Blog027 (V04) Clear Lr/Cloud (and start over with sync)

V1 - Written 2025-02

V2 – 2025-04

• Significant re-write.  Added variants including preserving URL’s

V3 – 2025-09

• added text on how to use this blog to just clear Lr/Cloud and stop using it altogether.

V4 – 2025-12

• Added use cases section
• Created section for dealing with SP’s in the DSP folder
• Moved dealing with missing images to its own section

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Use Cases

Outline of Sections in this Article

Section 1 - Backup your catalog

Section 2 - Save recently imported Lr/Cloud originals

Section 3 - Save images recently edited in Lr/Cloud

Section 4 - Images in “downloaded-smart-previews” folder

Section 5 - Deal with Missing files and folders

Section 6 - CLEAR CLOUD STEPS (this was section 4 prior to 12/20/2025)

Section 7 - Recover Lr/Cloud recent imports

Section 8 - Recover Recently Edited Set of Images

Final Comment

Use Cases

If you’ve found your way to this article, it is probably due to one of these use cases.

1. Clear Cloud (and restart syncing from a clean slate)

You are having problems with the Lightroom cloud sync process and wish clear Lr/Cloud and start over with syncing to the cloud

While there are many blogs and videos on how to un-stick images stuck in the sync process as well as how to deal with other Lightroom cloud sync issues, sometimes it is just easier to throw in the towel and start the whole cloud sync thing over again from a clean cloud slate.

2. Stop using Lr/Cloud altogether

For whatever reason, you have decided to stop using Lr/Cloud altogether and use only LR/Classic going forward. In this use case it is optional whether or not to clear everything out of Lr/Cloud.  This article helps assure that everything you’ve done in Lr/Cloud has found its way to LR/Classic before you abandon Lr/Cloud

Outline of Sections in this Article

This is a list of the sections of this article.  Not all of these steps are required in every situation, so pick and choose based on your own needs.

1. Backup your catalog
   You never know when you’ll need a backup.  Even if you intend to abandon LR/Classic, something may go amiss during the process and having a current backup may save the day
2. Save recently imported Lr/Cloud originals
   Export Lr/Cloud images that have not synced to Lr/Classic.  Skip if you haven’t imported images directly into Lr/Cloud or are sure all such imports have made it safely to LR/Classic, or intend to abandon LR/Classic.
3. Save images recently edited in Lr/Cloud
   Export images from Lr/Cloud where Lr/Cloud edits may not have synced to Lr/Classic.  Skip if you haven’t edited images in Lr/Cloud or are sure all such edits have made it safely to LR/Classic, or intend to abandon LR/Classic.
4. Deal with images in “downloaded-smart-previews” folder
   Various previous actions you may have taken have resulted in there being images in the “downloaded-smart-previews” sub-folder which is inside the folder designated as the destination for Lr/Cloud downloads.  This section provides info on how to deal with those images if desired.
5. Deal with ‘missing’ files and folders
   While not required as part of clearing the cloud, this is a good time to deal with any missing folders or files you may have.
6. Clear Cloud Steps
   Clear everything out of Lr/Cloud.  You can either skip or defer this section if you no longer intend to use Lr/Cloud.
7. Recover Lr/Cloud Recent Imports
   Import images saved in #2 into LR/Classic
8. Recover Recent Lr/Cloud Edits
   Get Lr/Cloud edits into LR/Classic  for images saved in #3

Note:  These instructions do not rely on Lightroom Cloud Sync being operational until after section 6 (Clear Cloud Steps). 

Note:  If Cloud Sync has been running fine and everything is synced correctly, you can skip sectons 2, 3 and 7, 8. as the sync process has handled those situations. 

Section 1 - Backup your catalog

No matter how careful you are, unexpected things can happen.  Even if you are working with Adobe Tech Support, they too make errors.  Therefore it is a good idea to take out some insurance before you start – “just in case”.

I suggest copying ALL the files/folders relevant to your catalog to another folder not just the “.Lr/Classicat”, and “.Lr/Classicat-data” files you get in the backups produced by Lr/Classic itself.

10 Win Files to backup

Section 2 - Save recently imported Lr/Cloud originals

Skip this section if you haven’t imported images directly into Lr/Cloud or are sure all such imports have made it safely to LR/Classic.

Depending on your situation, you may have Lr/Cloud original images that never made it down to Lr/Classic through the sync process.  As we are going to clear all images from Lr/Cloud you may want to save (export) these images (with their edits) first.

Images that originated in Lr/Classic should still be in your catalog, which you just backed up, and those physical image files should also still be in your disk file system as well so we don’t need to worry about those.  Here’s how to grab those Lr/Cloud originals that may not have synced down to Lr/Classic.  Do this using the Lr/Desktop app (I’m not sure if other Lr/Cloud apps have all the necessary features).

1. In Lr/Classic, Pause syncing if it is active
   01 LRC Pause Syncing
2. Switch over to LR/D (Lr/Cloud Desktop app).  It is included in your plan but you may have to install it.
3. Select “All Photos”
4. Create a new Album called “LR New Imports” and copy all images to it
5. With album “LR New Imports” selected, set the filter for: Sync status -> Synced from Lightroom Classic
   03 LR - Synced from LrC Filter
6. Remove all images still showing after applying the filter
7. Turn the filter off
8. The remaining images are ALL Lr/Cloud originals.
9. Depending on when your syncing issue started, most of the images still in this album have already synced down to Lr/Classic in which case we don’t have to save them from Lr/Cloud before clearing the cloud (see next section for saving images with recent edits).  Unfortunately there is no filter that will show which ones have or have not synced down to Lr/Classic.  So, in order to remove ones from this album that have already synced to Lr/Classic, we will have to use the date where your sync issues started.  There are several ways to help figure this out:

• In LrD, under “All Photos”, you can select “recently added” but that list doesn’t go back very far
• You can rely on your recollection of when your syncing problem started
• You can manually compare images in Lr/Cloud with those in Lr/Classic and see where new Lr/Cloud images stopped showing up in Lr/Classic
  
  In LR/D, sort the grid by Import Date (newest on top).
  11 LR sort by Import date
  
  Scroll down while comparing images in this grid to what’s in Lr/Classic.  At some point you’ll get to images that also show up in Lr/Classic.
  
  Let’s say the circled image is the first one that is also in Lr/Classic
  04 LR Capture Date .
  That means that all the images in the Lr/D grid starting with that one to the bottom of the grid should already be in Lr/Classic.

10. Remove all the images that had already synced down to Lr/Classic from this album.  You can also remove any other images you don’t care about, or for other reasons don’t need.
11. Export what’s left in this album to disk so that you can later re-import them either to Lr/Cloud or Lr/Classic after you clear the cloud.

• Use menu “File -> Export”
• Then select “Original + Settings” as Image Type and “Original” as File Name
• Then click the blue “Export xx Photos” button
  05 LR Export Originals
• In the popup navigate and create a new folder for these images (perhaps name it “LR New Imports”).

This will save the current edit state of the image with the images (but not the edit history)

12. If any of these images are in Lr/cloud Albums and you want them to return to those same albums, make a list of which images belong in which albums
    • Select the “LR New Imports” album
    • Click the “i” in a circle icon at the bottom right to open the info panel if it is not already open
            03 LR Info Panel Icon
    • In the grid, select each image, one by one
    • For each image, look at the bottom of the info panel and see if that image is in any other albums.
           02 LR Other Albums
    • Make a list of which other albums each image is in

Section 3 - Save images recently edited in Lr/Cloud

Skip this section if you haven’t edited images in Lr/Cloud or are sure all such edits have made it safely to Lr/Classic.

The next group of images you may want to save (export) out of Lr/Cloud before clearing it are images edited in Lr/Cloud where those edits had not synced to Lr/Classic for some reason.  This is only useful if you do edits in the Lr/Cloud apps.  Again depending on when your sync problems started, most edits have already synced to Lr/Classic.  However edits done after your problem started may not have synced down to Lr/Classic.  Those are the ones we’re after.

1. In Lr/Desktop select the “All Photos” album
2. Filter by Edited= yes
   01 LR Filter for edited
3. Create a new album called “LR Recently Edited” containing the filtered images in the grid (those with “edited = Yes”).
4. Go to album “LR Recently Edited”
5. Sort grid by Modified date in reverse order (most recently edited on top)
   06 LR Sort by Mod date
6. If you know the date where things stopped syncing, you can use Lr/Android (and I assume LR/iOS) on your phone or tablet to find the images edited on that date.  At the time of this writing, Lr/Web and Lr/Desktop do not have this feature. To do this:
   • Select album “LR Recently Edited” rather than “All Photos”
   • Use the 3 dot menu to segment the grid by day
     01 LRM Segmented grid
   • If you know the date where edits from Lr/Cloud  stopped syncing, scroll down to that day
   • Make a note of the last image that synced OK
   • Now go back to Lr/Desktop and with the “LR Recently Edited” album grid sorted by modified date in descending order (new on top) scroll down to that same photo
7. If you don’t know the date it stopped working, then you’ll have to visually compare images in Lr/Classic to those in Lr/Desktop to determine where the edits showing in Lr/Desktop start appearing in Lr/Classic.
8. Once you find where in the sorted “LR Recently Edited” album edits had made it down to Lr/Classic, remove all the images with earlier modified dates from the album
9. What we’re left with are images that were modified since your sync problem started.  What we don’t know (and I don’t know how to find out) is whether the most recent edits were done in Lr/Cloud or in Lr/Classic.  So we’ll just have to export all of them.
10. Select all the photos left in the album and export (menu: File -> Export) them to an appropriately named folder on your system using “originals + Settings”.
    05 LR Export Originals
    If some of these images originated in Lr/Classic, then Lr/Cloud will only have an SP (Smart Preview) available to export.  In this case you’ll get a warning message as shown below
    09 LR SP will export
    Go ahead and export them as well.

Section 4 - Images in “downloaded-smart-previews” folder

While technically not required to clear the Lr/Cloud, this would be a good time to deal with these images as they will affect what’s left in Lr/Classic when you are done.

In Lr/Classic, see if there is a subfolder called “downloaded-smart-previews” (I’ll now refer to as the “DSP” folder.) The DSP folder would be inside the folder specified in preferences to receive Lr/Cloud downloads.  This sub-folder is used by the sync process as the destination when for some reason there is a Smart Previews (SP) in Lr/Cloud that has lost it’s connection to its full size original mate in Lr/Classic. 

01 LrC DSP Folder

In virtually all cases, these SP’s were placed into Lr/Cloud from an original in Lr/Classic at some point in the past which means that the full size original is probably still in Lr/Classic in some other folder.  The most likely cause for these SP’s showing up in the DSP folder is changing which Catalog is syncing with the cloud to one with a different internal ID (such as one created using the “Import from another Catalog”, or “export as catalog”).

If you have this DSP folder, and the Lr/Classic Folders Panel shows that it contains any images, they will be marked as having an SP but there will be no physical file on disk (i.e., they will also be considered as ‘missing’). 

There are 4 possibilities concerning these images which you should probably address at some point.

1. The image is a duplicate of a non missing master image in the catalog
   • If you want the edits from the SP in the DSP folder instead of the edits in the master, copy the settings and/or metadata from the SP to the master
   • If there are different edits in the SP and the Master and you want to keep both sets of edits, make a VC (Virtual Copy) of the master, then copy the settings and/or metadata from the SP to the VC.
   • If the SP in the DSP folder is in any collections that the master (or VC) is not but should be, add the master (or VC) to those collections
   • Delete the SP in the DSP folder
2. The image is a duplicate of a missing (but FINDABLE) master image in the catalog
   • Either move the image file on disk to the folder Lr/Classic shows the master as being in using your OS (Mac Finder or Windows Explorer), or use the “locate missing image” command to re-link the missing master image to the current location on disk.
   • Follow instructions in “A” above
3. The image is a duplicate of a missing (and NOT findable) master image in the catalog
   • If you CANNOT FIND the full size master image on disk or in backups you will need to create a replacement file from the SP downloaded from Lr/Cloud. 
   • Export the SP (as a JPG) from the DSP folder and place the exported JPG into the same DSP folder.  A few moments later, the image in the DSP folder in the catalog will no longer be marked as missing.
   • If needed copy any Metadata from the ‘missing’ master to the version in the DSP Folder.  Do not copy settings as they are already baked into the image in the DSP folder.
   • If needed add the version in the DSP folder to any collections that the ‘missing’ master is in
   • Remove the ‘missing’ master from the catalog
   • Using Lr/Classic folders panel, move the version in the DSP folder to the folder where the master had been
4. There is no matching image in the catalog
   • If you can find an original copy on disk, import it into Lr/Classic and then follow steps in “A” above.  Otherwise…..
   • In this case you will need to create a replacement file from the SP downloaded from Lr/Cloud
   • Export the SP as a JPG from the DSP folder and place the exported JPG into the same DSP folder.  A few moment later, the image in the DSP folder in the catalog will no longer be marked as missing.
   • Using Lr/Classic folders panel, move the version in the DSP folder to the folder it should be in

At this point there should no longer be any images in the DSP folder.

Section 5 - Deal with Missing files and folders

Again, not technically required to clear the cloud, but at this point you may want to verify that you don’t have any missing photos in Lr/Classic by using the “Find all missing photos” tool (in the Library Menu).  We already dealt with ‘missing’ images in the DSP folder but if you have other missing photos, find and relink them using the “Find Missing Folder” or “Locate Missing Photos” commands.

Re-run the “Find all Missing Photos” tool again.  If there are still missing photos, and some or all of them are present in Lr/Cloud, you may want to export those from Lr/Cloud as well – especially if the copy in the cloud is a full size original rather than a Smart Preview.  But, even a Smart Preview may be better than nothing.

Section 6 - CLEAR CLOUD STEPS
(this was section 4 prior to 12/20/2025)

If you no longer intend to use Lr/Cloud this section is optional or can be deferred till later. 

Now that we’ve exported images that were imported into Lr/Cloud and possibly never synced to Lr/Classic and also exported images from Lr/Cloud that were modified after the date when sync stopped working we can proceed to clear the cloud as everything else should already be in Lr/Classic. 

The steps below vary depending on your particular situation.

1. Variant 1 is where you will continue using your current Lr/Classic catalog as the synced catalog and you do not care about preserving shared/public URL’s for collections/albums that you may have distributed to others  This includes not caring about being able to refresh Adobe Portfolio galleries from Lr/Cloud or Lr/Classic.  This variant is also used for folks who what to clear the cloud and just plain stop syncing between Lr/Cloud and LR/Classic.  For this variant, execute steps with an “X” in column V1
2. Variant 2 is where you will continue using your current Lr/Classic catalog as the sync catalog and you do care about preserving those shared/public URL’s.  For this variant, execute steps with an “X” in column V2.
3. Variant 3 is where you will be switching to a different sync catalog but don’t need to preserve Album/Collection URL’s.  This includes creating a new catalog through the use of the “Export as Catalog” function or creating a new empty catalog and then using “Import from another catalog” to populate it from the currently synced catalog.  For this variant, execute steps with an “X” in column V3
4. Variant 4 is the same as variant 3, except in this case you do want to preserve those URL’s for shared/public collections/albums.  For this variant execute steps with an “X” in column 4.

Here are the steps:

(end of section 6 – Clear Cloud Steps)

Now we have to deal with (as best we can) those images we exported from Lr/Classic before we cleared it.  If you recall, one set are images imported into Lr/Cloud and probably never synced to Lr/Classic and the other set are images edited in either Lr/Classic or Lr/Cloud where Lr/Cloud edits may not have made it to Lr/Classic.

As it turns out, the same image may be in both sets.  It is also the case that the imports or edits ‘might’ have made it to Lr/Classic.

Section 7 - Recover Lr/Cloud recent imports

Skip if you haven’t imported images directly into Lr/Cloud or are sure all such imports have made it safely to LR/Classic (in other words you skipped section 2).

IF NOT TOO MANY

If there aren’t very many, you can just visually see if the images in the folder on disk are also in Lr/Classic.  For those that are, delete them from the disk folder.  The ones that remain in the folder need to be imported.

If you want to put the full size originals into Lr/Cloud (consuming your paid storage), import the images remaining in the folder into one of the Lr/Cloud apps.  They will sync down to Lr/Classic and be placed in whatever folder you have set in preferences like any other images imported into Lr/Cloud.

If you would prefer to have only Smart Previews (free) in the cloud, then import them into Lr/Classic and then add them to the “All Synced Photographs” special collection or any other synced collection. 

In either case feel free to move them to other folders as desired using the Lr/Classic Folders panel.

IF THERE ARE MANY

If there are too many to do visually follow these steps to import them into Lr/Classic (you can do something similar if you want to import them into Lr/Cloud) instead.

1. In Lr/Classic import the set of images from the folder.  In most cases Lr/Classic will not detect these as duplicates even if they had already synced down from Lr/Cloud and are in the Lr/Classic catalog. 
   
   The import will put a “-2” on the end of the file name if you import them into the same folder(s) where there is already a copy of the image on disk.  For this reason you may want to import them to a new empty folder instead.
2. In the “Previous Import” special collection in the Catalog Panel, select them all and mark them in some way.  If you’re not using the purple color label for other things, I find that it works quite well.  First remove the purple color label from any images in the catalog that already have it.  Then select “previous import” and add the purple color label to those images
3. Click “All Photographs” in the catalog panel
4. The grid now shows all images except those buried in collapsed stacks.  To temporarily (and quickly) remedy this, hold down the Cmd key (Mac) or the Ctrl key (Win) while clicking ANY regular collection in the Collections panel.  With both the All Photographs special collection and some other random collection both selected you are seeing all images in the grid.
5. Set the grid to sort by “File Name”
6. Filter for only “purple” color label images
   12 LrC Filter for Purple
7. Select the first one in the grid
8. Turn the filter off
9. Now the selected image exported from Lr/Cloud (purple label) will show up right next to other images in the catalog with the same file name.  If one of them is the same image, (meaning that the image had already synced to Lr/Classic) delete the purple one (delete from disk, don’t just remove).  If there is no matching image then just take the purple color label off the image.
   13 LrC Match images
10. Repeat steps 6 through 9 until you’ve processed them all

You may nowadd these images to the Albums or Collections they had been in before.  Use the list you created when you exported these images from Lr/Cloud and then add them to same Albums or Collections (either will do).

You can now move the images to a different folder if you wish using Lr/Classic folders panel

Section 8 - Recover Recently Edited Set of Images

Skip if you haven’t edited images in Lr/Cloud or are sure all such edits have made it safely to LR/Classic.  In other words you skipped section 3.

The second set of images we exported from Lr/Cloud before we cleared it are images edited in either Lr/Classic or Lr/Cloud where the Lr/Cloud edits may not have made it to Lr/Classic (Section 3).  This is a bit trickier as we don’t know which of those images have un-synced Lr/Cloud edits and in cases where the original came from Lr/Classic the version we exported form Lr/Cloud is only a Smart Preview – not a full size original file.

1. Lr/Classic:  Import the images in the folder on disk you created containing the recently edited Lr/Cloud images.  I’d use the “Add” mode (you can always move them later).  If you typically use the “By Date” option during imports, then use the “move” mode but put them under their own master parent in case the “previous import” special collection gets overwritten.
2. In the “Previous Import” special collection in the Catalog Panel, select all the images and mark them in some way.  If you’re not using the purple color label for other things, I find that it works quite well.  First remove the purple color label from any images in the catalog that already have it.  Then select “previous import” and add the purple color label to those images
3. Click “All Photographs” in the catalog panel

11. The grid now shows all images except those buried in collapsed stacks.  To temporarily (and quickly) remedy this, hold down the Cmd key (Mac) or the Ctrl key (Win) while clicking ANY regular collection in the Collections panel.  With both the All Photographs special collection and some other random collection both selected you are seeing all images in the grid.

4. Set the grid to sort by File Name
5. Filter for only “purple” color label images
   12 LrC Filter for Purple
6. Select the first one in the grid
7. Turn the filter off
8. Now the selected image from Lr/Cloud (purple label) will show up right next to other images in the catalog with the same file name.
   05 LrC which one
   Decide which one you want to keep.  You can visually look at the two images and just choose one.  Or you can look at the “Metadata Date” in the metadata panel (if you don’t see the Metadata Date, select “Exif & IPTC” view for the Metadata Panel.  It should be noted that if either image was edited in both Lr/Classic and Lr/Cloud, due to the sync process being stuck the image edited last may not have had the latest edit from the other system before it was edited.
9. If you want to keep the one from Lr/Classic (not purple) copy any desired data from the Lr/Cloud (purple) version to the Lr/Classic version:
   1. For metadata values, you can copy and paste individual fields using the Metadata Panel.  Or make sure both images are selected but the one you want to copy from is the active image (lightest cell), use the “Sync Metadata” button, and check/un-check fields as desired.
   2. For develop settings,  use the “Sync Settings” button and chose which edtis you want to copy or just make the edits manually
   3. Delete the one from Lr/Cloud (the purple one).  If you had changed the image participation in Lr/Cloud albums and that had yet to sync to Lr/Classic, manually make the same changes in Lr/Classic.
10. If you’re keeping the one from Lr/Cloud (purple one) there are more considerations.  The one from Lr/Cloud may be a reduced resolution copy from a Smart Preview, will not have your Lr/Classic keywords, and will not be in your Publish Services among other things.  For this reason it is better to keep the one from Lr/Classic but copy the develop settings and metadata changes done in Lr/Cloud from the Lr/Cloud image to the Lr/Classic image.  You can only do this one pair at a time.
    1. In the Lr/Classic grid, select both versions of the image
    2. Assure that the Lr/Cloud version is the active (most selected) of the two
       04 LrC Sync Image Settings
    3. Click the “Sync Settings” button at the bottom of the right panel.
    4. Click the “check all” button to select all the check boxes
    5. Click the “Synchronize” button.  If asked, “replace” masks rather than “merge” masks
    6. This will copy all the develop edits from the Lr/Cloud version to the Lr/Classic version but will retain the prior edit history of the Lr/Classic version.  It will also retain the Lr/Classic metadata including keywords, and participation in collections and Publish Services.
    7. If there are metadata values on the Lr/Cloud version that you want to keep, you can copy and paste individual fields or use the “Sync Metadata” button and check/un-check fields as desired.
    8. If you had changed the image participation in albums that had yet to sync to Lr/Classic, manually make the same changes in Lr/Classic for the image where those albums are known as collections
    9. Using Lr/Classic, Delete (remove from disk) the Lr/Cloud version with the purple label.
11. Repeat until you’ve processed them all

Final Comment

You’ve made it to the end of this long and detailed article.  I hope you found it informative and useful and that it addressed whatever it was that led you here.  If you’ve stumbled upon any errors, omissions, or things that could be presented better, please let me know by leaving a comment. 

You will notice as you read through this article that you were not required to logon or to create an account.  I did not ask for your credit card number. You did not have to provide an email address or phone number.  You were not bombarded with pop up ads.  I did not lure you part way into the article and then tell you to pay for a subscription to get the rest. 

Nobody paid me to write this article.  I have no sponsors.  I have no advertisers.  I spend many, many hours (days. weeks or months) researching, testing, and writing articles such as this one to help folks such as yourself and to attract people to my web site where they may be inclined to utilize my one-on-one Lightroom Classic Training or Lighroom Help consulting services. 

So, I am going to ask you for a favor.  Please spend 5 minutes and leave a thoughtful comment.  That’s it!    If you feel especially motivated, post a review on Google and/or Yelp for “Dan Hartford Photo”.  Free to you, very helpful to me.