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lrmdmedia
Participant
June 20, 2013
Question

Multiple Users on Lightroom? Or Other Solution?

  • June 20, 2013
  • 4 replies
  • 32254 views

I just called Adobe technical support and spoke with someone about using Lightroom to organize patient photos in a medical office.  I was told that Lightroom does not support multiple users, and there is no work-around solution or plug-in for this.  Can you please confirm this?  I need a software to organize a photo library/catalog of appx 20K before and after photos.  Multiple users (appx 3-5) need to be able to access and update the same library/catalog simultaneously.  We are a Mac only office.  Please help.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    P
    pjbeee
    Participant
    October 19, 2024
    • As you (and the rest of us) have noticed, you are not getting any help for this any time soon. Hope some serious competition comes along one of these days. Sad. 
    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 19, 2024

    Although multi-user access has been, in theory, a great opportunity for a photo company to get ahead of the others, it is telling that after all these years most photo software companies have decided to pass, and not get into it. This might mean that it’s a bigger challenge than we think. Apple never got around to it, and cancelled Aperture instead. There is a thing called Capture One Studio but I don’t know how good it is. There are other solutions like Adobe Experience Manager Assets (more for workgroup deployment of finished assets rather than editing), and Daminion, but they are expensive.

     

    In the meantime there are some new options for multi-user solutions. One is Mediagraph, a service that offers a Publish Services plug-in for Lightroom Classic , and a Connection for cloud Lightroom.

     

    I haven’t used Mediagraph, so I can’t say how good it is. But one of the principals of Mediagraph is Peter Krogh, who is a long-time expert in digital asset management using Lightroom Classic and other Adobe apps; his books are great.

    Adobe itself is introducing Lightroom support for frame.io, the workgroup service it acquired that’s popular in pro video and is extending to photography workflows. But it works only with cloud Lightroom, not Lightroom Classic, and it’s still in beta. Last week we learned that Adobe is expanding frame.io so that it works with more Adobe apps, so who knows if that will someday connect to Lightroom Classic. For now, just cloud Lightroom.

    H
    holdenp90366779
    Participant
    August 30, 2015

    Adobe,

    Users have been asking for Lightroom to be multi-user capable for years.  My understanding is the the core database architecture is SQL Lite.  While it wouldn't necessarily be EASY, it really shouldn't be that hard for a company with the resources of Adobe to update the software architecture to be able to connect to a database other than the local single-user SQL database.  With Lightroom being a workhorse for many working professionals with multiuser and enterprise requirements, it is completely unfathomable that Adobe isn't responding to customer demands for a workable solution to this issue.  I for one have started my search to replace Adobe products in my professional workflow since they can't seem to get their act together on this issue.

      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      August 30, 2015

      This is a user-to-user forum in which Adobe rarely participates.  There is a topic in the official Adobe feedback forum on this subject: Lightroom: Multi-User / Multi Computer (Shared catalog on a network).  It is one of the most-requested features over the past four years.  You might add your vote and opinion there -- it has more of a chance of influencing Adobe there than here.  Adobe says they read every post there and they participate much more frequently there than here.

      P
      pjbeee
      Participant
      October 19, 2024

      And the above link seems to go nowhere. With so many professionals and shops using LrC, it's a total mystery why Adobe doesn't have a multi-user version. Constraining as hell. 

      areohbee
      areohbee
      Legend
      June 21, 2013

      lrmdmedia wrote:

      Multiple users (appx 3-5) need to be able to access and update the same library/catalog simultaneously.

      Lightroom is the wrong tool for the job - consider Bridge instead.

      At the risk of stating the obvious: no matter which way you go (software-wise), you (your team, I mean) need to make sure one person isn't stompling on what another has done (or preventing access denial when it's needed).

      That said, many have come up with Lightroom-based solutions that support some people working on one set of photos (or same set of photos, but different metadata/settings), whilst another team member works on a different set (or same set, but not same settings/metadata). - whether any of these ad-hoc solutions would be acceptable to you, I can't say.

      But most of them involve using catalog export/import, or xmp, and/or reserving exclusive (master) catalog access temporarily...

      R

      dj_paige
      dj_paige
      Legend
      June 21, 2013

      Consider using true multi-user software, like Daminion

      J
      jpascua7x
      Participant
      February 14, 2014

      In Aperture, if I remember correctly, there was a way to sync changes between catalogs. Is this feature not available in Lightroom? For example if I work on the catalog at my desktop at time point A, work on my laptop later at time point B, work on my desktop again at time point C (without seeing changes from point B), can I then at time point D, be able to sync time points A, B, C?

      Can syncing edits not be done in Lightroom?

      ssprengel
      ssprengel
      Inspiring
      June 21, 2013

      LR stores it’s photo information in a catalog database that does not support multi-user access. I’ll leave it to others to recommend something else.

      G
      gfamclg
      Inspiring
      July 5, 2016

      can i use my CC Suite across multiple user accounts in the first place.

      Can someone logged into user account A,...on LR catalog A co exist when they log off and Account B logs on, and then uses catalog B?

      Will the different user accounts cause LR to simply open Catalog A on account A and B on account B without any knowledge of the users. So they dont have to choose the catalog, it simply loads when LR is opened?

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