Understand how workspace views organize your photos and editing tools for efficient mobile workflows.
When you open Adobe Lightroom on mobile, the workspace automatically organizes your photos and editing tools into distinct views designed for different tasks. Understanding these views helps you navigate efficiently between browsing device photos, editing in your Lightroom library, finding inspiration, and organizing your work.
The workspace adapts to your current task, whether you’re importing photos from your device, applying edits, searching for specific images, or sharing albums. Each view presents relevant tools and information without cluttering your screen with options you don’t need at that moment.
Homescreen workspace
The home view serves as your starting point and provides access to three primary tabs: Device, Lightroom, and Community. Each tab connects you to a different photo source or workflow.
- Lightroom: The Lightroom icon helps to edit the Lightroom app settings and view the profile information associated with your Adobe account.
- Search: Identifies your photos using keywords.
- Notifications: Displays alerts from users who have shared files or are reviewing them for editing.
- Cloud storage: Displays how much space is left in your cloud storage.
- More Settings: Edit the following settings:
- Select: Selects one or multiple photos so you can edit, organize, or apply actions to them together.
- Square grid: Displays photos in evenly sized square thumbnails for a clean and uniform gallery view.
- Justified grid: Arranges photos in rows of varying sizes that align edge-to-edge, neatly maximizing screen space.
- Segmentation: Groups photos into sections based on criteria like date or location for easier browsing.
- Info overlays: Shows additional details on photos, such as file name, rating, or metadata, directly on thumbnails.
- Start slideshow: Plays selected photos in a full-screen sequence for viewing or presenting.
- Add photos: Imports new photos into Lightroom from your device, camera, or other sources.
- App Settings: Lets you manage preferences like storage, syncing, interface options, and overall app behavior.
- Share, Filter, Sort by:
- Share: Shares photos with others or exports them to apps, social media, or cloud storage.
- Filter: Helps you narrow photos by criteria such as ratings, flags, or edits.
- Sort by: Arranges photos in a chosen order, such as by date, name, or modification time.
- Add photos from: Lets you import images into Lightroom from sources like your device gallery, files, or camera roll.
- Capture photos: Opens the in-app camera to shoot photos directly within Lightroom for instant editing.
- Lightroom tabs:
- Device tab: Displays your device’s local photo library, including photos, screenshots, and albums, with a Lightroom icon indicating edited images.
- Lightroom tab: Shows your synced Lightroom library, including edited and imported photos, organized into albums and folders with navigation options.
- Community tab: Features photos from other users, organized by category, allowing you to explore edits and save them as presets.
- Photos: Displays all the photos of the album, device, or images edited in Lightroom.
- Account: View the profile information associated with your Adobe account.
- Change Language: Adjust the language used in Lightroom on the web.
- Album: Select the drop-down to select from different albums.
Grid view and photo browsing
The Grid view appears when you open an album or collection, displaying multiple photos as thumbnails. This view supports quick visual scanning and comparison, with the option to select multiple images for batch operations.
In Grid view, you can cycle through metadata overlays by selecting the More icon > Info Overlays, revealing information such as Contributors, File type, Flags and ratings, Photo info, or EXIF info. This gesture-based approach keeps photo information accessible while maintaining a clean visual layout.
People view face recognition
People use Adobe Sensei technology to analyze and group photos of the same person. The system creates clusters when it finds at least five photos of an individual, making it easy to browse photos by subject.
This view appears as an option in the Lightroom tab > Shared album dropdown menu after the system has analyzed your library. Each person cluster displays a representative photo, and selecting a cluster shows all photos containing that individual.
Detail view for editing
Detail view activates when you select a single photo, shifting the interface to focus entirely on that photo. This view provides access to all editing tools while maximizing screen space for your photo.
- Back: Opens the Grid view.
- Info and rating: Displays photo details such as metadata, location, and file properties, while allowing you to assign star ratings for organizing and prioritizing photos.
- Versions: Shows previous versions and redo and undo edit actions.
- Tools and features: Displays guided tutorials about tools and features.
- Share: Shares photos with others or exports them to apps, social media, or cloud storage.
- Cloud storage: Checks how much space is left in your cloud storage.
- More Settings: Edit the following settings:
- Save copy to device: Exports and stores a copy of the selected photo on your device.
- Organize: Manages photos by adding to albums, moving between albums, removing from albums, deleting, or setting as album cover.
- View options: Controls display settings such as showing info overlays for file details and histogram.
- Info and rating: Provides photo details and assigns star ratings to organize and prioritize images.
- Copy settings: Copies edit settings from the selected photo.
- Paste settings: Applies copied edit settings to another photo.
- Apply from previous: Applies the last used edit settings to the current photo.
- Create preset: Saves current edit settings as a reusable preset.
- Start slideshow: Plays selected photos in a full-screen slideshow.
- App settings: Manages app preferences, including storage, syncing, and interface behavior.
- Tools section: Opens a collection of additional editing tools that offer extended controls beyond the main editing options.
- Tools: Provides access to individual editing features for adjusting and enhancing photos.
- Photo: Displays photo for editing.
Homescreen workspace
The home view serves as your starting point and provides access to three primary tabs: Device, Lightroom, and Community. Each tab connects you to a different photo source or workflow.
A. Menu B. Premium Features C. Search D. Notification E. Cloud sync F. Options G. Filter and sort controls H. Add photos and Camera
- Menu: Opens the main app menu with options such as Account, Premium Features, Preferences, Early Access, What’s New, About Lightroom, Local storage, Help & Support, and Rate Lightroom.
- Premium Features: Opens premium editing features, tools, and subscription-related options available in Lightroom.
- Search: Searches photos, albums, people, objects, locations, or keywords in the Lightroom library.
- Notification: Displays app notifications, sync updates, activity alerts, and shared album interactions.
- Cloud sync: Displays details on cloud sync, backup, and storage for your Lightroom library.
- Options: Opens additional Library options such as:
- BATCH EDIT: Allows selecting multiple photos and performing actions such as adding them to albums, viewing metadata information, sharing, and more.
- VIEW OPTIONS: Displays options to customize how photos are displayed in the Library. Available options include:
- Square grid: Displays photos in evenly sized square thumbnails.
- Justified grid: Adjusts thumbnail sizes dynamically to fit the screen layout.
- Grid segmentation: Organizes photos into segmented groups for easier browsing.
- Segment by: Group photos based on criteria such as date or media type.
- Slideshow: Plays photos in a slideshow view.
- Add photos: Lets you import additional photos into the Library.
- Filter and sort controls: Let you filter, organize, and change how photos are displayed in the Library grid.
- Add photos and Camera: Imports photos from the device or opens the in-app camera to capture and add new photos directly to Lightroom.
Justified grid and segment collapsing are now available in the Gallery view. Select the grid Options icon to switch between Square grid and Justified grid layouts, and select a date segment's header to collapse or expand it.
A. Navigation panel B. All photos
- Navigation panel: Provides quick access to different sections of the app.
- Gallery: Lets you view photos available on your device before importing them into Lightroom.
- Lightroom: Allows browsing, organizing, and managing all photos that are imported and synced in Lightroom.
- Community: Lets you explore edits and creative work shared by other photographers, discover inspiration, and interact with community content.
- All photos: Allows browsing and organizing all imported photos in the Lightroom library.
- Lightroom albums: Helps you quickly browse and manage your photos:
- All photos: Displays all imported photos in your Lightroom library.
- Your edits: Shows photos that have been edited.
- Unedited: Displays photos that have not been edited yet.
- Imports: Shows recently imported photos.
- People: Organizes photos based on detected people.
- Deleted: Displays deleted photos that can be restored or permanently removed.
- Your albums: Gives access to albums and folders you created or shared.
- Create new: Lets you create and organize photos in albums and folders.
- Lightroom albums: Helps you quickly browse and manage your photos:
Detail view for editing
Detail view activates when you select a single photo, shifting the interface to focus entirely on that photo. This view provides access to all editing tools while maximizing screen space for your photo.
A. Back B. Info & rating C. Undo, Redo, Versions, and Reset D. Sync and Back up E. Share F. Options G. Edit toolbar
- Back: Returns to the previous screen or Library view.
- Info and rating: Displays photo details and metadata information.
- Undo, Redo, Versions, and Reset: Allows you to undo or redo edits, manage edit versions, and reset the photo to its original state.
- Sync and Back up: Displays sync status and backup options for the selected photo.
- Share: Shares and exports the edited photo, with options to Post to Community and Create edit replay.
- Options: Use the Options menu to access additional actions and settings for the selected photo.
- Save copy to device: Saves a copy of the edited photo to your device storage.
- Organize: Lets you organize photos into albums and folders.
- View options: Displays No Overlay, File Info, and Histogram options to control the information shown while editing a photo.
- Create Preset: Saves the current edit settings as a reusable preset.
- Copy Settings: Copies the current edit settings from the selected photo.
- Paste Settings: Applies copied edit settings to another photo.
- Apply from Previous: Applies edits from the previously edited photo to the current photo.
- Start Slideshow: Displays photos in slideshow mode.
- Help: Opens help resources and support information.
- Your profile: Accesses your Lightroom profile and shared content.
- Edit toolbar: Provides access to editing tools such as Actions, Presets, Crop, Edit, Masking, and Remove.
