# Problem with Local Storage - Locally Stored Copies



## benzy (Sep 17, 2020)

I'm unable to install ios14 this morning as I don't have enough space on my 128gb phone. The culprit is Lightroom, which has around 65GB of "locally stored copies".

I've found a ton of posts about this online, but no solution as to how I can remove these locally stored copies. I have "Only Download Smart Previews" switched on. I have cleared the cache (which actually added to locally stored copies!). My library is fully in sync and up to date.

What is going on here?

The only solution seems to be to remove the app and the reinstall it. My only issue with doing that is that the last time I did that it had to re-import EVERYTHING from my camera roll, which took about 3 weeks. So I want to avoid this if possible.

Is this a known bug? Any ideas how to fix it?

Thanks


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## johnbeardy (Sep 17, 2020)

Generally, collections have a local storage setting. Uncheck this and you free up space, but in your case you may have a load of originals from the last import from camera roll.  Are you only using LrMobile, or do you also use Classic Lightroom? There are ways of managing this situation, but we need more info rather than answering "in situation X, do A B C..."


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## benzy (Sep 17, 2020)

Thanks for the reply. Sorry should have included more info.

I am using the new Lightroom (cloud-based version) of the iOS and Desktop (Mac) apps. I get confused with the new naming, so to be clear I am NOT using the older LR Classic app in any way.


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 17, 2020)

benzy said:


> My only issue with doing that is that the last time I did that it had to re-import EVERYTHING from my camera roll, which took about 3 weeks. So I want to avoid this if possible.


That sounds like you have two copies of everything, a copy in the camera roll (which might be an original) and a copy in Lightroom? There should be no reason to re-import anything when you uninstall and reinstall the app, because everything should be synced to the cloud and so should automatically be coming back into Lightroom from that cloud. Or do you mean it took 3 weeks to sync Lightroom again with the cloud (Importing images from the camera roll should be very fast)? How many images are we talking about anyway?


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## benzy (Sep 17, 2020)

Around 25,000 images.

It "re-imported" them but didn't create duplicates. So I'm not sure if it imported them and matched them somehow? All I know is that for ages my little cloud icon in the app had the moving dots going, and when I tapped on that it would say "importing X images". The X images started at my full photo library in Apple Photos, even though I had every one of those photos already in LR in the cloud. I ended up having to set my phone settings to never go to sleep (as this setting in the Lightroom app didn't seem to work) and leave it plugged in for a few days in a row until it finally worked its way through all the images.

Maybe that was a one-time thing? Or a bug? But not keen to risk it again at this stage.


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 17, 2020)

Sounds like you have enabled auto-import in Lightroom on the iPhone. When you reinstall the app, the app tries to reimport all the images from the camera roll, even though they have already been migrated to the cloud. Because you migrated those images already, there is no reason to keep them in the camera roll as well. That only creates duplicates (one copy in the camera roll and one copy in Lightroom Mobile).


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## benzy (Sep 17, 2020)

For me there is a reason to keep them in the camera roll as I maintain both photos and LR libraries for various reason. But that isn’t really the point of this thread.
This thread is about why LR is taking up 65gb of storage with locally stored copies when it is a cloud-based solution? My Apple Photos library takes up only 5gb on the phone as I have set it to optimise storage and the bulk of the images live in iCloud.
LR on the other hand seems to insist on taking up every bit of available space on my phone with locally stored files. Even though they are all synced to the cloud. And I have no way of controlling this it seems other than to remove the app.
Is this really working as designed? Or am I missing a way to remove the locally stored files?


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 18, 2020)

I have some 2000 photos in Lightroom on my iPhone. I have checked the option to store only smart previews, and I have also checked the option to store those smart previews locally (by enabling 'Store Locally' for all albums) so I can use Lightroom when I have no internet connection. Lightroom takes 7.2 GB on my iPhone, so if you have done the same for 25,000 photos then that 65 GB sounds like designed. You could disable the 'Store Locally' option, of course.


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## benzy (Sep 18, 2020)

Thanks Johan. You mentioned a “store locally” option that I can turn off. I can’t find that option. Can you describe where it is?


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 18, 2020)

benzy said:


> Thanks Johan. You mentioned a “store locally” option that I can turn off. I can’t find that option. Can you describe where it is?


That is an option per album, so you turn it on or off by tapping on the three dots behind the album name.


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## benzy (Sep 18, 2020)

Ah ok thanks. However, I just checked and not a single one of my albums has “store locally” checked. So that doesn’t seem to explain the 65gb of locally stored copies.


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