# Lightroom CC creates duplicates on my computer



## Calxoddity (Jul 29, 2018)

Hi,
  I'm currently trialling Lightroom CC as a replacement option for Apple Photos on my iMac.  

I selected a folder of Nikon raw photos stored on my iMac (in a standard folder, not a library) to import into Lightroom, to see how it was.  The photos uploaded fine, but I noticed that Lightroom copied all the uploaded photo originals to the Lightroom CC library as well.  So, I now have two copies of the .nef files on the iMac in addition to the uploaded versions now living in the cloud.

Is this how it's supposed to work?  In the Lightroom Preferences, all the local save boxes are unticked.

Thanks,
Calx


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## Jim Wilde (Jul 29, 2018)

It first copies them into it's own "space" on the local hard drive (either in the default Lightroom library, or in the user-specified location if you so specified in the Preferences). From there they are uploaded to the cloud, and when that is done they will become eligible for removal from the local library (if the "Store a Copy Locally" option is unchecked). That removal is not necessarily done immediately, as there is some "space management" smarts built in which takes a variety of factors into consideration before removing originals from the local store. If you feel you are at risk of running out of disk space because of this, make sure you keep the space percentage figure as low as possible on the Preferences>Local Storage tab (or choose an external drive location for the local store).

Personally I find the current behaviour to work well. Bear in mind that when you edit an image in LRCC it will always use the original for that, which would mean downloading it from the cloud, so it makes sense to me that new imports especially (being more likely to be edited) will usually be locally stored, thus making the editing performance more fluid.

But you can use the preferences to minimise the impact on your local disk space.


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## Calxoddity (Jul 29, 2018)

Jim,
  Thanks - that makes more sense.  I was trying to reconcile it with the behaviour that I was familiar with from Aperture and Photos: the photos are either managed in their current location ("referenced"), or ingested into the library ("managed"), so duplication didn't occur.   I'm still trying to get my head around the different management metaphor, to decide whether it's worth the move.  

I'm at the stage where I need to use the cloud to manage my images consistently across 4 devices, so am trying to find the answer to the question of "which cloud and why" (and not coming up with 42...).


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## Tom75 (Aug 28, 2018)

Thanks Jim,

that was interesting to read because I think I have sort of the same problem. I just havent understood yet why only some files are double and some of the double files are also .jpg files so no difference can be identified betweeen the 2 versions but some jpg files have  a .hic douplicate and I dont know where these are coming from.

Regards,
Tom


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