P: Lightroom Ecosystem: Selective Sync

If you have 10TB of data, is there a specific reason you want to use the cloud app, rather than Lightroom Classic, which is designed for folder-based photo management?

For me to use Lightroom CC, selective sync is a must-have.

I want an ecosystem that allows me to see previews or smart previews of all my images in one easily organized place on all my devices. But I only need active projects and a select few other images on the cloud, with everything always backed up locally.

Essentially, I want a unified system for viewing all of my images regardless of source — phone,iPad, SLR — that integrates seamlessly and easily with my Adobe CC Suite and my RAW workflow.

I don't want my 10 terabytes of data stored "safely in the cloud", as if there is such a thing.

Point of clarification: When you pause syncing in Lightroom Classic, it stays paused, no matter how many times you open and close the app. When I first tried Lightroom CC, I kept syncing paused in Lightroom Classic for months.

The same is true for the iOS app. Even if you close the app by swiping up.

No no. Pausing is not turning it off, "just in different phrasing." Not even remotely. Turning it off is a preference, it is persistent, it stays that way. Pausing it is not permanent and you have to deal with it every single time you invoke the app. And by the time you do that, pictures that you may or may not want sent, have been sent anyway.

As to free -- hah! Google is happy to have your data and to monetize it as they see fit. Adobe wants to have your data, monetize it as they see fit, and make you pay them to do it. The difference is significant. Moreover,  Adobe does not explain this "up front," at least in any clear and honest way. They do not tell you that they will automatically upload your entire phone to their cloud. They just do it, and then tell you to pay for the storage. It's a devious and underhanded marketing trick that no amount of "clever" things (that most phone users don't want anyway) can make up for. 

We are not talking about "workflows" here. We're talking about people's phones. The average consumer wouldn't even know what "workflow" means. What they want is what has been iterated repeatedly throughout this thread. They want an app to help organize, tag, and perhaps do light editing on their snapshots. They certainly do not want to try something out only to find that their data has been taken, without their permission, and to then be told that they will have to pay for it.

Finally, there is absolutely no way that making syncing an option could be less than ideal. With choice, anyone who actually wanted all that "clever stuff" could have it with a click of an icon. Those that don't need not click the button.

I'm glad you support the idea, but Adobe will never respond to this request, or any customer request for that matter. They never have.

Pause is essentially turning it off, just in different phrasing.

Nothing in life is free. Google will find another way to cover their costs for your storage, likely through advertising. Adobe's up-front about making you pay for storage. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

I support the request for selective sync. There are certainly some workflows that will benefit from doing so. I'm less convinced that it will turn out to be the ideal solution everyone wants, because it will cripple some of the clever stuff Adobe's doing in the cloud.

Well, "pausing" sync isn't a real solution, is it? Turning it OFF or ON is the only real solution. Even Google with its voracious appetite for everything it can get from you lets me decide when I want to sync.  And for allowing it to keep a copy of all your photos, Google gives you the storage free. Adobe wants to have all your pictures, and make you pay for doing it. Sheesh!

I have to second what Jeff and Gary have said here. I want a usable photo editor and library tool on my iPad but that does not hold me hostage to exponentially increasing annual fees. I have nearly 800 GB of active photos in my library. Already, if I loaded new photos, I'd be pushing the 1TB limit. In 5 more years, I'll probably be approaching 2TB. After that I'd have to jump to 5TB which is $50/month for CC, $60 if you want Classic and Photoshop.

I don't mind just syncing the Smart Previews, so long as I could get the RAW files to my computer. But importing to my iPad causes all kinds of issues and manual management to keep the originals from taking up cloud space. And syncing from LR Classic doesn't keep all the organization I've done.

Anyway, this gets beyond selective sync now. I'm not necessarily opposed to cloud sync, but I don't want to be held hostage by their cloud storage pricing. Honestly, if they either offered cloud storage for far less (2TB for $10/month, 5TB for $20), I'd considering LrCC. Or if they offered real, whole library SmartPreview sync for LrClassic, I might stick with that. But at the moment, my loyalty is up for grabs to the first company to offer me an effective, semi-pro editing tool and library for the iPad that does not gouge me on storage costs.

Gary, you could pause sync to prevent uploading, but of course any organization you did wouldn't make it back to a desktop. 

There is no Lightroom Classic for Android -- only Lightroom.  And Android Lightroom does not even offer the option of not uploading, so they are demanding that all Android users keep everything on their overpriced cloud. Also, in my remote location, internet service is so unreliable and so slow that at my present advanced age, I could never hope to live long enough to see all this data make it to the cloud, and indeed, I don't want it there. I'd just like to use it to organize all the images on my phone.

The Lightroom formerly known as CC is a cloud-based app that leverages the cloud for more than just storage, but also for its features. Many of the features only work for photos that are in stored in the cloud.

Lightroom Classic is designed for local storage solution with some selective sync.

They're not asking people to switch, they're offering both workflows so people can choose which suits them best.