# Import to iOS, Delete from Photos?



## heavydoody (Nov 16, 2017)

Let's say I import photos from my SD card to Photos on my iPad. From there, I import to Lightroom Mobile.

Once the import is complete, are the RAW files actually in LR, or does it upload them to the cloud from Photos? In other words, is it safe to delete them from Photos before LR has had a chance to sync to the cloud? (assume protection/redundancy isn't an issue)

I hope the way I worded the question makes sense. With Mylio, an iOS import only gets you a preview that references the file in Photos. You can't delete them from Photos until after you sync to the computer. If you do delete them from Photos, only those previews get synced to the computer. I want to understand how LR handles this.

Thanks.


Mobile Operating System: iOS 11


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## Jim Wilde (Nov 16, 2017)

Lightroom mobile imports the full raw file, then uploads it to the Adobe cloud. So while it is OK to delete the image from the Camera Roll once the import to LRmobile has been done, I personally would delay that until the upload from LRm to the Adobe cloud has also completed.


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## Jim Camelford (Nov 18, 2017)

I, too, have been experimenting with this.   For my next trip, I am planning to take along sufficient 16GB cards (allowing 1 or maybe 2 per day).  Each day uses a new card - which makes the Import process run a bit faster since it doesn't have to sort out duplicates.  I carefully keep the SD cards and do not overwrite until I am back. I can also copy the SD cards to a Western Digital Passport as a backup.  Then I can clear the photos from the Photos App as soon as they are imported to LR - keeping the iPad a lot less cluttered.  The LR Import is easier, too, since I can just go to Camera Roll | Last Import and grab the contents of the last card.  The key is having the quantity of cards - fortunately for my OLY system, 16GBs are plentiful and a lot less expensive now.


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