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Lightroom Classic subscribers on the Photography (20GB) plan have 20GB of cloud storage space included with their subscription. It’s a generous allowance that’s more than enough for most photographers. But it can soon run out if you don’t manage it properly.
Finding out what’s taking up the storage seems opaque and mysterious if you don’t know where to look. This creates confusion amongst photographers who don’t understand which files count towards the limit.
Luckily, Adobe has simplified the process of seeing which files are taking up storage space. If you’re approaching the 20GB limit then follow these simple steps. You’ll soon learn what’s taking up the space and what you can do about it.
How to check how much cloud storage space you have left
There are several ways you can check how much cloud storage space you have left.
1. Open Lightroom Classic and click the Cloud icon in the Topbar.
2. Open the Creative Cloud app, click on the Cloud icon in the top right.
3. Go to https://www.adobe.com/files/cloud-documents, sign in with your Adobe ID and move the cursor over the usage stat at the bottom left of the window.
Smart Previews and your 20GB cloud storage
First the good news – Smart Previews don’t count towards your 20GB limit. That means you can sync as many Collections as you like in Lightroom Classic without affecting your storage.
This is great if you like to view and develop photos in any of the Lightroom apps for desktop, web or mobile. It’s also good news for those of you using Smart Previews to create photo galleries or Adobe Portfolio websites.
Many photographers don’t realize this, and hold off from creating Smart Previews in case it uses up their cloud storage.
Now let’s look at where your storage space is really going.
Files counting towards your storage quota include:
- Photos made with the Lightroom for mobile app
- Scans made with the Adobe Scan app
- Adobe Express projects
- Acrobat web files
- Creative Cloud libraries
You can check and manage each of these in turn, starting with photos.
Photos and videos made with the Lightroom for mobile app and cloud storage
If you use the camera in the Lightroom for mobile app on your phone then the photos saved in the app are likely to take up the majority of your cloud storage space. If you take lots of photos you’ll run out of space, especially if you use the DNG format as it creates larger files.
That means it’s essential to understand how to delete photos from your cloud storage without deleting them from your Lightroom Classic Catalog.
The key to this is making sure that they’ve been downloaded and saved on your hard drive before you delete them from cloud storage.
Here’s how you do it:
1. Go to the Folders panel in Lightroom Classic and select the folder where your mobile app photos are saved.
If you don’t know which folder it is go to Preferences > Lightroom Sync. The location is listed next to the Specify location for Lightroom’s Synced images box.
2. Any photos in this folder have been downloaded from cloud storage and saved. Go to Edit > Select All to select them.
3. Click on the All Synced Photographs Collection in the Catalog panel. The photos you selected in the previous step are still selected.
4. Right-click and select Remove from All Synced Photographs. A warning dialog lets you know that Lightroom will remove the photos from the All Synced Photographs Collection and from cloud storage, but not from the Catalog.
They are sent to the Deleted folder, where they stay for 60 days (so you can undo the deletion) and then permanently deleted. Photos in the Deleted folder count towards your storage quota.
5. To permanently delete photos manually, go to https://lightroom.adobe.com/ and sign in with your Adobe account. Go to All Photos and click Deleted.
Click on the ellipsis icon top right and select Permanently Delete All. A warning message appears. Click Delete.
Other files taking up space in cloud storage
Once you’ve deleted photos from cloud storage you’ll probably find you’ve got most, if not all of it back. If there’s any still being used then follow these steps to find out which files are taking up that space.
1. Open the Creative cloud app, or sign in to your Adobe account online at https://www.adobe.com/files/cloud-documents
2. Click on Files or Libraries to view the files taking up storage space. You can find all the files listed above except photos here. In this example (below), that includes Adobe Express graphics and scans made with the Adobe Scan app.
3. Right-click on a thumbnail see a menu of options, including Delete and (where possible) Download.
You can delete files to free up space. Just like photos they are sent to the Deleted folder, except files are kept for 30 days rather than 60 before being permanently deleted.
Mastering Lightroom Classic: Book One – The Library Module
You can learn more about syncing, cloud storage space and the Catalog in my best-selling ebook Mastering Lightroom Classic: Book One – The Library Module.
4 comments
Your “stuff” is really helpful and straightforward. I’m not quite a junkie, but do see a lot of info on photography around LRC and PS. I make a point of fully reading all your communications. Thank you.
Thanks Robert, glad it’s helpful.
Lightroom Support just told me in an online session that Smart Previews DO INDEED count against my quota of 100GB. They could not tell me what was taking 33GB of my quota and the “files” tab on my account showed zero content. They concluded it was the smart previews. Do you know please where there is an actual Adobe Policy doc stating that they are excluded? Thanks.
Hi Neil, I don’t know if there’s an official Adobe policy doc. I do know that Smart Previews are definitely not included in your allowance, no matter what the person you spoke to at Adobe support said (which was just a guess). There’s no doubt about that at all. If you’ve run through all the items in the article and can’t find what’s taking up that 33GB then I suggest you post your question on the Lightroom Queen forum. Someone may know of something else you can check.