Adobe Lightroom for mobile | FAQ

Lightroom for mobile and tablets is a free app that gives you a powerful, yet simple solution for capturing, editing and sharing your photos. And you can upgrade for premium features that give you precise control with seamless access across all your devices – mobile, desktop and web.

Craft and share pro-quality images from your smartphone or tablet using simple yet powerful tools built with Adobe Photoshop technology. Perfect your shots in a tap with more than 30 presets. Experiment with color, adjust clarity, and add vignettes.

You can use all the capture, organization, and sharing features in Lightroom for mobile for free. You can also use most of the editing features for free.

When you purchase a Creative Cloud Photography plan subscription you also get :

• The ability to sync your Lightroom photos on all your devices including your computer.
• Photoshop — the world's most powerful photo-editing tool.
• A customized website to showcase your photos powered by Adobe Portfolio.
• The ability to access the photos you have in Lightroom in other Adobe mobile apps including Photoshop on iPad, Adobe Spark Page, Adobe Spark Video, and more.
• Access to the following premium features in Adobe Lightroom for mobile:
  • Cloud storage
    
  • Sync presets and profiles
  • Healing brush
  • Selective Adjustments
  • Sensei search
  • Geometry tools
  • Raw editing on phone or tablet
  • Share Web Galleries
  • People Photo sorting
  • Batch editing

For more information, see Lightroom for mobile | Premium features and Creative Cloud Photography plans | Common questions.

You can also try all of these for free as part of a trial for the Creative Cloud Photography plan.

You can sync photos and edits between Adobe Lightroom for mobile and the Lightroom Classic or Lightroom desktop app if you have an active subscription or trial for the Creative Cloud membership plans.

For more information, see Creative Cloud Photography plans | Common questions.

If you own a version of Lightroom with a perpetual license, you will not be able to sync photos between Lightroom on your desktop and Lightroom on your mobile device.

Click the icon below to download the Lightroom app on your mobile device.

iOS

Lightroom for mobile supports any iPhone or iPad that runs iOS 15.0 or later.

Starting with February 2024, Lightroom for mobile (iPad) is supported on Apple's Vision Pro.

Android

Lightroom for mobile supports phones running Android 8.x (Oreo) and later.

Ensure that the Android phone on which you want to install Lightroom for mobile meets the following system requirements:

Minimum system requirements

• Processor: Quad Core CPU and ARMv8 or x86_64 architecture
  
• RAM: 4 GB
• Internal storage: 32 GB
• Android OS version: 8.x (Oreo) and later 

Recommended system requirements

• Processor: Octa Core CPU and ARMv8 or x86_64 architecture
  
• RAM: 8 GB and above
• Internal storage: 128 GB and above
• Android OS version: 8.x (Oreo) and later 
  

Adobe Lightroom (iOS and Android) for mobile is available in English, French, Filipino, Malay, Canadian French, German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Turkish, Indonesian, Dutch, Swedish, Vietnamese, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, and Ukrainian languages.

Lightroom for mobile supports JPEG, PNG, and Adobe DNG image formats. If you are a paid Creative Cloud member or have an active Creative Cloud trial you can also import and edit raw files from your camera using your iPad, iPad Pro, iPhone, Android device, or Chromebook.

The Lightroom Classic and Lightroom desktop apps support file-formats including raw images from virtually any DSLR camera, JPEG, and PNG files. Lightroom Classic and Lightroom desktop apps automatically render a smart preview of your raw photos and sync that smart preview to your mobile device. Smart previews are smaller versions of your original raw file that retain all the flexibility of a raw file at a fraction of the size. 

The original files uploaded from Lightroom Classic remain on your desktop and are not stored, synced, or used by Adobe Lightroom for mobile. Lightroom desktop app uploads all your original photos to the cloud. This means that all your photos are safely backed up.

You maintain complete ownership of your images at all times.

Adobe will continue to store your original images and videos for one year or so before they're deleted. You can use the Adobe Lightroom Downloader app to download your photos from Creative Cloud within this period after your membership or trial expires. See Lightroom Cloud deletion for details.

Up until your files are not deleted, the following applies:

Lightroom Mobile: With Lightroom on your iPad, iPad Pro, iPhone, Android device, or Chromebook, you can continue to view and edit your photos for free, but you will lose access to premium features and syncing capabilities across your devices.

Lightroom Desktop: With Lightroom on your macOS or Windows desktop, you will no longer be able to sync new files to the cloud. You can, however, continue to launch Lightroom to download your original files from our cloud to your local hard drive.

Lightroom Classic: With Lightroom Classic on your macOS or Windows desktop, you'll still have access to all your photos on your local hard drive. You can continue to import and organize photos as well as output your edited photos through Export, Publish, Print, Web, or Slideshow. Access to the Develop & Map modules and syncing capabilities are not available after your membership ends.

Yes, images from Lightroom for mobile count against your cloud storage provided with Creative Cloud.

Yes, Lightroom automatically backs up all your photographs to the cloud and lets you access and work with your photos from any desktop or mobile device. 

Yes, Lightroom offers cloud storage and stores your all your original images in the Creative Cloud.

When you sync raw files from Lightroom Classic on your desktop to Lightroom for mobile, Lightroom Classic automatically renders a smart preview of your raw photos and syncs that smart preview to your mobile device. Smart previews are smaller versions of your original raw file that retain all the flexibility of a raw file at a fraction of the size.

When you upload raw files from Lightroom on your desktop, it automatically backs your original file to the cloud and lets you access and work with your photo from any desktop or mobile device.

An extensive cloud infrastructure is required to sync image data and edits between the desktop and mobile devices. Given that Creative Cloud already provides such an infrastructure, as well as a membership plan specifically for photography enthusiasts, Creative Cloud was a good fit for powering the sync of photos and edits across Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for mobile, desktop, and the web.

If you are a Creative Cloud member or have an active Creative Cloud trial, you have access to a Technology Preview that lets you import and edit raw files from your camera using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for mobile on your iPad, iPad Pro, iPhone, Android device, or Chromebook.

You can only sync one catalog between Lightroom Classic on your desktop and Adobe Lightroom for mobile.

Before switching your synced catalog, ensure that all items have fully synced with your desktop Lightroom catalog.

With the December 2018 release of Lightroom mobile version 4.1, wired Internet connection setup via Ethernet LAN port or USB Ethernet adapter is supported on Chromebooks.

When Use Cellular Data is turned on

When you enable the Use Cellular Data option in the app preferences, Lightroom for mobile uses your cellular network's Internet bandwidth to:

• Download an image for editing from the cloud when you open it in the Loupe view.
• Sync any image adjustments or metadata changes to the cloud.
• Upload any recently added images to the cloud.

However, if a WiFi connection is available on your mobile device, Lightroom for mobile prioritizes the WiFi connection over your cellular network's Internet connection.

When Use Cellular Data is turned off

When you disable the Use Cellular Data option in the app preferences and there is no network connection, Lightroom for mobile displays the Syncing Interrupted () icon in the Albums view. In this scenario, you can choose to download the Smart Preview of an image for editing and force sync any image adjustments using your cellular network's data.

To download a Smart Preview of an image using your cellular network's data, do the following:

1. Open the image for editing in the Loupe view.
2. Tap the (!) icon at the upper-right corner and then choose Download Smart Preview.  

To force sync any pending image adjustments using your cellular network's data, do the following:

1. After making adjustments to the image in the Loupe view, tap the (!) icon at the upper-right corner of the screen.
2. Tap Force Sync.

Make sure that you are running the latest Adobe Lightroom for mobile app version on your device.

(iOS)

Beginning with version 2.7, Adobe Lightroom for mobile (iOS) supports HDR capture mode on any iPhone or iPad device that has at least a 12-megapixel camera, running at iOS 10.0 or newer.

For more information on HDR capture mode, refer Capture high-contrast scenes in the HDR mode (iOS).

(Android)

With the latest update, the HDR mode is available only for Samsung S8, Samsung S8+, Samsung S7, Samsung S7 Edge, Samsung Note 8, Google Pixel, Google Pixel 2, Google Pixel XL, Google Pixel 2 XL, Google Pixel 3, Google Pixel 3 XL, and One Plus 5 mobile devices.

HDR as Technology Previews feature: On other compatible Android mobile devices that meet the specifications listed below, the HDR mode is available as a Technology Previews feature that you can enable from the sidebar menu.  

• 3 GB RAM or more
• Android OS version 5.0 (Lollipop) or later
• App version is 'Arm8'.
• DNG capture is supported

To check the specification for your device: In the sidebar menu, go to Device Info & Storage > Device Info.

For more information on HDR capture mode, refer Capture high-contrast scenes in the HDR mode (Android).

Beginning with version 2.5, Adobe Lightroom for mobile (iOS) supports DNG raw image capture on any iPhone or iPad device that has at least a 12-megapixel camera, running at iOS 10.0 or newer.

Beginning with version 2.0, Adobe Lightroom for mobile supports DNG raw image capture on devices running Android versions 5.0 (Lollipop) and later. However, this capability is available only on those devices that support capturing DNG raw images. Support for DNG capture is enabled/set solely by the device manufacturers.

To check if your device supports DNG capture:

1. First ensure that the latest version of the Lightroom app is installed on your mobile device.
2. In the Collections view, tap () icon at the upper-left corner of the screen to bring up the sidebar menu.
3. In the menu, tap Device Info & Storage > Device Info.
4. Check whether DNG Capture Supported displays Yes or No. If it displays Yes, you can capture raw images using the in-app camera.
   

Generally speaking, a newer Android phone is required to use the advanced editing features. Adobe Lightroom for mobile automatically detects and gives you access to the advanced features that your phone supports. We are working on a comprehensive list of supported devices and will update this FAQ with that list as soon as possible.

(iOS)

Any Lightroom subscription that you purchase from the App Store is managed by Apple through your iTunes account. You can cancel your subscription using the App Store app on your iOS devices.

For step-by-step instructions, see Apple documentation for View, change, or cancel your subscriptions.

For billing issues or a refund, see Apple documentation for Request a refund for an App Store or iTunes Store purchase.

(Android)

Any Lightroom subscription that you purchase from Google Play Store is managed by Google. You can cancel your subscription using the Google Play Store app on your Android devices.

For step-by-step instructions, see Google documentation for Cancel, pause, or change a subscription on Google Play.

For billing issues or a refund, see Google documentation for Get a refund on Google Play.