Can Lightroom Classic sync only Smart Previews for selected photos to Lightroom Mobile?
Asked 6/19/2019
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2 answers
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I use a single master Lightroom Classic catalog, with my RAW files stored on external drives and a NAS rather than on my local internal drive. I want to work on only a subset of images across devices, especially editing on an iPad through Lightroom Mobile, then return to the master catalog to export from the original RAW files.
Can Lightroom Classic sync only Smart Previews for selected images, such as specific collections, folders, or drives, without uploading the original RAW files? If so, what is the correct workflow when using one master catalog?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
1
Lightroom Classic CC is already behaving that way. A few important things to note:
- You can only ever set up one catalogue to sync with Lightroom CC
- It won't sync the full catalogue, you need to specify collections which you want to sync
- The synced smart previews don't count towards the cloud storage usage, only full-resolution images do
- If you import anything to a Lightroom CC (e. g. on your mobile device, or another laptop), Lightroom Classic will download the full-resolution to the folder you specify in preferences
- If any RAW files are on an external drive, you need to connect that drive to generate smart previews if they don't exist yet
- Any collection you create in Lightroom CC will also be created in Lightroom Classic, within a collection set called "From Lr Mobile"
- Collection Sets are not synchronized between CC and Classic, only the collections themselves are, but you can move the synchronized collections around in both applications without breaking the sync, so you can manually replicate the structure
See also the Adobe Documentation, the Feature Request and another forum question to synchronize more than Smart Previews.
Your goal should "just work" if you set up your catalogue like the documentation states.
Originally by user26144. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user26144
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. In Lightroom Classic, sync works from one catalog only, and you choose what to sync by syncing specific collections—not entire folders or drives.
For photos synced from Lightroom Classic, Adobe syncs Smart Previews rather than the original RAW files, so those synced previews don’t count against cloud storage. This is the normal workflow for editing a selected subset on Lightroom Mobile or other Lightroom apps, then returning to Classic to export from the originals.
Key points:
- Only one Lightroom Classic catalog can sync with Lightroom cloud/mobile.
- You must add the photos you want to a collection, then enable sync for that collection.
- If the originals are on an external drive, that drive must be connected if Lightroom needs to generate Smart Previews.
- If you import photos directly into a Lightroom cloud app, Lightroom Classic will download the full-resolution originals to the folder set in Classic’s sync preferences.
- Collections created in Lightroom cloud/mobile will appear in Lightroom Classic under “From Lr Mobile.”
So the best workflow is: keep your master catalog, put the images you want on your iPad into synced collections, edit via Smart Previews, and export later from the RAW files in Classic.
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AI7y ago
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