Work flow question finalized edit in Lightroom Desktop, syncing to Lightroom Classic

Forum|Forum|7 days ago
April 19, 2026
2 replies
30 views

I normally edit in LrC, and sync my edited files to the cloud, for display in Lr on my iPad & iPhone. I needed to edit a photo taken with my phone, and needed the reflection removal tool, so I installed Lightroom Desktop on my MacBook, and proceeded to edit the photo in Lr Desktop. Before I did, the photo had already synced to LrC on my Mac mini. I completed the edit in Lr, which in addition to the remove tool included a couple of masks, and a crop. When I opened the photo in LrC, the remove synced, as well as global adjustments, but none of the masked adjustments or the crop appeared. When I reopened the photo in Lr, the masks and crop were also gone. I was able to use the Lr versions, to get back to my final edit. Now how do I make that final edit appear in LrC, without re-editing the photo there?

Correct answer JohanElzenga

The only thing I can think of is this: Make sure you moved away from the image in Lightroom before opening it in Lightroom Classic. Lightroom does not commit edits as long as the image is still selected, so selecting it in Lightroom Classic while Lightroom has it still open may cause the sync to ‘go the wrong way’.

JohanElzenga

Correct answer

Community Expert

The only thing I can think of is this: Make sure you moved away from the image in Lightroom before opening it in Lightroom Classic. Lightroom does not commit edits as long as the image is still selected, so selecting it in Lightroom Classic while Lightroom has it still open may cause the sync to ‘go the wrong way’.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

B

BobinmacombAuthor

Participating Frequently

That did it. I’m used to LrC, where you move out of the Develop Module when done. I just left LR running on the MacBook, without moving to another photo. After doing that, the image correctly synced back to LrC. Yea!

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

You should not have to do anything. It should sync correctly. Tell us you hardware specs and the versions of Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, that might give us a clue.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

B

BobinmacombAuthor

Participating Frequently

This is my first experience using Lr Desktop on my MacBook. Usually I edit in LrC, on either computer. Traveling during the day with time to work on photos, and I did not want to bring the external drive with my LrC catalog, and files.

What I found was it did sync the global edits down to LrC, what it did not sync was the Masks and Crop, of the final edit. Because I opened the image in the develop module, it updated the photo in Lr to the version, without the masks and crop. I was able to restore my final edit in Lr, and I named that version. Have not opened LrC since.

Computer specs:

Lightroom version: 9.3 arm64 [ 20260407-1929-32efcc0 ] (Apr 7 2026)
NGL Version: 1.43.0.5
WF Version: 8.3 5c9a130
VF Version: 1.0.164.1
HIL Version: 40501
CAI Version: c2pa-c/0.6.0 c2pa-rs/0.46.0
PH Version: 5.2.3
Adobe GSDK Version: 1.4.0.210
CR Version: 29.5.0.202509162212_6e7a997
Catalog ID: 91e3eea17f6d49e49284aa30ad42b22f

Operating system: macOS
OS Version: macOS 26.4.1 (25E253)
Application architecture: arm64
Computer model: Mac14,2 / Apple M2
Logical processor count: 8
Real memory available to Lightroom: 8,192.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 646.0 MB (7.8%)
Peak memory used by Lightroom: 2,872.0 MB
Memory cache size: 1,791.2 MB

The LrC computer

LrC Version 15.3 for Arm

Computer Apple Mac mini M4 Mac OS version 26.4.1 ARM 64

24 gb ram

Note I’m not going to be near the Mac mini for several hours, as I’m traveling with the MacBook.

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