# Managing LR Mobile files on iPad/SSD



## ari.neiditz (May 16, 2020)

Hi, I am new to this forum and really hoping to find some help.

I am traveling long term and taking many many raw photos. I am using an iPad mini to import from SD cards direct into LR Mobile which then backs up the files to Creative Cloud storage. I keep smart previews in LR Mobile so that I can view and play with the files if I so desire.

The backup is not always quick but if I leave it overnight it has been able to keep up and the system has been working UNTIL... I got to an island off the coast of Japan where the WiFi is universally weak. I am here waiting out the covid crisis and without sufficient WiFi for an extended period, the whole system has gotten backed up. Of the roughly 7000 photos I have shot so far, about 2500 are imported and being stored locally on the iPad which is now full. My SD cards will also be full in a matter of time and then I will be TSOL. While LR  is still trying to sync, it’s not working and I have more or less given up on getting them to upload until I leave the island which will be not for another month or so and I need to keep shooting.

The only solution I have come up with is to purchase an SSD and start backing up files from the cards to the drive as I continue to shoot. In order to do this though, I will need to free up storage on the iPad so that I can copy new files onto the iPad then move them from there onto the hard drive.

So I have a few questions.

1. Is there a way for me to move the files that have not uploaded to the cloud from the iPad onto an SSD? I don’t see where these files are stored in the iPad or if they are viewable in this way.

2. Ideally I would still be able to store smart previews in LR Mobile, but will this be possible if the first 5,000 are stored in the cloud and the rest are stored on  the SSD?

3. Bonus question: I was using Creative Cloud to manually backup video files by importing them from video file folders on the memory cards  into Creative Cloud. This was a nightmare, some would upload others would fail in no particular order that I could detect, so I gave up and have been using iCloud Drive instead. I cleared everything out of the CC app to eliminate any redundant video files but CC is still taking up 18 GB of my iPad’s storage. Other than the LR photos tab, there is nothing in there, so what is this 18 gigs???

Really hope someone out there can help. Totally open to other solution suggestions. Thanks!


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## clee01l (May 16, 2020)

The first point that I would like to make is that


ari.neiditz said:


> LR Mobile which then backs up the files to Creative Cloud storage


. is backwards from the truth.  Lightroom stores the original copy in the cloud.  Any file on the iPad is a proxy file that may be a Smart DB+NG or it may be a copy of the original.  Your storage on the iPan is limited to the memory capacity of the iPad  (which could be 256GB or even  less for data and apps)

If you are running iPadOS 13.x you have access to the file system. You can also mount and EHD to the iPad. In Lightroom (mobile) settings you can see how local storage is managed by Lightroom This is controlled by Lightroom and while Lightroom mobile will have access to all of the images stored in the cloud, it will manage the storage on your device most efficiently. You can see what might be lurking in the "Deleted" "album" as Lightroom does keep deleted files around for a while. Also Look in the Lightroom Web at what is stored there. If the videos made it to the web then they are not really clears of the Adobe Cloud and your Lightroom Mobile may still be trying to sync these back to your device. 

You can in Lightroom mobile choose not to import videos and this would be my recommendation since Lightroom doesn't not have a good process for managing videos and videos are a large file thatch get into complicated cloud copies with a flakey internet. 

Whe. I travel I used my iPadPro exclusively and sometimes I do not have an internet connection so Lightroom mobile  might easily consume all of my iPadPro storage (512 GB)   Wanting a second copy for security when the cloud is not available I purchased a 1TB portable SSD called iDiskk.   I use it to first copy from my camera card to the iDiskk and then import from the iDisk to the iPadPro and thence to the Adobe cloud


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## ari.neiditz (May 17, 2020)

Hi, thanks for replying!

Yes, my choice of words was not entirely accurate. If the system is working, the originals are uploaded to the cloud and smart previews remain/are downloaded on the device in LR. I will also add that I have an album with all the photos that I have checked the “store locally” option. My understanding is that this enables viewing and editing of smart previews of the files without an internet connecion, but does not store original files locally. That is also stuck in the syncing process with 7151 of 7154 synced. It’s been like that for weeks. 

Thought of a new angle to come at this. I think what I need to find out is whether it is possible to import just smart previews from an external storage device, keeping the originals on the storage device, at least until I once again have WiFi that can handle uploading to the cloud. As far as I can see, one has to import the original files and then they need to upload to the cloud in order to not take up space on the device. Am I correct?

Where would I find Lightroom Web to see if there is anything in there? I am not seeing any videos anywhere in LR whether in the CC app, the LR CC app, or when I look in my CC account in a browser.

Thanks!


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## johnbeardy (May 17, 2020)

It's at Photo Editor | Online Photoshop Lightroom


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