# Reducing local storage on iPad and iPhone



## Martin Owen

When I’m traveling, I use an iPad and iPhone to download images from my DSLR.  I then use adobe cloud to upload and sync with my CC and Classic programs on my home iMac.

As I do post adjustments on the iPad, even though I upload to cloud and clear the cache, the local storage increases and never goes away.
This isn’t a major issue (and will be even less when my new iPad Pro arrives - I haven’t told the bank manager yet!) but I would like reduce the local storage once the images are synced to the cloud.

Is there any elegant way to do this short of deleting the app and it’s data and then resyncing?


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## johnbeardy

Aren't all these pictures also in Photos? Could that be the culprit?


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## Martin Owen

No. Once I import them into Lightroom, I delete the copies in Photos and empty the trash.  I only use Photos because Apple insists on import to there, not direct to LR.


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## johnbeardy

So you import into LRCC (LR Mobile) from Photos? After the photos arrive in LrClassic, do you ever unsync them? What I am thinking is that the originals remain in  LRCC on the tablet. I'm not sure that emptying the cache would affect that.


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## Martin Owen

Yes, the flow is:
Import from the camera SD card into Photos.
Import the images from Photos into LRCC.
Delete images from Photos and empty its trash.
Sync LRCC to the cloud.

Emptying the cache actually adds to the local storage.

I’m guessing that any images that have been worked on in LRCC on the iPad then stay as locally stored images. What I’d like to do is to remove the local storage, or at least the larger files, leaving just the smart previews.
I think in the past, I did delete the app, reinstall and resync.  However that doesn’t seem very elegant.


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## five.photos

You could turn on "Only Download Smart Previews" in Lightroom's settings. That way, I think, the locally stored originals would get replaced with the much smaller smart preview once the originals were uploaded to the cloud, right?


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## johnbeardy

That is worth trying, but first try unsyncing a large number of files in Classic.


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## Martin Owen

Hi,

Yes, I’ve got only load only smart previews turned on.

John, I’ll try the unsyncing solution in Classic.

Thank you.


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## ari.neiditz

I am having the same issue. All my photos are backed up to the cloud. I have “only download smart previews” selected but LR still keeps local copies on the iPad of the last batch of imported and synced photos. I solved this last round by removing the app and reinstalling then re-downloading all the smart previews, but seems like that shouldn’t be necessary. I am on extended travel and have not synced anything to another device. Just iPad and iphone.

Anyone find a better fix?


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## Victoria Bampton

Are you importing them direct to the iPad? If so, it's expected that it would import the originals, but it should clear them out automatically if you start to run low on space. Clearing the cache should remove them too.


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