# Traveling Without a Computer



## AlanHaynes.com (Aug 30, 2018)

Does anyone have experience traveling without a laptop? I’m considering leaving my laptop at home for my next trip and, instead, loading photos from my Nikon DSLR to  my iPad or Android phone. Has anyone tried this? How well did it work? 

I won’t have enough space for the raw NEF files, so I’m thinking of shooting in raw+jpeg mode and loading only the jpegs to my mobile device. The raw images would stay on my CF card until I return home. 

I want to be able to keyword and caption the jpegs in order to remember key details about the trip and I also want to be able to share some photos with my traveling companions while still on the trip. Saving weight is also a major consideration: even lightweight laptops are relatively heavy.

I’ve tested this on my Samsung S7 phone and was happy to find that, by connecting my camera directly to the phone — via an OTG usb adapter — that I am able to import photos into Lightroom. I have a 32 GB micro-SD card inside the phone which should be able to handle all the jpegs.

Any thoughts woud be helpul.


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## LouieSherwin (Aug 30, 2018)

I recently took a trip to Cuba and left my computer at home. My strategy was simply to take 8 32GB SD cards for my Sony A7r2. When a card filled up I simply locked it and stored it in a safe place. The I imported it all when I bot back.  Frankly it was nice not spending time every day fussing with import/backup. More time to enjoy the trip. 

-louie


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## tspear (Aug 30, 2018)

I only used four 64GB cards for a two week trip to France. I swapped cards every day in numerical order, one through four and repeat.
The idea was if any one card went bad for some reason, I would lose 25% of the images but spread evenly through the trip. Instead of a whole section.
If I had to do it again, I think I would go for cheaper 16GB or 32GB cards and get more of them.

It also was nice to not carry a computer.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Aug 30, 2018)

If you have a camera with two card slots, keep in mind that you can copy (slowly) from card to card, so if you desire to keep them backed up, buying some large, slow secondary cards will let you back up images without any extra equipment.

I always carry a laptop to stay in touch, but I've backed away from actually processing on vacation, I just let the images build up (big card in camera) and do it when I get home.  I find it's much more relaxing -- once I get over not seeing what I got instantly -- to not spend valuable vacation time hunched over a computer cropping and adjusting.


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## PhilBurton (Aug 30, 2018)

Ferguson said:


> If you have a camera with two card slots, keep in mind that you can copy (slowly) from card to card, so if you desire to keep them backed up, buying some large, slow secondary cards will let you back up images without any extra equipment.
> 
> I always carry a laptop to stay in touch, but I've backed away from actually processing on vacation, I just let the images build up (big card in camera) and do it when I get home.  I find it's much more relaxing -- once I get over not seeing what I got instantly -- to not spend valuable vacation time hunched over a computer cropping and adjusting.


I am a belts-and-suspenders guy.  I carry my laptop everywhere, also stay in touch.  I back up daily to both the laptop and an external HDD.  Then I clear the memory card(s).  That's my approach.

Phil Burton


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## clee01l (Aug 30, 2018)

The greatest risk is having all of your trip photos in one place on one (or more) tiny camera card(s) and no backup when one or more of those cards gets lost or damaged.   There are portable backup devices that are battery operated that will backup SD and CF cards.   I would highly recommend getting one of these for the back up capability if you are not planning to take a computer along to back up the cards.

FWIW,  Some where in Cesky Krumlov are several CF cards that belong to me.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Aug 30, 2018)

PhilBurton said:


> I am a belts-and-suspenders guy.  I carry my laptop everywhere, also stay in touch.  I back up daily to both the laptop and an external HDD.  Then I clear the memory card(s).  That's my approach.


I do confess sometimes paranoia gets the best of me and I'll ingest the card (but not erase it) just to have them on the laptop, but that's in case I lose the camera.  I have two cards in each camera and run in backup mode, so I'm implicitly backed up.

My real point is that I think some of us as photographers spend way too much vacation time being photographers (especially post processing), and give up important time vacating.


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## tspear (Aug 30, 2018)

clee01l said:


> The greatest risk is having all of your trip photos in one place on one (or more) tiny camera card(s) and no backup when one or more of those cards gets lost or damaged.   There are portable backup devices that are battery operated that will backup SD and CF cards.   I would highly recommend getting one of these for the back up capability if you are not planning to take a computer along to back up the cards.
> 
> FWIW,  Some where in Cesky Krumlov are several CF cards that belong to me.



I keep the camera cards with the Passport (separate from the wallet). 
I figure if I lose the Passport, the trip will be memorable enough of a headache to get home I can live without the images.

If you are really concerned, get a USB adapter for your phone. Read the camera card onto the phone, and swap out the MicroSD card on the phone. Now you have backups.....

I prefer not to stress about it, and just figure I can always go on vacation again!


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## PhilBurton (Aug 30, 2018)

tspear said:


> I keep the camera cards with the Passport (separate from the wallet).
> I figure if I lose the Passport, the trip will be memorable enough of a headache to get home I can live without the images.
> 
> If you are really concerned, get a USB adapter for your phone. Read the camera card onto the phone, and swap out the MicroSD card on the phone. Now you have backups.....
> ...


Tom,

Since I once lost my passport on a business trip, I doubt that I would have given a thought to my lost memory cards.  It was a huge hassle getting on my scheduled flight home, and I managed that only because I had a copy of the key passport pages.

The only SD card in my iPhone is the SIM card.  I swap that out for an in-country SIM card when travelling outside the USA, so I don't pay AT&T's exhoribant roaming charges.

@Ferguson,

I don't do post-processing on vacation.  

Phil Burton


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## MarkNicholas (Aug 31, 2018)

Like many of you I always take my lap top. I forgot the cable once and that was a little troublesome. 
I wonder whether SLR cameras will eventually (or perhaps already do) have the capability to quickly upload RAW files to your chosen cloud.


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## clee01l (Aug 31, 2018)

MarkNicholas said:


> I wonder whether SLR cameras will eventually (or perhaps already do) have the capability to quickly upload RAW files to your chosen cloud.


Capability not withstanding, Data roaming charges and Broadband speeds probably will make this impractical especially when traveling outside one's native region.at least in the near term.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Aug 31, 2018)

clee01l said:


> Capability not withstanding, Data roaming charges and Broadband speeds probably will make this impractical especially when traveling outside one's native region.at least in the near term.



Not to mention if relying on hotel wifi; some are wonderful, and some are just absolutely awful.

There's also an issue, at least for me -- I typically am culling 90% of the images.  It would be quite a waste (of time and likely money if there are data charges) to upload 100% and then cull 90% when I get home.

I think we'll get there eventually.  I still remember talking to people back in the 80's, wondering how someone could be using an ($$$) cell phone sitting in an airport when there's a pay phone next to them.  Imagine now, if you could find one, actually going over to use a wired pay phone.


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 5, 2018)

Photocitizen said:


> Does anyone have experience traveling without a laptop? I’m considering leaving my laptop at home for my next trip and, instead, loading photos from my Nikon DSLR to  my iPad or Android phone. Has anyone tried this? How well did it work?
> I won’t have enough space for the raw NEF files



I regularly travel iPad-only - but I have a big enough iPad that I can copy the raw files. If I couldn't, and I was going for more than a few days, I'd back up to one of those hard drive devices. Either way, I don't clear the cards until I get home.


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## mkasu (Oct 17, 2018)

Just dropping in to discuss my way of doing this.

Up until recently, I carried a MacBook Pro + External HDD for backups with me, using Lightroom Classic CC. However, a couple of month ago I fully switched to Lightroom CC + 1TB plan, ditching Lightroom Classic. Now, I mostly travel with my iPad Pro (512 GB) only. 

I shoot RAW only (on my D750,) using two SD cards. I always have the SD cards set to backup mode, so I'll have an implicit backup. The SD cards are stored in two different bags as soon as they are full. I usually bring like 4x 64 GB, which guarantees me space for about 2600 images including backups. 

I usually transfer them to the iPad Pro into LR CC at night in the hotel. If the hotel WiFi is good enough to back them up to the Cloud, I can format the SD cards for the next day. 

In the rare case where the hotel WiFi is bad, and I also worry my images, I might in theory be able to format one of each SD card pair, and then use them together to form a third pair of free cards, while keeping one card of old images as a backup each - but to be honest, I usually consider the images "safe" as soon as they are transferred to the iPad Pro, even if not yet fully uploaded to the Cloud.  

BTW, I am not a professional, just very enthusiast. I once lost a couple of _incredibly_ important images to me, in a once-in-a-lifetime trip, due to a dead SD card. Since then, I became a bit paranoid when it comes to backup workflows.


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## AlanHaynes.com (Oct 17, 2018)

I just got back from my big European trip. Since I didn't have time to make sure that the phone or iPad would work as a backup, I brought my laptop. This time, though, I brought only one external drive instead of the two I normally carry for backup purposes. And I left the camera's memory cards full, too, as a second backup. (I usually format and re-use them after making two backup copies on the hard drives.)

Maybe I'll figure out a more streamlined way of handling this before my next trip.


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## Jimmsp (Oct 17, 2018)

If I have a 1 to 2 week trip, with multiple locations & hotels & modes of transportation, I'll bring multiple cards and a small laptop pc (my wife's) with an external portable HD - all easy to carry.
I use the pc for both personal communication, eg email, and for ingesting the photos and passing them along to the HD.
I generally don't do any post processing work, but will occasionally cull out the really bad shots. I don't empty the cards until I am back at home.

However, if the trip is only to one location with a housing location that is generally fixed, and I generally have a car,  I'll bring my larger luggable  laptop with LR on it, and a portable HD, and often do some initial work at night. But I don't empty the cards until I get home.


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## Gary Kessler (Oct 25, 2018)

I have a lightning to USB female adapter to connect my iPad to my Nikon D5500.  After I connect it, I turn on the camera and Photos launches automatically on the iPad. Once the photos are displayed I select the ones to import. When the importing is done, I open Lightroom on the iPad and the photos import in automatically. Once they are imported into LR you can delete them from Photos on the iPad. One tip is to disable sync in LR before you import. The process goes a lot faster if you allow the photos to be imported into LR first and then turn sync back on to allow them to sync to the cloud.  
Please note that there is a bug in the latest iPad version that makes some photos appear with a sync error on the iPad.  You can find it at Lightroom CC File failed to Load T505 error on iPad


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## Martin Owen (Nov 8, 2018)

I haven’t used a laptop now for three years, relying on my iPad (an aging Air 2) and a home based iMac (mid 2011, so it won’t update to Mojave).  So far I import my images onto the iPad when traveling and then up to Adobe Cloud if I I have suitable Wi-Fi.  I use a SanDisk ixpand drive to copy images onto and keep that and the camera cards till I get home.
To go slightly off topic.....
I’m thinking of getting a new iPad Pro to replace the air 2, so hope I can keep a similar workflow.  My iMac is getting ancient as are its attached external drives so I’m working out if I eventually replace the iMac with a new Mac mini and a new big monitor, which would also work with the iPad Pro.  ....or can I go completely iPad Pro, cloud storage and CC.


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## Mickey (Nov 16, 2018)

I am debating whether to travel with just an iPad or continue to bring a laptop.  I retired just a few weeks ago and had to turn in my laptop so I only have the iPad.  With lots of travel planned for the next few years, I’m debating buying a laptop or one of the new iPad pros that just came out.  I am concerned about having sufficient backups.   I don’t empty my SD cards until I get home but I’d feel better if I also had a backup to another hard drive.  Is there any way to backup the iPad to an external drive with the new USB-C connector instead of lightning?


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## Martin Owen (Nov 16, 2018)

My understanding is that the new iPad Pro will not export to an attached drive (yet - there are rumors that iOS 13 will allow this, but don’t hold your breath!).  I don’t know where that leaves the Sandisc iXpand device I currently use with my iPad Air2.  However, I keep my SD cards until I get home too.

You could, if you have access to Wi-Fi, upload to the Adobe cloud.

If you’re getting a new iPad Pro it depends on the size you get.  Internal storage goes up to 1 terabyte ( although at a price) so depending on your needs you could store a lot of images.


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## Mickey (Nov 16, 2018)

When I travel access to WiFi is often spotty, slow, or expensive so I'd rather not count on it.  I'll definitely upload to Cloud when I can, but I don't want to depend on that for backup.  Much better to keep my backups and not worry about syncing up with the cloud.

I've had my eye on the Sanho HyperDrive Colorspace for a while now.  You can find them online pretty easily, but I haven't been able to find them on the Sanho Hyper site so I'm worried they may no longer be making them.   Not sure I want to buy one if it is no longer being made. Anyone know?


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## tspear (Nov 16, 2018)

Or get a MS Surface, it can do external backups and run the full version of Classic or CC to manage your images.


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## Mickey (Nov 16, 2018)

I suppose that's true.  But the new iPad Pro's are so purrrrty


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## tspear (Nov 17, 2018)

Mickey said:


> I suppose that's true. But the new iPad Pro's are so purrrrty


And so useless... 
You should try/see the new Surface products.

Tim

Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk


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## clee01l (Nov 17, 2018)

Mickey said:


> I am debating whether to travel with just an iPad or continue to bring a laptop. I retired just a few weeks ago and had to turn in my laptop so I only have the iPad.


During the days when there was only the iPad II, I thought I might replace my laptop with an iPad.   I got the necessary dongle to import camera cards into the iPad and was even able to use the iPad to support Powerpoint Nature lectures that I was conducting.   Things really fell apart when  I  tried importing a whole 32GB camera card into the 64GB iPad.  At that time there were no external drives available for the iPad.  
My solution was to get a 13" MacBookPro running a real operating system and a 500GB SSD.  Even the iPadPro is IMO inadequate  to work with a photo portfolio in the field.


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## AlanHaynes.com (Aug 30, 2018)

Does anyone have experience traveling without a laptop? I’m considering leaving my laptop at home for my next trip and, instead, loading photos from my Nikon DSLR to  my iPad or Android phone. Has anyone tried this? How well did it work? 

I won’t have enough space for the raw NEF files, so I’m thinking of shooting in raw+jpeg mode and loading only the jpegs to my mobile device. The raw images would stay on my CF card until I return home. 

I want to be able to keyword and caption the jpegs in order to remember key details about the trip and I also want to be able to share some photos with my traveling companions while still on the trip. Saving weight is also a major consideration: even lightweight laptops are relatively heavy.

I’ve tested this on my Samsung S7 phone and was happy to find that, by connecting my camera directly to the phone — via an OTG usb adapter — that I am able to import photos into Lightroom. I have a 32 GB micro-SD card inside the phone which should be able to handle all the jpegs.

Any thoughts woud be helpul.


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## Martin Owen (Nov 18, 2018)

I really think this is a case of ‘each to his own’.  To some, a traditional laptop running either Windows or OSX with a mouse or track pad and built in storage is what they are comfortable with, and suits their workflow well.  I do remember when people used to say a laptop couldn’t replace a desktop machine.
For others various Surface devices work very well.
Personally, I haven’t used a laptop for four years, and don’t miss it even slightly.  I do use an iMac back at base, but actually use it less and less.  I’ve been using iPads since they first came out and learned a new way of operating, which works for me. I don’t find it a case of adapting, more developing new and different skills.
A bit like cameras to be honest.  Will my iPhone XS Max replace my DSLR? No, of course not, but I can do things with my iPhone that I struggle to do with the SLR and vice versa.  Did my DSLR replace my medium format cameras? No.  The SLR can do things the MF couldn’t (in many circumstances) but the MF provided abilities the SLR struggled with - again in certain circumstances.

The IPad Pro is certainly a great way of managing workflow for many photographers, amateur and pro.  For others, it doesn’t work.

‘Tis the way of life.


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## Mickey (Nov 19, 2018)

I totally agree, Martin.

I have actually used a laptop for years and love them.  Last few years used a desktop at home and a laptop for work which I also brought traveling.  I also have an iPad Air 2 that I use for convenience because it's smaller and more portable, easy to throw in my bag, and used for email, internet and games.

I've been a Lightroom Classic user for years.  I'm just trying out Lightroom CC now and reading through Victoria's book.  I plan to stay with Lightroom Classic for editing but thinking about shifting to Lightroom CC while traveling.

Now that I am laptopless (is that even a word?) I had planned on buying a light laptop to use for traveling and I've been watching pricing and reading reviews for 6 months.  Then I read the initial reviews of the new iPad which made me wonder if I should switch my workflow while traveling to the iPad only rather than carrying both a laptop and an iPad (plus an e-reader - I do love my tech toys!) to lighten the load.   

I suppose either way works as long as you take the time to get the workflow down.  Maybe I'll stay with a laptop for now since I'm familiar with that workflow and get more experience using CC with my old iPad and Classic, then try out the new iPad in a couple years when I'm ready for a new toy.


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## GaryP (Dec 25, 2018)

I just bought the new iPad and it solved all my problems.


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## Replytoken (Dec 29, 2018)

GaryP said:


> I just bought the new iPad and it solved all my problems.


Would you care to share your workflow with your iPad?

Thanks,

--Ken


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## tomokc (Feb 12, 2019)

This is a relatively new battery-powered SSD that has an SD 3.0 card slot and USB 3.0 port. It can be used as a powerbank if your iPad power runs low. The guys who edit videos on the iPad using LumaFusion rave about it. My Passport Wireless SSD | WD


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## tspear (Mar 12, 2019)

princessone1 said:


> Yeah. I tried to travel without my laptop. Actually, it was good because i felt like i was free from any works, articles (i'm a copywriter), email, etc. And, it did make me enjoy my trip more than ever. However, i did need my phone. With it, i killed boring time on plane with some games from top1apk. And, it also helped me with the map. In general, i dont think we need laptop when traveling. But, we still need our phone.



I have used a dedicated eReader for years. Currently I have the Kobo H20; and this allows me to read to pass the time and leave the phone behind.


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## SaraLH (May 11, 2019)

Just this week I returned from a month long trip to the States including several of the National Parks in the Southwest. Let me say in preface that I've been a LR user since 2007 and since 2010 I've used my second licence on a  netbook or ultrabook to import and do a few basic edits, apply keywords, convert to dng and apply import presents. For this trip I tried a new approach. We were equipped with two mirrorless cameras and an action cam, a Samsung Galaxy A 10.5 tablet (fairly slow but functional) and a 2TB portable hard drive.  The 2TB hard drive was a bit of overkill but I just wasn't sure how many GB in action cam videos I would have - for the photos alone the two 128 GB flash drives I had along would have easily done the trick. And my partner didn't take as many videos as we both had anticipated.

My routine was as follows: at the end of every couple of days I copied the photos/videos from the SD cards to the hard drive using an OTG USB 3 hub/card reader attached to the tablet and using only the on board Samsung "My Files" file manager. I had thought to bring along a small wireless mouse which I also plugged into the usb hub. Worked like a charm and made file selection and drag and drop much easier for me. Since I had two 64-GB cards for my main camera I left the originals on the cards as an extra backup - I still have room left on both cards.

After copying the files onto the hard drive I removed the SD card and then imported the photos into Lightroom. Because of the drive assignment using the OTG hub (USB 1/USB 2, etc.) it was important to take out the SD card before importing the photos so that LR always saw the photo source as USB 1. The import went fairly quickly and it was fun to be able to view the results on the tablet screen. 

BUT... the drawbacks for me... the cloud sync proved to be a major PITA. Since I didn't want to have to hook up the hard drive to view photos I wanted to use the option "store album locally", thus providing myself with yet another backup on the tablet's sd card. Well, I couldn't get this to work unless Lightroom had at least established a connection to the Internet, which on our trip was not very frequent. We were in an RV and often camping where there was no WiFi and even no cell signal (like in National Parks). And let's not even talk about upload/sync speeds even when there was a connection. I ended up uploading the last 900 photos after I got home on my own WiFi and speedy Internet connection. With the shared connections that one gets in public areas, syncing was for me nigh to impossible. I did have a cell connection with "unlimited" data, but after 22GB they slow you down, so it only took about a week and a half to get the "we're slowing you down now" message.

In the end, Lightroom made the process slower and more difficult than if I'd just used an offline photo viewer and imported the photos in Classic when I got home. The only thing I did that was of later use was to mark and delete a few rejects and export a few to share with friends. I sure didn't need LR for this. What were missing were all of the things that would have saved me time when I got home - renaming and applying presets on import, converting to DNG, adding location info via an imported track. And I won't even start on keywords... Now I'm sure that people with a different workflow and use case find LR Mobile (or whatever it's called today) a valuable tool - for me it's lacking some vital useful features; it remains a fun toy where I can show a few shared albums and sadly not much more.

Hope this helps someone!

Cheers, Sara


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## Jimmsp (May 12, 2019)

SaraLH said:


> ...
> 
> In the end, Lightroom made the process slower and more difficult than if I'd just used an offline photo viewer and imported the photos in Classic when I got home....
> 
> ...


It certainly helps me, and confirms what I have believed.
If I have a vehicle, I always travel with my laptop pc and LR Classic. It worth the minor pain for a more enjoyable trip and outcome.
I can the get them into my desktop at home in multiple ways.


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## Paul_DS256 (May 12, 2019)

On my last  trip, I decided to travel light and only use my iPad. I thought I was quite clever in figuring out how to download images from my SD cards to the iPad the upload them using FTP to a web site I created. Worked well at home.  At the resort, it appears their free WI-FI throttled FTP traffic so my upload would be measured in hours instead of minutes. Lesson learned. You can't always trust internet connectivity for uploading pictures. Will now look to backing up locally again.


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## tspear (Sep 23, 2019)

@SaraLH

Thanks for the write up.  I was looking at potentially using Lr (Cloudy) to handle stuff on an Android phone or Tablet while on vacation. However I often do not have internet coverage. If internet is a flat requirement for Cloudy to run, it is a complete non-starter to me.

@Victoria Bampton 

Any word from Adobe on the internet dependency to even import and work images locally for the Lr Cloudy?


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## Paul McFarlane (Sep 23, 2019)

Tim

It'll run absolutely fine without an internet connection - it only needs that to upload the images to the Cloud. So, you could use on vacation quite happily (I do, as a form of backup and also analysis, basic edits and emailing) and actually let the uploads happen when you have connection (even if that's back home)


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## carlosfandango (Sep 25, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> I regularly travel iPad-only - but I have a big enough iPad that I can copy the raw files. If I couldn't, and I was going for more than a few days, I'd back up to one of those hard drive devices. Either way, I don't clear the cards until I get home.


To which directory do you transfer the files? I assume not to one that will sync to the cloud (to avoid data charges)?


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 25, 2019)

I currently copy to Photos app (which is set not to back up to iCloud), import into LR (sync is set to WiFi only or paused) and then delete from Photos app. Hopefully that’ll change with iOS 13, but I haven’t tested yet, so I’m not sure if LR is updated for the new iOS13 changes yet.


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## tspear (Sep 25, 2019)

Paul McFarlane said:


> Tim
> 
> It'll run absolutely fine without an internet connection - it only needs that to upload the images to the Cloud. So, you could use on vacation quite happily (I do, as a form of backup and also analysis, basic edits and emailing) and actually let the uploads happen when you have connection (even if that's back home)



Ah, that would work. I would need to redo my workflow, since I cull then keyword before I work images.
Still looking at this option. But I am leaning towards using Classic with a small catalog on the laptop to maintain workflow.


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## PhilBurton (Sep 25, 2019)

tspear said:


> Ah, that would work. I would need to redo my workflow, since I cull then keyword before I work images.
> Still looking at this option. But I am leaning towards using Classic with a small catalog on the laptop to maintain workflow.


Tim,

I would suggest you try a small Classic catalog when you travel.  It's very straightforward and you can get more done while you are still away from home.


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