Today’s Question: I’ve heard photographers talk about how they use both versions of Lightroom (cloud and Classic) for different aspects of their workflow. Is there any problem involved with using both of the Lightroom applications?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I do not recommend using both Lightroom (the cloud-focused version) and Lightroom Classic. That’s especially true if you’ll use the Local tab in Lightroom, because doing so can lead to metadata mismatch issues.
More Detail: While it is possible to include both Lightroom and Lightroom Classic desktop applications in your workflow, I don’t recommend doing so. Instead, I recommend choosing one version and using that exclusively.
The primary risk of using the cloud-focused version along with Lightroom Classic is the risk of metadata mismatches. This is due to the relatively new addition of a Local tab in Lightroom. If you make changes to local images that are being managed by Lightroom Classic, you will create a metadata mismatch because the updates won’t be reflected in the Lightroom Classic catalog.
If you limit yourself to only using the Cloud tab so you’re only working with images that are stored in the cloud, there isn’t any problem with using both versions of Lightroom. However, if you’re using Lightroom Classic I recommend not using (or even installing) the cloud-focused version of Lightroom. If you need the equivalent of the Lightroom desktop application you can instead use the Lightroom mobile app or access Lightroom through a web browser (https://lightroom.adobe.com).
You can learn more about the differences between Lightroom and Lightroom Classic in the recording of my webinar on “Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, or Bridge?!” on my Tim Grey TV channel on YouTube here:
[https://youtube.com/live/BwpneG4y0nQ]
I’ll also be presenting a webinar on the subject of “Traps to Avoid in Lightroom Classic” starting at 12pm Eastern Time today, which you can tune into here:
[https://youtube.com/live/6c98YeivvwM]
