SMART previews Do I need them

[Unklejon]

OK took the plunge and went to LR5. When I import I now geta message which says it’s creating SMART previews. As I understand it theselittle “whatever’s” are great for people who work off line – what if I simply don’twork off line? Do I need them? If not how do I stop the system creating themplease? I have looked through preferences, but nothing obvious stepped out andsaid click here to stop this. I am certain these small files are a god send forsome, but a lot of small files when you don’t need them make a big file wastingspace. I see lot of techie stuff about changing file names to speedup the workflow process or something – but that sounds kind of dangerous water foramateurs like me.

 

[Jim Wilde]

I agree....if you don't think you'll want to be working with image files offline, then you probably don't need them.

To stop Lightroom creating them, uncheck the option in the File Handling tab at the top of the right-hand panel on the Import Screen:



You can also get Lightroom to throw away any already built Smart Previews: Library Menu>Previews>Discard Smart Previews.

 

[Unklejon]

Cancel that request - Sorry dont know how to delete threads

As ever look for ages for an answer and finally find it two seconds after I give in and ask for help

 

[clee01l]

For an earlier discussion:
http://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/showthread.php?19782-Do-I-really-need-Smart-Previews

 

[Unklejon]

wow quick off the mark thanks Jim