Finding previous files in LR

Question

Hi. my computer crashed and had to be reset to the factory settings and Ive reinstalled LR... how do I retrieve all my files and presets from the Cloud from my previous version?  I frequently backed up my LR within LR!

Answer 1

As a point of clarification, your photos are never "in" Lightroom. If you use Lightroom to download from your camera, the process simply puts the images in a folder of your choosing on your hard drive and then remembers where they are located. Any adjustments that you make get stored in the catalog and that information is in a separate file. Lightroom does not magically or mysteriously encapsulate your images into some private place. It simply points to them wherever they have been placed on your computer system.
The same is true if you "add" images that are already on your hard drive. Lightroom does nothing to those images. The import process simply points Lightroom to that folder, enabling it to store changes in the catalog. The images remain in the folder. That is why backing up the catalog is so important. The backing up your images is your responsibility. You need to design a system that works for you and then back up on a regular basis. Lightroom DOES NOT back up your images.
The only role the cloud plays in this whole process is that it is your source for downloading the program which is installed  locally on your computer. And it is where updates to the program will be downloaded from enabling you to keep the program on your computer up to date. If you want cloud backup services they are available from a number of providers. But Adobe is not one of them as far as I'm aware.