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A
Arcterex
Inspiring
September 5, 2018
Answered

Changes Sync From Lightroom Classic to Mobile, but not Mobile to Classic

  • September 5, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 2367 views

What I'm trying to do, and what I have done before is to

  • import photos int LR CC Classic
  • create a collection
  • set that collection to sync with mobile
  • Flag / rate photos on mobile while on the go
  • Go back to my desktop when I'm ready to edit
  • Use those flags/ratings to know what to edit.

I know I've done this before and I know it should work, but when I'm trying to do this with LRCCC 7.5 changes are synced from desktop to mobile (ratings, edits), but not from mobile back.  I started with doing rating on mobile and noticed that the ratings weren't coming back to desktop, so I did a quick rate / edit of an image on desktop and 10-20 seconds later those changes showed up on my Lightroom Mobile (iOS, all updated).

I don't know if this stopped working with 7.5 (some other forum posts seem to indicate this), because I don't use this method that often, but I do know that the whole workflow has worked before and that it is only working one way here now with 7.5.

I can currently consistently make this happen from at least 2 synced collections.  I:

  • Go to the desktop, set a bunch of images to 4 stars
  • Mobile, they show up not long after with 4 stars
  • On mobile set those same images to 0 stars
  • No change on the desktop after several minutes (and in the case of the set of photos that started me down this rabbit hole, days.

Changes between mobile does work.  Changes on my iPhone on LR Mobile show on my iPad in LR Mobile and vice versa.  If I use the lightroom on the web, changes done on mobile sync to web, but not the other way around.

What works and what doesn't:

Metadata changes:

  • Classic to mobile: yes
  • Classic to web: yes
  • Mobile to classic: no
  • Mobile to web: no
  • Web to mobile: yes
  • Web to classic: no

Edits: (tested by turning a photo black and white)

  • Classic to mobile: yes
  • Mobile to classic: no
  • Classic to web: no
  • Web to Mobile: yes
  • Web to classic: ​no

Sync Statuses:

On the desktop for the sync status I have "syncing 73 photos" - but to be fair, it *always* says it's syncing some number of photos.  I have no idea if this is a bug or not.

In the desktop sync activity panel in preferences -> lightroom sync it shows 74 uploading, 2487 downloading, 3 pending, but those numbers are the same as two hours ago.  I've restarted the desktop app in between that time to see if that kickstarted something.

On mobile in sync status it says 'uploading 1 pending' but again, has said that all the time I think, but doesn't have a blue circle indicating there's any cloud sync happening.

On the web it seems to consistently show 'no sync activity', but I have 2500 photos under 'sync issues'.  I can delete these one by one but there is no 'select all' making removing these (no idea what the actual issue is) completely unrealistic.

Ninja edit:

Looking on the web version of lightroom at lightroom.adobe.com I have yet another

different number - this oneshas 'sync issues 2509' which are a bunch of photos and it says open lightroom on iphone to continue syncing.  I have, but the number doesn't seem to go down.

Troubleshooting:

I have:

  • Logged out and in of CC on both desktop and mobile
  • Rebooted everything
  • Restarted Lightroom mobile by killing it and restarted Lightroom Classic CC on the desktop
  • Ensured everything is up to date
  • Cried a little

Software:

Lightroom CC Classic 7.5 / Camera Raw 10 on macOS 10.13.6 (fully updated)

Lightroom Mobile 3.4.0 on iOS 11.4.1

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Arcterex

    No argument from me - I completely agree with you.

    Your bullet point workflow works for me, so I am surprised you still have problems after deleting all mobile data. What command did you use - there is a delete data button in Preferences.


    Actually it was the resetting all sync data that didn't work.

    However, deleting all sync data (5300 photos) and restarting it all from scratch did seem to work (the data not syncing back and forth).  I'm going to mark this as "solved" even though the solution is a bit of an extreme fix, vs it working properly without having to delete everything.

    Luckily I use this syncing in a very transient type of way, and deleting the data is more of an inconvenience than anything else.

    2 replies

    S
    stevem6934115
    Participant
    October 14, 2019

    Thanks to Arcterex for documenting this.  Roll on 1 year.... a *similar* issue remains. In particular, some but not all edits made in Lightroom CC show up in Lightroom Classic.  Classic then syncs and edits are lost. This is after the proposed solution of resetting the sync records in Lightroom Classic.

     

    Workflow:

    • Import photos with Lightroom Classic

               (Sync)

    • Edit in Lightroom iOS on iPad

               (Sync)

    • Open Lightroom CC on Mac or Adobe online to confirm sync

               (no Sync / no change)

    • Open in Lightroom Classic, two things happen
      (1) some but not all photos have edits (I’m talking edits not metadata)
      (2) those that do not have edits synced are ‘synced back over’ by Classic and the changes made are lost

     

    The same happens if the edits are made in Lightroom CC rather the iOS (as far as I can tell this isn't my workflow) suggesting the issue is with Classic.

     

    Software

    Lightroom 2.4.1

    Lightroom Classic 8.4.1

     

    Any help much appresiated!

      john beardsworth
      Community Expert
      john beardsworthCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 5, 2018

      On Preferences, Lightroom Sync tab, have you held down Alt / Option and tried the Rebuild Sync Data button?

      Are you absolutely certain you are looking at the correct files in Classic? For example, are you sure you aren't looking at VCs or other versions such as JPEG copies?

      I'd ignore the Sync Issues at lightroom.adobe.com. It's quite new and in my view not yet useful.

      A
      ArcterexAuthor
      Inspiring
      September 5, 2018

      Sorry I forgot to mention that I did rebuild the sync data yesterday.

      It started rebuilding, showed it was syncing about 2500 (I think) images and that number quickly went down, stalled at around 250 this morning, I restarted LRCCC and it went down to it's (current) 73.  I don't think I've ever had it show less than 20 images syncing on the desktop classic app.

      And yes, I know these are the files as this is a fresh import, the collection was created on import and nothing else (other than these tests) have been done, nothing's showing the dogear icon for a VC and I can see the DNG in the filename when I look at them in the library folder as well as when I right click, go to collection and then select the collection that it's in, which does have the double arrow sync icon beside it.

      I figured about the web sync but though I'd include it for completeness.

        john beardsworth
        Community Expert
        john beardsworthCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        September 5, 2018

        Can you identify the 73 in any way? For example, in the Prefs/Sync tab you can click the items and LR should then select them. Are they photos that originated in LrMobile, or photos that should be uploading. Assuming the latter, are there any existing smart previews? This is relevant because Lr should use those existing smart previews for the uploading process.

        I think you should try to avoid conflating the issues - syncing x photos is one, the failure to sync ratings is another and more worrying.

        If you want a quick solution, you could delete all mobile data. But don't do that without checking if there is anything online that hasn't synced down to your desktop.

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