# Managing Apple Photos + Lightroom Mobile



## Halcyon (May 25, 2020)

Greetings. I am wondering how people manage both the Apple Photos library and the Lightroom Mobile library on the iPhone. I have Lightroom set to automatically import from Apple Photos, but it leaves a copy in Photos so I have redundant copies. I don’t see a way to make it delete from the library. (?)

I know Lightroom has a camera, but it’s an extra tap to get into and not available from the lock screen, so I find myself using the built-in Camera app. Can any third party camera app write directly to the Lightroom library?

Now my iCloud is filling up. Do I just need to acclimate myself to manually purging Apple Photos every so often? 

My old approach was to sync to the Mac over iCloud and do an export from Apple Photos on the Mac, and then ingest them in Lightroom Classic. It’s nicer to have Lightroom doing the syncing automatically. I think I can probably turn off iCloud Photos to save space there.

Just wondering how others manage these parallel technology stacks where it’s tricky to commit to just one.


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## Johan Elzenga (May 25, 2020)

Halcyon said:


> Greetings. I am wondering how people manage both the Apple Photos library and the Lightroom Mobile library on the iPhone. I have Lightroom set to automatically import from Apple Photos, but it leaves a copy in Photos so I have redundant copies. I don’t see a way to make it delete from the library. (?)


AFAIK, there is no way. You will have to do this manually.



Halcyon said:


> I know Lightroom has a camera, but it’s an extra tap to get into and not available from the lock screen, so I find myself using the built-in Camera app. Can any third party camera app write directly to the Lightroom library?


Lightroom comes with a widget, so you *can* access the Lightroom built-in camera from the lock screen.


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## Halcyon (May 25, 2020)

Did not know about the widget -- thanks!


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## clee01l (May 26, 2020)

In the iPhone settings for the Photos app, you can turn off the sync with the apple iCloud and no photos from this device get sent to the iCloud storage.    I automatically import any photos taken with the Photos c camera to my Lightroom App and these automatically sync to the Adobe Cloud.   I still need to manually delete photos from the "Cameraroll". on the phone.


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## Halcyon (May 27, 2020)

clee01l said:


> In the iPhone settings for the Photos app, you can turn off the sync with the apple iCloud and no photos from this device get sent to the iCloud storage.    I automatically import any photos taken with the Photos c camera to my Lightroom App and these automatically sync to the Adobe Cloud.   I still need to manually delete photos from the "Cameraroll". on the phone.


 Thank you. Glad to see how others are managing.


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## anthonybaker3owd (Aug 30, 2021)

I don't know if Lightroom can automatically delete the imported photos. Even Google Foto doesn't have this. It's annoying sometimes, but it doesn't bother me much cause I like to keep my original photos in the library.
For example, last week, I had a photoshoot with a couple at a hired location. The couple chose an incredible garden that they found on _[link removed]_. So, they asked me to show the photos before and after I edit them. That's why I like to delete images from the library manually.


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## David Illig (Sep 1, 2021)

Halcyon said:


> _I know Lightroom has a camera, but it’s an extra tap to get into_


You could move the Lr app to your home screen. I know how strenuous it is to tap an iPhone screen, but if you do it enough you will build muscle.


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## Conrad Chavez (Sep 4, 2021)

David Illig said:


> You could move the Lr app to your home screen. I know how strenuous it is to tap an iPhone screen, but if you do it enough you will build muscle.


Moving the Lightroom app to the Home screen is not always fast enough when the phone is locked and you need to take a photo immediately before the scene changes. That’s the beauty of the Lightroom lock screen widget that Johan showed. If your phone is locked, all you have to do is a single tap on the Lightroom lock screen widget and it will go directly to the Lightroom camera, bypassing everything else and saving time.

Suppose you see a child or pet doing something super cute and you need to take the photo before the moment goes away. Here is how it works both ways.

Using Lightroom app on the home screen:

Unlock phone if needed.
If phone is not on home screen, swipe to home screen.
Tap Lightroom app.
After Lightroom app loads, tap Lightroom camera icon.
Now you can finally take the photo.

Using the Lightroom lock screen  widget:

Tap Lightroom lock screen  widget.
Unlock phone if needed. Lightroom app starts, and goes directly to the camera.
Take the photo.
Before Adobe added the lock screen widget, if a photo needed to be taken as soon as possible, it was much faster to use the phone's own camera, but then you wouldn’t get a raw file out of it. After Adobe added the lock screen widget, it became possible to get to the Lightroom app camera about as quickly as the phone’s own built-in camera.


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