the two products together.

I don't think Adobe intended these two products to be used together. However, they very obtusely never cautioned anyone to not use them together. Probably because they reasonably should be used together and I feel certain that eventually, Adobe will more closely integrate the two products.

 

[PhilBurton]

I don't think Adobe intended these two products to be used together. However, they very obtusely never cautioned anyone to not use them together. Probably because they reasonably should be used together and I feel certain that eventually, Adobe will more closely integrate the two products.

Cletus,

What Adobe thinks users "should" do and what some users "will" do could be quite different. Shows a bit of lack of understanding of the customer base.

Or, Adobe could have said something like, "Right now, the two products are not designed to work together. Do that at your own risk. However, in the future, there will be full integration."

Phil

 

[clee01l]

Or, Adobe could have said something like, "Right now, the two products are not designed to work together. Do that at your own risk. However, in the future, there will be full integration."

We could go on forever kibitzing on what Adobe could have/should have done to have improved the rollout of the current iteration of LR. Until Adobe deigns to join in the conversation it is wasted bandwidth.