bsmith52 Loc: Northeast Alabama

Most of my photography is grandchildren, family events, vacations with .jpeg. To my surprise, the Win10 photos app has handled most of my needs very well, is very intuitive, and requires little time (I still work full time). It allows me to work from my PC file tree and mirror to external hard drive and inexpensive cloud backup.

After going through the CC trial period, I liked some of the deeper editing options and opted for the $9.99/month that comes with 20 gb storage. I would use the LR CC (mobile not full classic version) most of the time as it would fill all my needs...except the 20 gb storage of course. Even the upgrade to 1 tb will run out soon.

My question, is there an easy way to not use the could storage, work out of my PC file tree, and avoid the cost over time of continually adding more Adobe storage at an additional $10/month. I really, really don't like using their catalogue system (maybe I'm making it more complicated than it is...there are so many different books and videos that tell you to use it diffidently)

If you know of a link to a video explaining how this would work, would be most appreciated.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Neither the LR mobile app nor the cloud storage are intended to be your primary tools. Rather, the workstation-based LR Classic and the local HD-based storage are where you'd keep your original image files. The LR 'cloud' and mobile app are intended for in-the-field work on a mobile device and the transfer of WIP edits of those images from the mobile device to their permanent location 'at home' in LR Classic.

Regardless to how you want to use the tools otherwise, the usage described above is how the tools are designed and intended to work. You might continue to investigate other options that are certified to run on your mobile device and see if they better fit your needs, including the cost of online storage. Whether Adobe will ever break-out LR mobile as a standalone product, only time can tell.

The LR catalog is the industry-leading solution that all other tools are measured against. It enforces a different way of thinking about your image files and is most useful when you also rethink and simplify your foldering structure. If you pay for the tool but refuse to adopt it's best-of-breed approach to image management, that unfortunately, is your decision.

bsmith52 Loc: Northeast Alabama

Just to be clear, LR CC and LR Classic both run on my desktop and I can edit in both, with the CC being the simpler version of CC Classic. I never edit on a tablet and rarely on my phone.

Thank you for the input. I have read your responses for years and know you are the expert on this. I may not be conveying my question correctly.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

If you're using LRCC on your desktop, you have the wrong software installed. As you've noted, it doesn't operate exactly the same and about once a month or so, we help unravel a community member's LR 'problem' to be using LRCC rather than LR Classic. Some of your organization issues in LRCC might also be related to not using the full-capabilities of the LR Classic catalog and toolset.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

I use a 1T external drive. I down load my memory card to it. That way I don’t use up all my hard drive on my raw files.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

This is a point of common confusion. It’s important that you understand that when you upload images from your desktop to adobes cloud(sync from collections) you have the ability to sync smart previews. Smart previews take up none of your 20 gig allotment. So Lightroom can be a great way to share images with family and friends. If however you upload or sync from a mobile device cameras or use CC not classic you are then using full resolution images and those do count against your 20 gb allotment. There really is no need to purchase the 100 gb plan unless you are working on the mobile platform with full resolution files. 2 people who explain this really well are Scott Kelby and Terry White. You can google them to find more info. I would also suggest you go to Adobes tutorials for more info. You will need to understand folders and collections. Try this video by Terry white
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I5rYp7cerwk

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

I started out with everything on the cloud. I was using my iPad when traveling. Yes that 20 GB filled up pretty quickly. I set up LR Classic and synced to the cloud. Once everything in the cloud was on my hard drive I unsynced the catalog. Now to work on stuff in the cloud I use synced collections. If I start something new on my iPad, when I get home It’ll be in my synced collection in Classic. If I don’t need it remotely any longer I move it out of the synced collection into an unsynced collection.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Might be some confusion as to naming the App versions. Your naming is recent but I think CC might be “mobile” now. Some use “Classic” for the standalone version.

The one on my iPad just calls itself Lightroom.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

This is not correct. It’s amazing how much misinformation there is here. I use CC from my desktop and laptop all the time. It’s one of two ways to access the adobe cloud storage the other is through a web browser. If you want to share your Lightroom images you have to use the CC desktop app. I will be the first to admit adobes naming of their Lightroom suite of apps created a lot of confusion. But classic and cc are both built for desktop use. There are even functions on the browser based Lightroom not available in CC or Classic. However they have slightly different functions at the same time there is a lot of crossover to what they can do.
I would suggest anyone who has the subscription spend some time going through the adobe tutorials and learn what each product does and how they work together. Once you understand what each version does and how they work together it is amazing what can be done.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

This is 100% correct if you go from your iPad to cloud it takes up space and 20 gigs fills up rather quickly. But are you aware if you go the other way from classic to cc (basically desktop to iPad) it uses zero storage?

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Flickr Pro for $50 a year. Store as many jpeg photos as you want. I only have 1TB of photos stored right now, which would be $500 a month paying for 20gb at a time. Not a very efficient method.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I agree with the others that you might consider switching to Lightroom Classic. For general use the two versions are about the same now, just the controls look different. LR Classic does not sync your photos to the Adobe Cloud unless you tell it to.

I use the same Adobe plan as you. My photos are on external drives on my desk alongside my primary computer, backed up to other drives. The only time I sync anything is when I'm bringing in photos from my laptop or ipad or phone to get them into my main LR catalog. Once I've synced and backed it up, I then delete them from Adobe Cloud. That way I never run into the demand that I buy more Adobe cloud storage. Deleting photos from the Cloud does NOT delete the photos from LR Classic, but it DOES delete photos from LRCC, which is why I'll stick to Classic.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

This isn’t really about just storing photos online. Lightroom maintains a catalog of your work with the original, potentially raw file and a “history” of edits that it applies. Flickr is just a place for finished jpegs.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I'm very pro Adobe, but they're making it more embarrassing / difficult every day. For those of us that have been at this for a while, we'll remember that the name for Lightroom was "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom". This was the name for what is now the 'classic' software from v2 onward. Then, a few years ago, Adobe started screwing with the product names, confusing everyone. Today, we see the names are changed again and now "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom" is back and this name doesn't even mean the 'classic' software any longer.

What's more embarrassing is this "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom" app is designed to store your images only on the cloud. I can't even find that they'll break out the pricing beyond 1TB at about $120 over the $120 you're already paying annually the combined software packages (combined total $240 / yr, if prepaid). They explain there are even larger storage plans, but you can't get to see those prices without first having purchased the initial subscription.

For the average photographyer, this $240/yr would seem like a monumental waste of money, storing only 1TB worth of your images on the cloud instead of locally (or both). Just browsing, Carbonite will back-up your entire single computer at unlimited cloud-storage at $6 / month. A WD 4TB external harddrive is $110 and that would be picked up automatically by Carbonite for the same $6 monthly payment. Carbonite (and similar) will pick up all your image files, your LR catalog file, LR preset files, and your music, word documents, other software files, and so on and so forth.

See this link to the current Adobe plans, Aug 27, 2020: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-plans.html

At this link, we see Adobe has in fact broken out this new app they're calling "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom" for a standalone $9.99/mth payment with 1TB storage. There must be customers where roughy 200,000 JPEGs / 20,000 RAW on the cloud instead of locally makes sense. But, I can't see how it would make sense for a desktop owner.

As described above by a few comments, using the 20GB is sufficient (or barely sufficient) for syncing images from a mobile device to the classic software on your desktop.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Yes, sorry I wasn't clear. I am a LR Classic/PS user. I just figured for limited storage of 20gb, the OP must be saving jpegs in the cloud. RAW files would eat that up after just one full XQD card, yes?

Since OP wants to use PC file tree and doesn't like LR catalog system, maybe Bridge with Camera RAW (which also comes with $9.99 a month) would be a good solution.