# Chrome laptop and syncing raw files to Classic CC?



## f8lee (Dec 11, 2018)

I use CC Classic on my iMac at home. While I dabble on CC and made a website, so kind of understand the basics, it's not my go-to system.

Lately, though, I have been wondering if it is possible to make use of a Chromebook (far less costly than a MacBook, and I'm kind of fed up with Apple anyway) on the road as follows:
1- copy raw files from SD card into CC via the Chromebook
2- apply name changes (I presume at this point the raw files are loaded into the cloud)
3-Possibly perform some edits - crop, rotate, whatever
4-back at home, on the iMac's Classic CC, sync from CC'c cloud and pull the renamed raw files as well as the edits down to the iMac for further processing as needed
5- be able to merge the catalog created in CC and sync'd to Classic into my main catalog

Am I barking up the right tree? I have no desire to do any heavy editing on the laptop, but wouldn't mind taking care of the administrivia (renaming, culling out bad images) while on the road.


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## Woodbutcher (Dec 12, 2018)

That is something I've been kicking around in my head too.  My concern is how well the Android CC app runs on a Chromebook.  If it runs full sized and all the features work then it sounds viable to me.


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## LouieSherwin (Dec 13, 2018)

f8lee said:


> 2- apply name changes (I presume at this point the raw files are loaded into the cloud)



I think that the basic workflow you outline will work. It is similar to what I do for any raw images that I take using the Lightroom camera. However, I am pretty sure that you cannot rename in any of the CC apps. At least that's the the way it works in the IOS version. So I do all my renaming after the images are imported into my Classic CC catalog at home.

You also have to be sure that you fully understand the builtin sync flow of the CC ecosystem and work out exactly where you want  the permanent home of original images to. For myself I want that to be in my Classic CC catalog. 

Basically it goes like this. For any images taken on or imported to a mobile CC devices the original will get uploaded to the Adobe CC cloud and the storage will be deducted from the amount for your plan. This step is *required* before that image is visible on any other CC app or Classic CC. This step requires access via Ethernet, WiFi or cellular data. 

All the images that you import to your Chromebook will be accessible on that system for any editing you wish to do.  Anytime  you have a data connection the LR CC app on your Chromebook will start syncing images and edits to the CC Cloud.  Any CC app that is logged into the same Adobe CC account will see these and start syncing the images and edits to it's local storage.  In the CC ecosystem of mobile apps the* original stays in the Adobe CC cloud *and the local app will cache enough information to be able to display the images and will optional download  a copy of the origional to use if needed or requested. This is a very data intensive process and can quickly consume all your cellular data if you are not carful. 

In your Classic CC application on you desktop at home it behaves a little differently.  When logged in to your Adobe CC account  it will start downloading any and all the *original* image files that have been synced from any mobile apps. These are put in a special location in your catalog which I can't remember right now because I have changed that location to my own preferred path. You may want to set this up now in the Lightroom Preferences, Lightroom Sync tab. If you are already syncing from Mobile CC apps this will only effect any new images added after you make the change in preferences.

A couple of warnings here. 

In order to have all the images synced into your Classic CC catalog they first have to ALL be uploaded to the Adobe CC cloud AND ALL downloaded into your desktop into your Classic CC catalog. 
Secondly if you delete any image on a mobil CC app and it *has not been downloaded* to you Classic CC catalog it is gone, erased, no backup.
When traveling and using this workflow I would strongly recommend taking a sufficient number or memory cards so that you don't have to reuse them. In other words they are you backup. 

When your home and all the images have been synced down to your desktop CC catalog, then you can rename them and decide where you want them to be in your local storage. 

My workflow is to remove them all from them all from the Adobe CC cloud storage. The way you do that is to remove them from the special "All Synced Photographs" collection. That cleans up my Adobe CC storage and makes the images under the full control of my Lightroom Classic CC catalog. 

As part of this process I also move them out of the folder where they were put when uploaded from the cloud and into my standard date based folders. This means that the folder that I specified as the location to put new images coming from any other mobile CC apps becomes my auto-import directory. I know that anything that shows up there needs to be processed.

For anything that I want to share back  to  my iPhone, other mobile devices or the web to friends and family make standard collections and click the sync checkbox. This uploads only Smart Previews back into the CC cloud and does not count (yet anyway) against my CC cloud storage quota. Can also make each of these public and share the generated URL so that anyone can see the collection on their web browser without needing an Adobe account.

I hope that is helps. 

-louie


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