# Any suggested workflow that I can use to help me switch from LR Classic over to CC



## kreekineez (Apr 30, 2019)

Hi - this my 1st post... I hope it makes sense..!
I have been using LR (Classic) for the past few years on my iMac but now I wish to be able to use my iPad, iPhone and MacBook whilst I am away from from home (quite a lot for work) so that I can sort, edit and share photos. After considerable time reading articles and forums I have convinced myself to take the plunge and switch to the CC version - the Photography plan with 1TB of storage space (£19.97 pm). This should also save me a lot of time trying to make back ups from my iMac to Dropbox and external hard drives....
First though I need to add my wife’s collection of photos that are mostly stored in (Apple) Photos and some in my Dropbox account and I think it would be best to add these to my existing LR Classic catalog. Does that make sense?
So can anyone offer me an easy to follow guide / workflow of how to make this switch? I am concerned that I might end up with thousands of duplicated photos as I already have Lightroom CC apps running on my iPhone and iPad that have about a third of my existing library in there.
I am hoping to prepare my catalog and make the switch over the next few weekends before I upgrade my iMac and then the new iMac can just be loaded with LR CC.
In anticipation of any responses, I thank you for your time and any suggestions .


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## johnbeardy (May 1, 2019)

I simply sync as many photos as I want from Lightroom "Classic" on my desktop PC.

Paraphrasing you, this means I can sort, edit and share photos on my my iPad, iPhone or MacBookAir whilst I am away from from home or just elsewhere in the house.  So Lightroom CC's role is just the laptop equivalent of Lightroom CC on my iPad or iPhone, merely a convenient mobile app, and the real Lightroom is Lightroom "Classic" on my desktop.

I'd also add that switching to LRCC would not remove the need to make backups of your photos, and it would mean that you can't back up the work you've done on them.

Maybe there aren't enough articles or posts questioning that plunge?

John


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## Victoria Bampton (May 1, 2019)

Hi kreekineez, welcome to the forum!

A few questions so we can give you the best advice:

How did the photos that are already in CC get there? For example, were they synced up from Classic? Or captured on that device?
Does CC have all of the features that you use in Classic at the moment? Or are there specific features that you'd need to switch back to Classic to use? 
What's your current LR Classic workflow?
How are you currently handling your backups?
Once we understand that a bit better, we can guide you on the best mix for you.


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## kreekineez (May 1, 2019)

Hi Victoria
Thank you for your message - you have advised me before by email when I was first setting up with LR and your books are great... I am about to buy the “Adobe LR CC - edit like a pro” as I hope that will also help me decide what to do.

Anyway in answer to your questions:

I am sure that most of the photos in CC on my iPad and iPhone have been synced via the various collections created in LR on my iMac and now show as Albums in CC.      CC on my iPad and iPhone holds approx 11,000 photos whereas on my iMac LR holds just over 30,000 .      Having said that during the past week or so whilst I was away I took photos on my iPhone and these have been uploaded into CC only - I haven’t noticed these specific photos appearing in LR Classic on my iMac.
In terms of features - I am only doing relatively simple editing - I am just starting to learn the basics of Photoshop but I am still a complete novice with that..!     My main use of LR Classic has been gathering all the photos (still some way to go) filing them correctly (I use a date format and include the location in the name - it seems to work for me) and also significant use of keywords.   Prior to LR I had be using Apple iPhoto.
With regards to workflow it would tend to be import (mostly from SD cards) 1st sift to decide on keepers and trash, rename the keepers, move them to appropriate folders (all my photo library folders tend to be by month and year),  then start adding keywords, next some basic editing and hopefully choosing specific photos to add to collections for sharing with family and friends.
I am paranoid when it comes to backing up and whilst all my photos are presently held on my iMac, I then manually use software called Carbon Clone Copier ( I thinks its called that ) to update backs ups to my home NAS drive, and external drive and more recently I’ve started copying some into Dropbox - it’s too many copies and too time consuming to carry on hence the attraction of LR CC.    I would still plan to have 1 back up copy probably held on an SSD external drive kept in a safe secure place at home.
Hopefully that answers your questions and doesn’t make you think I’m too bonkers doing it this way...!

At the moment I pay approx £10 pm for LR Classic and would be happy to pay £20 pm for CC if it gives me adequate storage capacity and some editing software to start using and learning like Photoshop.

I look forward to hearing from you and as always really appreciate your advice.
kind regards,
David (alias kreekineez...!)


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## Victoria Bampton (May 2, 2019)

Hi David, LOL, no, not bonkers at all. It's just worth getting the extra information, as some people are jumping to CC because it's new/shiny without understanding whether it's the best fit for their workflow.


kreekineez said:


> I am sure that most of the photos in CC on my iPad and iPhone have been synced via the various collections created in LR on my iMac and now show as Albums in CC.      CC on my iPad and iPhone holds approx 11,000 photos whereas on my iMac LR holds just over 30,000 .      Having said that during the past week or so whilst I was away I took photos on my iPhone and these have been uploaded into CC only - I haven’t noticed these specific photos appearing in LR Classic on my iMac.




Great, just check whether sync is still enabled in Classic so your Classic catalog can be updated with those recent ones before you start migration.



kreekineez said:


> In terms of features - I am only doing relatively simple editing - I am just starting to learn the basics of Photoshop but I am still a complete novice with that..!     My main use of LR Classic has been gathering all the photos (still some way to go) filing them correctly (I use a date format and include the location in the name - it seems to work for me) and also significant use of keywords.   Prior to LR I had be using Apple iPhoto.
> With regards to workflow it would tend to be import (mostly from SD cards) 1st sift to decide on keepers and trash, rename the keepers, move them to appropriate folders (all my photo library folders tend to be by month and year),  then start adding keywords, next some basic editing and hopefully choosing specific photos to add to collections for sharing with family and friends.




Sounds like CC could be a good fit for you then. It'll automatically sort by date, and you can organize into albums (collections) from there. They'll be easy to share with family/friends too.

Be aware that CC doesn't currently allow renaming of photos. Also, that keywords don't sync to Classic, but existing ones will transfer from Classic to CC when you run the migration tool, so your existing efforts won't be lost.



kreekineez said:


> I am paranoid when it comes to backing up and whilst all my photos are presently held on my iMac, I then manually use software called Carbon Clone Copier ( I thinks its called that ) to update backs ups to my home NAS drive, and external drive and more recently I’ve started copying some into Dropbox - it’s too many copies and too time consuming to carry on hence the attraction of LR CC.    I would still plan to have 1 back up copy probably held on an SSD external drive kept in a safe secure place at home.




That's sensible. If you check the 'store a copy of all originals locally' checkbox in CC preferences, that'll keep your local copy updated. I would then use Carbon Copy Cloner to keep an updated backup of that folder, perhaps on your NAS. That should be automated so you won't need to worry about doing a bunch of manual time consuming updates.

If you want to check out CC Desktop's features, you can go ahead and download it. When you open, it'll load the photos that are already in the cloud just like another iPad would. That'll give you chance to check it has all of the features you'll need, before you go ahead with the migration (or not!)


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## kreekineez (May 13, 2019)

Hi Victoria, Thanks again for all the guidance advice - I needed it...
After a few calls to the team at Adobe my migration from Classic to CC has completed - it took over 5 days days to complete the transfer (of just 30k photos) so a lot longer than I expected but everything seems good now.
The mobile links are working and syncing well so early days but so far I am very pleased and think it will suit my needs well.
I even managed to sort and add photos to a  few albums via my iPhone this morning whilst waiting 10 minutes for an appointment....
Anyway in between work I am experimenting with trying out some editing, sorting photos and creating albums of specific events and holidays.
One immediate question has arisen regarding the photos shared in newly created albums.
They are all sorted by capture date in my library but when I view the album via a shared link they are displayed in a very random order.
Have you come across this issue and if so is there an easy fix?
Thanks again and kind regards, David


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## Jim Wilde (May 13, 2019)

When viewing an album via the shared link, the default sort order is "Custom", i.e. any custom order that has been set either in Classic, LrMobile or LrWeb. You can see what that order will be using the "Display" tab when selecting the album in the LrWeb interface, and in that tab you can also reset the "Display" order to something else, e.g. Capture Date.

It's worth investigating the LrWeb app, it has some nice features for sharing albums.


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## kreekineez (May 13, 2019)

Thanks Jim - that's excellent - another task sorted - I appreciate your prompt & helpful response.
I will also spend time in the LR web app as you suggest.
Kind regards, David


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## SaraLH (May 13, 2019)

Jim, you might be interested in reading my recent post on my Lightroom Web experiences while underway. I know it doesn't have the full CC feature set, but you get an idea of what you're up against while on the road with a web-based program. Here's the link:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/traveling-without-a-computer.35813/post-1247646


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## Jim Wilde (May 14, 2019)

Thank you Sara, I did see your post. However, that seemed to be talking about using LrMobile on your travels, which is not the same as LrWeb (though of course they are both part of the LR cloud ecosystem).


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## SaraLH (May 14, 2019)

Oops Jim, I see I actually directed my answer at you instead of the OP (it was late...). 
@*kreekineez, *I hope your switch to CC works out well for you.


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## kreekineez (May 15, 2019)

Hi Sara - Thank you for you comments and feedback - as a novice that's very keen to learn I appreciate all the feedback and links - every aspect is helping me to understand the process and to seek out more and more best practices.
As I said I've only recently made the switch from Classic to CC but so far I am really enjoying the flexibility it gives me to access, update and edit from various devices. Hopefully I will be more efficient and competent with LR CC in time for a trip to the USA in a few weeks time....
Since Jim pointed me in the direction of the LRWeb app I've found so many more features that are so useful and easy to use.
Thanks again - David


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## kreekineez (May 18, 2019)

So can I explain my next dilemma and hopefully your advice will enable me to get to the bottom of this puzzle....?
I have set up at the option to keep a copy of all originals on an external hard drive and so far all photos added to my library have been synced to the cloud and have a badge to show they have been 'synced and stored locally'.
In preparation for an overseas trip I am trying out different ways of adding more photos to LR CC other than directly via my iMac.
Adding photos taken on my iPhone is fine but when I added photos via my iPad pro yesterday they have all been uploaded to the cloud and also show as 'synced and stored locally' but the external hard drive has not saved any copies. It's only the ones imported via my iPad that have not been saved to the external drive.
I've tested again by adding a few more photos directly via my iMac and straight away copies appear on my external drive.
Unfortunately my 'chat' with Adobe help didn't help or resolve the problem .... and so I am asking if anyone can suggest what to do to overcome this issue. 
Thanks for your time.... David


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## kreekineez (May 19, 2019)

Please ignore my previous request - I've answered my own question after sometime scratching my head and trying out different options to see how various import methods worked....
I have now realised that copies of all imported photos that are being saved to another drive (other than the cloud) will be saved in a folder named as the date of capture. I had been looking for photos thinking they were stored in folders dated the day of import....
It's so easy when you know how... onwards and upwards..!


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## Victoria Bampton (May 20, 2019)

Well done!


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## kreekineez (May 30, 2019)

Hi Victoria & Jim - I'm back again.... I'm really enjoying the benefits of using LR CC across various platforms at home and whilst away. I think I have made good progress so far... overcome a few setbacks (knowledge is the key) and I'm forming a good structure of folders and albums that appear easy to manage and access.
I now have a few more questions and hope that someone can point me in the right direction again as I can't find these answers in my books/manuals or on line:
I am keeping a 'back up' copy of my LR CC photos on my home NAS drive and that's all working fine. Every time I add photos they automatically get added to the NAS drive - excellent.
Soon I want to start importing scanned versions of our pre-digital family photos. As these photos are scanned (as .jpg) they are shown as being created on the date/time when scanned and I cannot see how to adjust these dates to show when the photos was actually taken.
Once I have imported them into LR CC I can adjust the capture date / time but that creates a further issue that I  would like to overcome.
Once the capture time is adjusted within LR CC the photo relocates to the correct date folder in the cloud but the back up copy stays in the folder for the original 'scanned on' date... does that make sense..?
So my question is in two parts:
Is there an easy way to adjust the capture date of a jpg scanned photo so that I can make these amendments before they are imported into LR?
If not then can I refresh my NAS back up folder (which is presently 350GB in size) to mirror the CC version so that all my back up photos are stored in files with the correct, amended capture date?
Refreshing the NAS backup to keep it in line with my cloud version would also remove any deleted photos as I've noticed that when you delete an unwanted photo it's removed from the cloud but the copy stays in my NAS folder.
I have my fingers crossed for more words of wisdom and thank you in anticipation.
Kind regards, David


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## Victoria Bampton (May 31, 2019)

The backup copy... how is that getting to the NAS? Is that through the "store a copy of all originals at X location" or something else?


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## kreekineez (May 31, 2019)

Yes Victoria - I chose that option from the Preferences window...
All new imports are added automatically which is great - I just wondered if there was a way to refresh this back up to reflect any changes made to photos stored in the cloud or deleted from my cloud library.


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## Victoria Bampton (May 31, 2019)

I would expect that to happen - the deletions at a minimum - so report it as a bug (problem) here: How do I send a bug report or feature request to Adobe? | The Lightroom Queen  I do wonder if they're silently getting added a local trash type arrangement that will delete them after X time, thinking of the recent cloud trash developments, so it may be intentional.


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## kreekineez (May 31, 2019)

OK Victoria - will do - thanks again - kind regards David


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## Jim Wilde (May 31, 2019)

kreekineez said:


> Once the capture time is adjusted within LR CC the photo relocates to the correct date folder in the cloud but the back up copy stays in the folder for the original 'scanned on' date... does that make sense..?


No David, this bit doesn't make sense. If there are "date folders" in the Adobe cloud, they are invisible to the user....so we wouldn't know if images are moved from one folder to another when a capture date is changed. So why do you think you are seeing photos being "relocated to the correct date folder in the cloud"?


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## kreekineez (May 31, 2019)

Hi Jim, When I amend the capture date the photo moves to the new date in my photo library - I assumed (incorrectly) that this is how the photos are 'stored' in the cloud. Regards David


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## Jim Wilde (May 31, 2019)

That only happens because you've probably got the sort order set to Capture Date, so if a date is changed it'll automatically be re-sorted into the correct place. Where the image physically resides is immaterial.


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