# Workflow with iPad on vacation  without  internet



## Sverre (Jun 5, 2020)

I will be on vacation for 4 weeks with a iPad Pro and without internet. Birds and macro with focus stacking means a lot of pictures. And I have limited storage on my iPad...  

For shorter trips my iPad have worked excellent. Load pictures directly to LR on iPad and cull/edit there. Then sync when I have internet access and remove from cloud/iPad when synced to LR Classic. 

However this time I fear I will not have enough storage on my iPad...

Thinking about buying a SSD portable disk. But understand LR Mobile don't work with files on a external device? 

Any tips how to handle this? Is it possible somehow to store edited keepers on a external drive and remove from iPad?


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## Conrad Chavez (Jun 6, 2020)

I have been thinking about this problem too, not just for places without Internet access, but for places where the upload bandwidth is so low that GBs of raw files simply won’t finish uploading during the time that I am there. My iPad Pro has only 64GB of storage, so there isn’t enough free space to back up a longer trip’s worth of  photos and videos on the iPad Pro itself. (I use 64GB and 128GB cards now.)

iOS 13 changed everything. Now Lightroom on iOS can import images from an external device, but with a lot of limitations. I’ve done some experimenting, and I’ve found that it’s possible to copy photos from a camera card directly to external storage through a USB hub connected to the iPad Pro, while completely bypassing iPad internal storage. That is what I might do in the future.

For the iPad Pro I have, the older kind with the Lightning port, this requires:

iOS 13. This provides the Files app. With one Files app window open to the camera card volume, and another window open to the external storage volume, it’s possible to drag-copy photos from the camera card directly to external storage.
The Apple Lightning to USB 3 adapter. It must be the more recent model with the Lightning pass-through charging port.
A USB hub. It is not necessary for it to be an AC-powered hub, as long as you have…
A 2A power source plugged into the pass-through Lightning port. This can be a USB power bank or an AC mains adapter. But it seems like it has to be 2A output. When I tried weaker 1.5 or 1 amp chargers, the iPad would complain about insufficient power for the hub and everything connected to it. But with 2A power, it all worked.
External storage. I use a tiny, travel-friendly 256GB flash drive. I have not tried a hard drive or SSD, but I wonder how much that would increase the power requirement.
If you have the newer iPad Pro with a USB-C port, it’s simpler. You can plug a USB-C hub directly into the iPad without an adapter. The USB-C port provides more current than a Lightning port so you might not need an external power source, but I’m not sure.

Now, about using the Lightroom iPad app with external storage:

If you have to use external storage because there isn’t enough room on the iPad, you must not import all of the pictures from external storage to Lightroom. This is because Lightroom will copy the files to its storage area (on the iPad) until they get uploaded. But if you don’t have a good enough Internet connection to upload everything, I think that would result in a storage shortage on the iPad.

That is an important distinction that must be understood: Although Lightroom mobile can now *import* from external storage, I do not think there is a way for Lightroom mobile to use external storage as *working storage for imports*. Importing always uses up space on the iPad; this is unavoidable.

If you want to edit some photos on the iPad during the trip without clogging it up, have Lightroom import only the very few images you want to edit. Point the Lightroom app’s importer to external storage, preview images, and select only a few to actually import and work on.

Whichever kind of iPad you have, test to make sure the entire import/edit/“don’t clog up the iPad” workflow all works with the components and adapters you happen to have.


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## clee01l (Jun 6, 2020)

I use a portable drive called iDiskk. I add photos to the Lightroom app and process them.   I have 512GB on the iPad so I don't have to worry too much about filling the storage up   iDiskk will let me back up the storage  And I always make a second copy

I turned off both cellular data and WiFi on my phone and tried import from the Camera roll.   I could not import anything because LR would not sync.  Either I have missed something or  my plans for trips like yours may  encounter the same issue.   Usually when traveling, I have access to power, WiFi and if not WiFi my cell phone connection acts as a "Hotspot"    I had hope that my iPadPro would  replace my  old MBP.   So far it has but I have always had  WiFi   when I loaded images into my iPadPro from the camera card.


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## Sverre (Jun 6, 2020)

Thank you for a lot of tips.

What is missing here is the culling process. Ideally I want to import last card to LR, delete/rate and edit the very best in LR. Then export to external drive and remove (at least 1 star pictures) from LR.

Any way of doing the last step?


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## Sverre (Jun 6, 2020)

See on option that can perhaps do the trick - Export to files... ?


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 6, 2020)

Yes, but you'd need to make sure that you set the export filetype as DNG so that you preserve the raw data AND any edits/metadata that you applied in LR.


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 6, 2020)

clee01l said:


> I turned off both cellular data and WiFi on my phone and tried import from the Camera roll.  I could not import anything because LR would not sync.


That should work in theory (and a brief test after turning off both wifi and cellular data did indeed work), but I know that there are a few bugs in this area, especially when cellular data is involved. Hopefully this is being worked on and may be fixed soon.


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## clee01l (Jun 6, 2020)

Jim Wilde said:


> That should work in theory (and a brief test after turning off both wifi and cellular data did indeed work), but I know that there are a few bugs in this area, especially when cellular data is involved. Hopefully this is being worked on and may be fixed soon.


I'm about to go down stairs to try this on my iPadPro with the iDiskk and a camerawomen card with the WiFi turned off.  I 'll see if I can import from the card with no WiFi


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## clee01l (Jun 6, 2020)

Jim Wilde said:


> Yes, but you'd need to make sure that you set the export filetype as DNG so that you preserve the raw data AND any edits/metadata that you applied in LR.


I turned WiFI ogg on my ifpadoro and imported  files from my camera card.  That worked  Although on my iPhone I was unable to import from the camera roll while offline.
Back to the iPadPro issue. After importing into Lightroom I edited a few image just to document changes fro an XMP section of the DNG
Using the share
Exporting to Files (my iDiskk) fails with a message "Unable to export while offline"
Export As... (DNG) fails with a message "Unable to export while offline"
Export to Camera Roll fails with a message "Unable to export while offline"

I am at a loss as to how I might  copy any Lightroom images and data to the file system when offline.


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## Sverre (Jun 6, 2020)

Worked for me 
Export to Files export only a JPG copy... (1,9MB file)
Export as... (DNG) worked!






Cletus: I would try to delete app and reinstall Ligthroom for iPad. I experienced other strange behavor recently and this solved all issues.


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## clee01l (Jun 6, 2020)

Sverre said:


> Worked for me
> Export to Files export only a JPG copy... (1,9MB file)
> Export as... (DNG) worked!


Are you certain that WiFi was turned off?  What version of  iPadOS  are you running?   I'm running 13.4.1


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## Sverre (Jun 6, 2020)

No WiFi network. I have 4G access and syncing disabled on cellular.
Same version of iPadOS.
v5.2.5 of Lightroom


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## clee01l (Jun 6, 2020)

When I turned the WiFI back on on my iPadPro, Lightroom Sync'd to the cloud and I was able to share  images to me Camera Roll and  My iDiskk   When I chose  Camera Roll the finished image showed up as a JPEG
Export As... DNG created  a processed DNG including Crop
Export As...Original  creates NEFs with not corresponding XMP File

After reading your successfully reply, I retested and was successful in copying Original NEF Raw files to iDiskk.  I can find no way to port the Lightroom edit adjustments. but these files have already sync's to the Adobe Cloud.  If I shoot and import a smaller number of files it does work  (six as opposed to 127)


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