LRC syncing not working: rebuild sync data made it worse. How can I start from scratch on LRC

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 15, 2022
2 replies
1232 views

I have migrated to LR in January 2021 and I have creative cloud but I still want to use LRC for editing in my desktop (Imac). Symc bever really worked well, there are always photos stuck in sync

The workflow that I want is (i think) very simple. To have all photos uploaded to LR Cloud (full resolution) and let a local copy be downloaded locally in my Imac (external harddrive - I have 4TB in the cloud), and have albums created in LR be my collections in LRC (from Lightroom), so that I can edit photos in LRC when I am at the desktop, and, if I am on my macbook pro, edit on LR or ,if need or want, on LRC in a different catalog (where sync is off) that just has my picked photos and then import from that catalog photos that I edited using LRC in the macbook pro).

I made the mistake of pressing rebuild sync data 5 days ago and since then LRC keeps saying that 195k photos (all my synced photos basically) are syncing but nothing appears on sync activity and after some hours LRC stops working and crashes and also crashes my Imac (3,6 GHz 10-Core Intel Core i9 - 128 GB 2133 MHz DDR4).

How can I start from scratch on LRC without losing my edits and without erasing any photos on the cloud - basically that is the question. Can I stop rebuild sync data? Will simply resintall LRC solve the issue? will export all my synced photos to another catalog (or at least the ones that have edits solve the issue? I have seen hours of you tube tutorials but none seem to help me and adobe virtual assistant is not working.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Theresa J

Community Expert

Reinstalling LrC will not solve the problem. Creating a new synced catalog probably won't work either and could take a long time.

I recently cleaned up and fixed a client's catalog that wasn't syncing just as you describe your issue. I fixed it by removing tens of thousands of duplicate images and video, first from LrC and then from the cloud. Does your Lightroom Library in the cloud have a lot of duplicates? Is your Lightroom Library synced?

The workflow you outlined should work but it isn't recommended by Adobe. You don't need Lightroom Classic to work on images while offline if you turn on the local sync option in Lightroom.

FiliperrAuthor

Participant

Thank you! On the LR (cloud) I have no duplicates, but on LRC I do have a lot of duplicates and some amount of videos. But somehow the duplicates were created by LR itself. How do I know which duplicate I can delete in LRC/disk, and how can I delete the duplicates automatically?

I don't understand exactly what do you mean by "You don't need Lightroom Classic to work on images while offline if you turn on the local sync option in Lightroom." Can you explain?, what do you mean "turn on the local sync option in Lightroom?"

Theresa J

Community Expert

Working with LrC and Lr together can be confusing, and it can result in a lot of dupes like you describe seeing in your Classic catalog. Here's an abbreviated version of how the system works.

Lightroom Classic manages photos on hard drives. It does not store the photos inside the catalog.

Lightroom manages photos in a cloud. When you add photos to Lightroom, they are uploaded to the cloud. The master resides in the cloud, and there is no connection back to the original file on the drive.

If you migrated your Classic catalog to Lightroom, this is what happened. Everything was uploaded to the cloud. The contents in the cloud have no connection to the originals in Classic.

If you then synced the Classic catalog to Lightroom, it downloaded, or attempted to download, all of the images in the cloud to a local hard drive. This would create duplicates of the originals. It's also probably why the sync is stuck.

I don't recommend the workflow you are attempting.

Here is what I do.

I organize my photos on external hard drives and import them into Lightroom Classic. The catalog is synced (not migrated) to Lightroom. I create Collections of images that I want to work on with my iPhone, iPad, and laptop computer. The Collections are synced to Lightroom. The sync uploads smart previews, not the originals. I use the Lightroom app on my laptop, not Classic, to work on the images I have synced.

An easier solution is to just use Lightroom. Don't use Lightroom Classic. With Lightroom, everything is in the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere.

Here's information about Lightroom's local storage preferences. With this turned on, you can work offline. https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/preferences.html

R

rexc73636978

Participant

I have similar issue. The sync is not working and it shows the adobe server is off-line.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded