P: Please add advanced keywords - controlled vocabulary

There’s also the fact that you can spend hours keywording in CC, with no warning that it won’t sync back to CC Classic and that your time was wasted.

A great overview of the situation.

I have commented earlier on this thread - requesting that Adobe strongly consider syncing of keywords between Lightroom CC [LR Cloud] and Lightroom Classic [LR Classic]. I still believe it is an important feature.

Victoria Brampton’s comment that LRClassic is not a 2nd class citizen, rather a citizen of a different country is a perfect analogy and has clarified something I have been thinking for a while, so thank you Victoria. I find your books always helpful and your insights into Lightroom invaluable.

“Country” LR Classic

LR Classic was developed in conjunction with professional photographers to meet their needs in managing the then newly emerging digital photography and the workflows that digital photography required.

LR Classic’s central feature was its robust database, which also provided ways to categorize photos [Keywords, Stars, Flags, Colors], coupled with editing tools to enhance digital photos with non-destructive editing. This made LR Classic the go to product for professional photographers and serious amateurs.

Over the years I have recommended LR Classic to newcomers to digital photography as a step up from the free Apple and Google products, simply because of the robustness and strength of the key-wording feature, the ability to find your photo irrespective of clumsy folders or other storage choices.

“Country” LR Cloud

LR Cloud seems to be Adobe’s response to the possible dominance of iPhotos [1 billion active iOS users] and Google Photos [500 million users] for smartphone users, which gives an easy default choice for uploading and storing photos in the cloud and both of which continue to improve their tools for cataloging and editing photos.

Relationship between LR Classic and LR Cloud

Victoria’s comment that LR Classic and LR Cloud “talk different languages, so while they have some ability to communicate, the governments tend to argue! ;-),” raises the question, should they communicate better?

Who are the core users of LR Cloud? I don’t pretend to know, but given the existing pricing model every LR Classic user is also by default a “user” of LR Cloud.

The question for Adobe is, are their sufficient customers prepared to pay $120 a year for LR Cloud on its own, simply to gain a better version of Apple iPhoto or Google Photos.

Is this dual usage masking a reality from Adobe? How many users would be prepared to license LR Cloud on its own? Is LR Cloud attractive enough on its own either to lure the casual iPhone photographer whose photos automatically upload to iPhotos? Or to provide a robust system for the professional or serious amateur?

I have serious doubts as to the number of casual users who would use [and pay for] LR Cloud as an alternative to the free and ever improving iPhotos or Google photos options. The work flow to get photos into LR Cloud is clumsy and non-intuitive, and while the editing tools are superior perhaps only the serious photographer will really value them enough to pay for them.

For a serious photographer with a large library LR Cloud on its own is not viable. The storage cost, speed of access, ready availability in low bandwidth environments and the lack of serious hierarchical keywording make it a non starter.

Having said that I do use LR Cloud to:

1. Make photos in collections available on my iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.
2. When I travel with just my iPad I upload my camera to the iPad. Of course I have to go through iPhotos to upload the originals to iCloud and at the same time I can upload to LR Cloud to allow me to do some processing while I am on the road. 
3. In some countries with low bandwidth it can take days to upload to the cloud. 
4. The obvious problem from my workflow perspective is that no keywording can be done on LR Cloud, as it just doesn’t sync with LR Classic. 
5. On my last trip I reverted to the MacBook and LR Classic to allow a more seamless process, but there are still times I would appreciate the ability to travel with just the iPad.

So is Adobe risking its loyal user base of Classic by not giving full functionality in the iOS environment? What happens if a serious alternative offers full functionality on both the desktop and iOS/Android environments?

Would Adobe have been better to go the Photoshop route and offer an [almost] full function version on the iPad?

If I am right and the core users are LR Classic users who want the additional benefits that LR Cloud can provide, then there is a real need to get the two “countries” communicating better with each other.

So again Adobe, my request is that you enable keywords to sync between LR Classic and LR Cloud.

To further the metaphor, I'm hoping that with iPadOS that someone will come up with a metadata editor to work with imported/browsed files on the road. Sort of a Photo Mechanic for iPadOS. So I'd do my initial work in that, and Lr (non-Classic) would see that and import the files just fine (I think...haven't done a lot of work with iPadOS yet).

> this suggests that Classic users are being treated like 2nd-class citizens

More a citizen of a different country, rather than 2nd class. They talk different languages, so while they have some ability to communicate, the governments tend to argue! 😉

Agreed. I would prefer my Classic hierarchy, but any level of sync would be better than nothing... 

I've finally come to terms with the subscription model and just migrated from Lightroom 5 to Classic, primarily so that I can use an iPad-first workflow through Lightroom Mobile while travelling.
I'm happy with most things, but am really disappointed to discover that I can't synch Keywords between these versions. Seems like a bizarre decision. I could accept having to choose a structure (hierarchical for Classic, flat for CC) and stick with it, but this suggests that Classic users are being treated like 2nd-class citizens, which is making me question my decision to sign up to a plan. Maybe I should bail out now before I've added too much to my Classic catalog?

PLEASE ADOBE!

Boggles the mind doesn't it?

What a stupid limitation. I should be able to swap back and forth between my iPad Pro and my laptop. When I'm on the road and am killing time in the evening, I keyword - but if all I have with me is my iPad Pro, it's a waste of time. If I can do sophisticated editing on iPad, then keywords should be a no brainer. C'mon Adobe, it's not like Google and Apple having their OS spats; you create both products.