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Workflow - mostly Classic with a little CC

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RobOK

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May 20, 2008
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Arlington, VA
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I would like to work 90% on Classic (home computer) and occasional imports on CC on my laptop when traveling.

Is there any hybrid workflow that makes sense of this all?

I did some this past week and now in my Mac Mini (LR Classic) I have new date-based folders, which is okay, but they are not in my normal hierarchy. Plus they are not renamed (I guess I missed that on my LRCC import).

If I understand it, the "home" of the CC import is in the cloud (RAW) and I am seeing synched copies (RAW) on my main computer.

Any "gotchas" in this setup?

Can I treat the copies on my Mac Mini more like originals?

If I rename and move them on my Mac Mini, will they be fine in LR CC?

Thanks for anyone who is working hybrid for sharing any tips!

Thanks,
Rob.

EDIT - Some of the new images are coming from Lightroom CC mobile, I think I have an auto import setting on.
 
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Images that are imported in Lightroom CC will be uploaded to the cloud as originals, and downloaded into Lightroom Classic. When they have arrived in Lightroom Classic, you can rename them and move them to another folder. That will not cause any problems in Lightroom CC. If you do not want to keep those originals in Lightroom CC at all (for example because you only have the 20 GB plan), you can now delete them from Lightroom CC. That will delete them from the cloud storage, but it will not delete them from Lightroom Classic.
 
Images that are imported in Lightroom CC will be uploaded to the cloud as originals, and downloaded into Lightroom Classic. When they have arrived in Lightroom Classic, you can rename them and move them to another folder. That will not cause any problems in Lightroom CC. If you do not want to keep those originals in Lightroom CC at all (for example because you only have the 20 GB plan), you can now delete them from Lightroom CC. That will delete them from the cloud storage, but it will not delete them from Lightroom Classic.

That seems ideal to me, anything to watch out for?
 
Okay, i figured out the solution to my "problem" which I didn't exactly say in my OP. The photos coming in from the web are going into a folder called LrMobile which is fine for me. The sub folders with date names were getting all mixed in to the LR hierarchy in a way i did not like (messy). I clicked on a folder and clicked "Show Parent" and did that a couple of times up until LrMobile showed in my hierarchy. Since it is rare to change a setup i had forgotten about that little option!

For me, this is ideal as the ones coming in from a CC import are clearly separate but of course all the normal catalog functions work.

Hope this makes sense!
 
I have a similar issue, and it seems like the advice above applies to me. But I’d like to clarify. Does the following make sense?
My folder/naming system is date-time based. When files were imported in the old Lightroom CC (now classic) they were auto renamed and put into year-date-day folders. So I have years of this folder structure, now replicated in Lightroom CC after the migration.
I understand that to get originals into the cloud I must now add them using Lightroom CC and they will then be downloaded to Lightroom Classic.
However, there is no auto rename function in Lightroom CC when adding/importing files.
Must I then use Classic to rename the new files and manually move them into the proper date folders and sub folders? Does that mean I must manually create new folders and sub folders in Classic after every import through CC going forward? Will this be automatically reflected in Lightroom CC in the cloud once I make those changes?
I was excited about Lightroom CC and its cloud options because I split my time between two countries and this seemed like an ideal way to keep originals and edits synched on desktops in both countries. However, it has become evident that Lightroom CC at the moment won’t provide me with many of the editing tools I need, so Classic must stay in the editing mix.
Does what I describe above make sense? Thanks.
 
Perfect sense. One of the downsides of LRCC is the inability to rename, so if that's a regular part of your workflow (as it is in mine) then you have to find your way round the issue.
So, if you want originals in the cloud, importing them into LRCC is the necessary thing to do. However, if in Classic you use one of Lightroom's own dated folder schemes, you can specify that in the Preferences>Lightroom CC tab so that all originals which download into Classic will be added into the correct dated folders (so no manual moving is needed). I then use a simple smart collection to identify which files need to be renamed, select them all, press F2 to rename them. The rename DOES sync back to the cloud, so no problem there.
 
Thanks, Jim. I was missing the date feature in the preferences>LightroomCC tab. I have now changed that. My files are now going into date subfolders. However, those subfolders are not ending up in my Lightroom directory. Can I change the “specify location for Lightroom CC ecosystem’s images” to the same folder that I’ve been using for image files in the old Lightroom CC? I was reluctant to try that for fear of messing something up.
 
Perfect sense. One of the downsides of LRCC is the inability to rename, so if that's a regular part of your workflow (as it is in mine) then you have to find your way round the issue.
So, if you want originals in the cloud, importing them into LRCC is the necessary thing to do. However, if in Classic you use one of Lightroom's own dated folder schemes, you can specify that in the Preferences>Lightroom CC tab so that all originals which download into Classic will be added into the correct dated folders (so no manual moving is needed). I then use a simple smart collection to identify which files need to be renamed, select them all, press F2 to rename them. The rename DOES sync back to the cloud, so no problem there.

Be careful on when you rename and download. See my last post in CC downloader
 
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Thanks, Jim. I was missing the date feature in the preferences>LightroomCC tab. I have now changed that. My files are now going into date subfolders. However, those subfolders are not ending up in my Lightroom directory. Can I change the “specify location for Lightroom CC ecosystem’s images” to the same folder that I’ve been using for image files in the old Lightroom CC? I was reluctant to try that for fear of messing something up.
Yes, sorry I didn't mention that specifically.....you need to use both of the checkboxes, the first one to set the target parent folder, the second one to set the specific date format/structure for the sub-folders.
 
Yes, sorry I didn't mention that specifically.....you need to use both of the checkboxes, the first one to set the target parent folder, the second one to set the specific date format/structure for the sub-folders.
I’ll give it a go. Thanks. I appreciate your help.
 
On my Windows version I don't see the 2nd check box.

That's odd. Just confirm that we are looking at the same preferences....I'm talking about LR Classic's Preferences>Lightroom CC tab, and not talking about LRCC's preferences.
 
23F0A5F1-A8A3-46A3-8F48-DAC0EB714B82.jpeg
FYI, this is what it looks like on my Windows Lightroom Classic.
 
I can see that many people use a structure of folders based on date.
Over the years using LR I have more and more simplified my folder structure and I know basically use only one folder for RAW photo, one for JPEG, one for video unedited and one for video edited.
I find my workflow to be much faster and simpler this way.
After all I can retrieve any image or group of images with the library filter and eventually group them in a collection for specific projects.
I fail to understand the interested of a structure of date folders.
Maybe I am missing something...
 
I fail to understand the interested of a structure of date folders.
Maybe I am missing something...

Speaking for myself I use one of Lightroom's date-based folder schemes as it provides an easy and consistent method (with zero effort needed by me) of storing
my images on my hard drives. I have no interest or desire to try to use the file system to organise my images into various different categories, as I use Lightroom's far superior organising tools to do that. Thus there is no need to move images from folder to folder.
In theory I could simply import every image into one big folder, though that would certainly have performance implications, hence something simple like a date system which Lightroom deals with is what I have used for years. There's nothing significant about the fact that the system I use is based on dated folders, it just happens to be a system that Lightroom can handle very well.

Many other users will do something similar, for similar reasons, in fact some will rarely, if ever, need to open the Folders Panel in Lightroom.

But the thing is that Lightroom generally allows each user to develop their own system, using as much or as little of Lightroom's own organising capability as needed. If your system works for you, that's perfectly fine.
 
Speaking for myself I use one of Lightroom's date-based folder schemes as it provides an easy and consistent method (with zero effort needed by me) of storing
my images on my hard drives. I have no interest or desire to try to use the file system to organise my images into various different categories, as I use Lightroom's far superior organising tools to do that. Thus there is no need to move images from folder to folder.
In theory I could simply import every image into one big folder, though that would certainly have performance implications, hence something simple like a date system which Lightroom deals with is what I have used for years. There's nothing significant about the fact that the system I use is based on dated folders, it just happens to be a system that Lightroom can handle very well.

Many other users will do something similar, for similar reasons, in fact some will rarely, if ever, need to open the Folders Panel in Lightroom.

But the thing is that Lightroom generally allows each user to develop their own system, using as much or as little of Lightroom's own organising capability as needed. If your system works for you, that's perfectly fine.
I see your point.
Smaller folders to avoid LR to be overloadedwith a single huge folder.
It makes sense, although I have not noticed any decrease in performance since I have adopted a single file structure
 
That's odd. Just confirm that we are looking at the same preferences....I'm talking about LR Classic's Preferences>Lightroom CC tab, and not talking about LRCC's preferences.

Thanks - my misinterpretation. I was thinking/looking at LRCC.
 
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