Export to Hard Drive using Publish Services

The Publish Services panel in the Library module allows you to export a collection of photos to your hard drive. Publishing to your hard drive is an expedient way to prepare photos for upload to a mobile phone or tablet device, such as an iPad.

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    Set up a Hard Drive connection

    The Publish Services connection allows you to define options for the export operation.

    1. In the Publish Services panel on the left side of the Library module, click the Hard Drive connection Set Up button.
      The Publish Services panel
    2. In the Lightroom Publishing Manager dialog box, enter a Publish Services Description.
    3. Specify additional export options. For information on Export Location, File Naming, File Settings, Image Sizing, and other export options, see Export photos to disk or CD.
    4. (Optional) To change your Hard Drive connection settings at any time, click the + button at the top of the Publish Services panel and choose Hard Drive > Edit Settings.

    Add and manage photos in a Hard Drive folder

    Photos that you want to export to your hard drive are managed in publish collections, also known as folders.

    1. To create a hard drive folder, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the Hard Drive connection in the Publish Services panel and choose one of the following:
      Create Published Folder
      A collection of any photos that you choose, saved in a folder.

      Create Published Smart Folder
      A folder of photos based on rules that you specify. See Work with smart collections.

      Create Published Folder Set
      A group of published folders.

    2. For a regular folder , drag photos from the Grid view to the folder in the Publish Services panel. If you create a smart folder , the photos that match your rules automatically appear in the folder.
    3. To manage your Hard Drive collections, do any of the following:

      • To edit, rename, or delete a folder, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) it in the Publish Services panel and choose Edit Collection, Rename, or Delete.

      • To remove an unpublished photo from a regular Hard Drive folder, select it in the folder and press Delete.

      • To add or remove photos in a smart folder, change the rules of the smart folder.

      • To view the photos in a Hard Drive folder, select the folder in the Publish Services panel. The photos are organized in the following categories, or queues, in the image display area:

        New Photos To Publish
        Photos that have not been exported.

        Modified Photos To Republish
        Photos that were edited in the Library or Develop module after they were exported.

        Published Photos
        Photos that have not been modified since they were exported.

        Deleted Photos To Remove
        When you press Delete to remove one or more published photos from a folder, Lightroom marks them as Deleted Photos To Remove. They are removed from the folder the next time you click Publish.

    Export photos to Hard Drive

    Photos waiting to be published appear in one of two queues: New Photos To Publish or Modified Photos To Republish. Lightroom uploads everything in both queues when you publish a folder or folder set.

    1. To publish photos to a Hard Drive connection, do one of the following:

      • Select a Hard Drive folder and click Publish.

      • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a Hard Drive folder and choose Publish Now.

    2. If prompted, click Replace to update published photos with newer versions.