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Enso Photography Zürich
Participating Frequently
July 21, 2020
Question

Sync star ratings between two desktop/laptop in Lightroom *Classic*

  • July 21, 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 2133 views

Hi all,

 

I think this might be a variations of syncing related questions, but one for which we haven't really found any solution yet.
Now I'm not stating that I even understand why there is "Lightroom" and "Lightroom Classic" or if "Lightroom CC" is any of these, in all honesty this always confused me, however now I'm looking for a solution to a problem that I imagine should be fairly straightforward:
- we have two PCs. One desktop where we do all the editing and a laptop where we do lighter things (like culling and rating the photos, but something also do editing when the desktop is not free etc)
- both desktop has Lightroom Classic installed. The desktop currently has 9.2.1 the laptop 9.3

 

Now, we would like to be able to rate the pictures on the laptop and simply sync the stars to the desktop so we can edit them based on the ratings. For now nothing else. 

 

So no, we don't want to sync to mobile nor between Lightroom Classic and any other misterious variations of Lightroom, simply sync the ratings between two instances of the very same program (Lightroom Classics) sitting on two of our PCs.

 

Is there any way to do this simply operation?

Thank you!

    6 replies

    J
    J Gonzo Photography
    Participant
    June 26, 2025

    I know this post is old, but in case people are looking for other solutions. As someone below mentioned, the method of having classic on desktop and using Lightroom on laptop works great; I use that method for iPad. I never edit on my iPad though - just use it to rate, flag, and add color categories. So my alternate solution which I also do for my MacBook, have classic installed on both devices. I have a 4tb harddrive, this hard drive is where all my current(photoshoot I'm working on) raw photos and Lightroom catalogs with all its backup and auxiliary files stored. So I just use that hardrive when I'm away from home so I can still use classic to edit. It's an easy solution as you're probably carrying drives with your laptop anyways. 

    LifePHOTOGRAPHER
    LifePHOTOGRAPHER
    Participant
    August 6, 2022

    Well, thanks to your clear explanation I figured my way in. Many Thanks 🙂

    I put the same comment on another reply and can't see how to remove it, but it is you I wished to thank 🙂 LOL

     

    J’aime

     
    E
    Eric Pec
    Inspiring
    July 22, 2020
    I am afraid that your reasonable request is impossible. To allow exchanges between Classic and Coud ( I am as confused as you are with the two instances) you need to sync and it is all or nothing. A pain in the neck. Please Adobe do something.

    Best Regards
    Eric Pecquerie
    Sent from my iPad Pro
    DdeGannes
    Community Expert
    DdeGannesCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 22, 2020

    If you wish Adobe engineers to focus on a request to a new feature then post the request in the Photoshop Family Feedback website.

    https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family 

     

    Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
    JP Hess
    JP Hess
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2020

    Star ratings synchronize between LrC and Lightroom for me.

      E
      Enso Photography ZürichAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      July 21, 2020

      Yes, now that you've explained the  relation between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom to me I underatand how I can use them to do this for me, thanks!

      dj_paige
      dj_paige
      Legend
      July 21, 2020

      The way to move the star ratings from the laptop to the desktop (which is not technically a "Sync") is to open the Lightroom Classic catalog on the laptop, select File->Export as Catalog; then transfer the files created to the desktop and open Lightroom Classic and then use File->Import from Another Catalog and select the files moved from the laptop.

       

      Again, the above is not a "sync", and you'd have to do this in both directions. There is no way to do a true "sync" of the catalogs on two computers.

        E
        Enso Photography ZürichAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        July 21, 2020

        I've found this option, and tried to do it on my last wedding shoot (few thousand images). I was really hope I don't have to do anything that takes hours just so I get the star ratings (let's say I could do the culling on the train on my laptop and then I'd like to just jump into editing when I get home on my desktop. I really only need the info about the stars... 😞 ).

         

        Thank anyway!

        JP Hess
        JP Hess
        Inspiring
        July 21, 2020

        First of all, you can blame Adobe for the naming confusion. Lightroom Classic is the program that keeps all your images on the computer, in folders, using a local catalog. Lightroom is the new cloud version. The program is installed on the computer, but the images are stored in the cloud. Those images can be edited on any mobile device that has a mobile version of Lightroom installed on it. Lightroom CC is really an old name, but a lot of people refer to Lightroom as Lightroom CC.

         

        What I would suggest in your situation would be to have Lightroom Classic installed on the desktop computer since that seems to be your "main" computer. Here is where the master images would reside. You would create collections of images that you would choose to share with the Adobe cloud. Then I would install Lightroom on the laptop. You would sign in using the same Adobe ID and password, and Lightroom would have access to all of the images that you have shared in collections. Now these are smart previews, not full-sized images. But they can still be edited, and rated, and the editing performed on the laptop would have effect on the master images on the desktop computer. The other benefit of using smart previews is that they do not impact the cloud space allotment that you have. In other words, you can have countless collections of images shared this way and never run out of space.

         

        The interface and Lightroom is quite different, and the tools are not quite as robust. Some features that are available in Lightroom Classic are not available in Lightroom. But since you will have Lightroom Classic available on the desktop computer you can turn to it when you need those other "missing" tools, such as printing for instance.

          E
          Enso Photography ZürichAuthor
          Participating Frequently
          July 21, 2020

          Awesome answer thanks! 🙂

           

          That's a pretty good solution. The only difference in my case is that the my master images reside on my NAS, but ok, that doesn't change anything, will use my desktop as main with Lightroom Classic and the laptop with Lightroom, now the only question is how long a whole set of wedding shoot takes to sync to my Lightroom hm...

           

          I'd really prefer a lot more lighweight solution for this, like the Lightroom Classic on my laptop be able to fetch only the smart previews and ratings from the collection file my desktop PC creates, oh well.

           

          Thank again!

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