Smart preview images in Lightroom

wud

Senior Member
Hey I lost track here - I am trying to clear up some space on my harddisk, and read some of those LR treads going on, so thought I would make smart preview of all images from 2013 and afterwards backup and delete the originals from the computer.

I got them smart preview'ed now. But now it says, photo missing.. I did the smart preview while I was inside the 2013 folder. Is this wrong?

I am not sure if I can just delete the original files now? Because, isn't it the smart preview image I am looking at in LR now? Arrhh I don't get it! Hope somebody understands what I mean...
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I haven't used these before, so I tried it this morning. I went to the root of my 2014 folder, which displayed the 175 images I have for this year, and I chose Build Smart Previews from the Library menu. It asked me if I wanted to build just one for the current selected image or Build All. I chose Build All and it worked through all 175 images (and then told me that there already were Smart Previews for all 175 - you think it would have known this up front). I then went in and deleted one image from the disc, deleting it outside of Lightroom. I then selected it and went into the Develop module and had no issues editing it. Just to check, I exiting Lightroom and then restarted it and still had access to it in the Develop module - no File Not Found message.

Are you sure you built ALL of the Smart Previews and not just One?
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Here's a video about Smart Previews. If you're in the Library module you should see a white box on any missing images with a Smart Priview, and an exclamation point for any that are missing but just have a regular preview available. If you're not seeing white boxes then you don't have a Smart Preview.

 

wud

Senior Member
Thanks Backdoor Hippie.. It asked me too about, if it shoudl build all smart previews and it took quite some time - also it said a number around 2000, which fits the 2013 folder. But clearly I did something wrong for now, going trough the folder, some says original photo and some says original + smart preview. I'll try again, and good idea about just deleting 1 image to see.... I would have deleted all, lol.
 
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