Before I do something stupid…

[Gibbo]

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… assuming that I haven’t already!

Whilst on holiday I wanted to edit some of my photos. I took them on my V-Lux 114 and copied them to a file on my MacBook Pro. I then imported them to Lightroom in a new collection. The file is on my desktop. I don’t have Lightroom Classic on my MacBook. 

I’m home now and I would like to continue the process on my iMac in Lightroom Classic. Both MacBook and iMac are connected to iCloud. My Lightroom Catalog is on an external hard drive connected to my iMac.

Now I’m not sure how this will work in practice. I haven’t done anything on the iMac yet other than I can see a folder on my desktop with the same name as the one on my MacBook with a little cloud next to it. 

I guess that if I open LC the collection in Lightroom will have synced across so I should be able to see thumbnails of the photos and edits. But the actual files are going to remain on my MacBook. 

Should I go to the file on my iMac desktop and download it from iCloud first? Or do I go to the thumbnails, right click and go to original folder and will it then download from iCloud and allow me to move the files to my external hard drive using my usual file structure?

 I don’t want to lose my files 😊😂 and would really appreciate any guidance!
 

 

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[ianman]

Don’t know anything about lightroom but whatever you do I would suggest just making another backup of the original files either from your camera or the MacBook.

[Gibbo]

Indeed , I could have mentioned that I did several backups of my MacBook to another external hard drive. 

[LocalHero1953]

If I understand correctly, you have done what I often do. Within Lightroom Classic CC on my desktop, once I can see the relevant collection, I drag the files within it into a folder in my catalogue (in my case on an internal drive). I can then delete the (now empty) collection, and the files in Lightroom CC on the laptop where I originally imported them.

Before deleting, you can check on your external drive that they actually have copied across as full res files.

This assumes it is Lightroom CC (not Classic CC, or a non-subscription Lightroom) that you are using on your laptop, that both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC are signed in to the same Adobe account.

Edit. I have burnt my fingers a couple of times by not understanding exactly what Adobe is doing with originals and smart previews, so I can understand your caution. I have moved all my assets into a company registered in the British Virgin Islands in case you decide to sue me for the resultant damage. 

Edited November 26, 2021 by LocalHero1953

[Gibbo]

Yes, Paul, all the same account.

[Gibbo]

Success! On opening Lightroom Classic on my iMac in the Library module I could see my Macbook Pro listed as a drive and watch it sync all the photos I had taken and the related collections. Once it had done that I created a new folder, via Lightroom, on my external hard drive and moved all the files there from the MacBook. Dead easy! 

Having never done this before I must admit to being impressed by the way it all joins up. Now that I know how it works I shall be happy to use this method again, particularly when going on holiday. In the past I’ve loaded up SD cards and waited until I got home.