Set preferences

In this article, you can learn more about the following preferences:

Account preferences

The Account preference set in the preferences dialog displays the account information for your Adobe ID at the top.

Select to access your Adobe ID account online and manage the account information for your Adobe ID. For example, you can change your password and add a profile picture. 

Displays the space used by the photos Backed Up in the cloud and the Available Cloud Storage included with your Creative Cloud membership.

Cache preferences

Lightroom intelligently manages your photos for you so that your photos don’t fill up your hard drive space. This allows you to have space available and work on the photos important to you, even if there isn't enough room on your hard drive for all of your photos. You can always view all of your photos in Lightroom, even if the original file isn't stored on your hard drive.  

In the Cache preferences, you have the option of changing how much of your available disk space Lightroom is allowed to use. Originals are always backed up to the cloud. You have the option to store a copy of all originals and smart previews on your computer’s hard drive as well. 

Shows how much disk space is required by the Lightroom database files, thumbnail images.

The amount of disk space that Lightroom requires may vary from day to day depending on your activity. Photos and videos that Lightroom considers as active and are likely to be viewed or edited by you, remain on disk longer than other photos. Actions that keep a photo in active status include:

• Flagging a photo as a Pick or rating it as 4-5 stars.
• Importing or modifying a photo with Lightroom desktop or Lightroom mobile within the last 15 days.

Shows the amount of disk space required if you choose to store Originals and Smart Previews locally, along with photos in an album, if you have enabled the option to store album locally.

This is the amount of space reserved for storing Originals and Smart Previews that Lightroom manages for you.

This displays the free storage space that is left on your device. 

Enter the desired cache size limit to specify how much of your available disk space Lightroom is allowed to use. To let Lightroom store more copies of your photos locally so that they are readily available for viewing and editing, increase the cache size limit. If you prefer to save disk space by downloading the content when you need it, decrease the cache size limit by a few GB.  

Select to always keep all the Smart Previews on your computer’s hard drive, in addition to backing them up to the cloud.

Specify where Lightroom stores your Originals.

• To change the default location or current custom location, select Browse, choose a folder in the (Mac) file picker window/ (Win) Select New Storage Location dialog. The new site is now displayed in the Cache preferences.
• To restore a custom location to the default location, select Reset. 
  

Store originals on a NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive

To specify a mapped network drive's path as a storage location for originals, do the following:   

General preferences

Options

Select this option to prevent your computer from going into the sleep mode when syncing is in progress.     

Privacy

Deselect this option to disallow Lightroom to analyze photos in the cloud to detect people for People View. When you disable People view, all the existing face model data is deleted from Lightroom servers. Lightroom will no longer analyze new photos that you add and will not automatically group them into clusters in People View. If you have any existing clusters in People View, they are not deleted and remain the same. To know more about People view, see Find and organize photos of people in People view.

Import preferences

Import

HDR defaults

Select this option to allow HDR editing by default for HDR photos. You can also select the Learn More option to familiarize yourself with the HDR output tool available in Lightroom.

RAW Defaults

Select the desired default settings from the options. These settings will be applied to all the unedited RAW files imported to Lightroom. 

Choose between Adobe Default, Camera settings, and Presets to apply to the RAW files. 

Interface preferences

Interface

Choose your preferred language from the drop-down list.

Choose a preferred text size to display in the Lightroom user interface.

Choose the preferred size for the Edit panel.

Choose the Automatic or Manual option to have the panel tracks open/close automatically or manually.

You can also choose to swipe between images using mouse or trackpad.

Help

Select this option to view quick tips when you hover over tools.

Select this option to view tutorials and intros when you use a feature for the first time. You can always Reset this to view the tutorials and intros again.

Prompts

Select Reset to restore the warning dialogs and tips displayed after you install Lightroom.

Performance preferences

The Performances preference section lets you choose whether you want to use a Graphic Processor or not. You can select from Auto, Off, or Custom options available in the drop-down menu. 

If you select Custom, Lightroom will give you an option to select whether or not you wish to:

• Use GPU for display
• Use GPU for image processing
• Use GPU for Export

You can also view your device's compatibility with GPU in the Performance section. 

Technology Preview

Technology Preview gives you a sneak-peak into the world of new features that are currently under development in Lightroom. Through the Technology Preview option, you can choose to try out these work-in-progress features and share your feedback directly with the Lightroom team. 

Lightroom releases multiple features that are labeled Technology Preview.