# Lightroom Mobile workflow seems convoluted - am I doing it wrong?



## Tom Burke (Oct 5, 2017)

I've read some on-line accounts recently strongly recommending the use of LRM on an iPad Pro instead of Lightroom on a laptop, when travelling. I'm retired and I do travel, so this seemed to be of interest. Previously I took a laptop on my trips with a clean (empty catalogue) version of Lightroom, imported the images into it, did the editing, and when I got home simply exported the whole catalogue as a such and imported into it into my desktop Lightroom system. This worked fine, but it meant I was taking a laptop on the trip just for this.

I've installed LRM (I'm a CC subscriber, btw) on a 9.7" iPad pro and tried using it a couple of times this summer. I like the editing capabilities of LRM, esp. since the July updates. But I'm struggling with the workflow. Here's what I seem to have to do:

import the images (Raw with included JPG) into the iPad using an 'SD card to Lightning' adapter. This imports them into Apple Photos;
open LRM, run the Import module and import the same images from Photos into LRM, making sure that LRM had grabbed the Raw versions - I’ve had one set of images where it would only import the JPGs, though Photos is telling me that the Raw images are there as well;
now they’re in two places on the iPad so I delete them from Apple Photos;
edit/process the images in LRM (this is the good part - no complaints here);
at some point - hopefully, not via a hotel’s wifi! - let LRM sync with Adobe Creative Cloud;
Having got home from the trip I now need to remove the images from the iPad. So first I create a new collection in LR on my iMac and add the now-synced photos to that new collection;
Then remove the synced images from the original collection that was created on the iPad, and also from  ‘All Synced Photographs’ on the desktop. That removes them from LRM on the iPad, thus freeing up space.
This actually seems much harder than simply using Lightroom on a laptop. Am I missing something? What do other people do?


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## Gnits (Oct 5, 2017)

Tom Burke said:


> This actually seems much harder than simply using Lightroom on a laptop. Am I missing something? What do other people do?



I suspect you will get a variety of responses.  I thought that Lr mobile would be really useful, while travelling, to help me select, grade and apply metadata to my images.  Especially so when stuck in airports or on planes. Because Adobe took so long to introduce some of these basic features I just gave up waiting and now do not want to change my own efficient workflow to incorporate the personality of Lr Mobile. In my view there are too many 'gottchas' in terms of using Lr mobile.  I bring a MacAir with me when travelling. I reckon a lot depends on your whether you are using a mobile phone only, a dslr of some sort, a mix of phone and camera or multiple phones, ipads, etc.


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## Tom Burke (Oct 5, 2017)

Gnits said:


> .....In my view there are too many 'gottchas' in terms of using Lr mobile.  I bring a MacAir with me when travelling. I reckon a lot depends on your whether you are using a mobile phone only, a dslr of some sort, a mix of phone and camera or multiple phones, ipads, etc.



I'm beginning to get the same feeling! Up until now I've been travelling with at least one DSLR, an iPad, a MacBook Pro, and a phone. The phone is used only for phone calls, sms messages and local data (e.g. maps), the iPad is used for in-flight entertainment & browsing in the hotels, and the laptop for processing the images from the DSLR. My hope was to maybe combine the functionality of the iPad and the laptop in a single device, but that's not looking so promising now. There's also the issue of backing up the iPad when I'm travelling - backing up to iCloud doesn't look too good if I've got gigabytes and gigabytes of new image files on it. Whereas with the laptop I carry an external drive and backup to that while on a trip. Not a perfect solution - theoretically, I could lose both the laptop and the backup drive - but better than doing nothing.


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## johnbeardy (Oct 5, 2017)

I like LrM, but I have never felt it was a replacement for real Lightroom on a real computer. It's fine for tweaking a few images at a time, but not for any quantity. But on the assumption you would want to continue that way of working....

One thought is to use much bigger flash cards, big enough for the whole trip. You would then have the original on the card and on the laptop, and backed up to Adobe's cloud - depending on hotel wifi and whether you enable mobile data on the iPad.



Tom Burke said:


> Having got home from the trip I now need to remove the images from the iPad. So first I create a new collection in LR on my iMac and add the now-synced photos to that new collection;
> Then remove the synced images from the original collection that was created on the iPad, and also from  ‘All Synced Photographs’ on the desktop. That removes them from LRM on the iPad, thus freeing up space.




I think you could simplify things a little. Maybe create a collection on the iPad while you are travelling, and import the new photos directly into it or add them via the iPad's Copy feature. When you get home, any originals still in LRM (ie not synced over hotel wifi/cell) should sync up to the cloud and then down to your desktop. This reduces the space being used on the iPad. If you choose to remove them from All Synced Photos, they won't be present in any form on the iPad. So you're saving all the space you can possibly save, but that's usually not a lot more than if you had left the photos synced, and means you won't be able to do quick tweaks on the iPad. Eventually you might not want them synced, but I'm not sure I see a point in doing so until I've "moved on" from the pictures. 

John


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## Selondon (Oct 5, 2017)

Hi.

I put this on a thread below and may apply if after John's guidance, LrM is till taking up too much space.

As long as all photos are synced to the Cloud, you shouldn't have to delete them from LrM to save space. If you select Clear Cache in Lightroom Photos on the iPad (or whatever it's called at the top of Collections) this should only leave thumbnails on the device until you access in loupe/detail view.

I believe it won't do this for any Collections you have marked for Offline Editing. When OE is turned back off, Clear Cache should clear the RAWs from there also.

Again, not knowing exactly how it work (but believing it's pretty much correct) just make sure it's fully synced before Clearing Cache I presume.

You still have to delete from the Camera Roll unfortunately.


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## adrianlambert (Oct 8, 2017)

I too am struggling with the sync workflow. I just shot a few GBs then ingested into LRm, rated and adjusted. Now I'm home and am waiting for the sync to complete. Hours to wait. Alternative is to ingest RAWs from camera cards but that means losing all the hours I spend rating and adjusting. Am I going about this all wrong?


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## OogieM (Oct 8, 2017)

I'm also in the struggling with workflow camp. I'm not traveling and my pictures are almost all snapshot variety using my phone camera. Right now I sync to my desktop using PhotoSync, the import into my LR catalog with presets. I'm trying to use LR Mobile on my iPad to at least star rate my pictures. I use star ratings to decide what ones to print for scrapbook projects. What I really long for is for LR Mobile to allow both star rating and keywording. Then it would be very useful to me. NOt sure how I'd handle it when traveling, I haven't tried to link my phone to LR yet.


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