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Question

Syncing collections and keywords between Bridge and Lightroom Classic (and sometimes Lightroom CC)?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
July 23, 2022
2 replies
2795 views

Sorry if this is the wrong forum!

I understand collections can be synced between Lightroom Classic and CC, yet unsure between Classic & Bridge.

Do keywords made in Bridge, show up in Lightroom Classic or CC? Can't seem to see where keywords can be seen in CC too.

What ai mainly want is the ability to share keywords and collectins between Lightroom Classic & Bridge 🙂

This topic has been closed for replies.

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

Note that Bridge and Photoshop have some keyword handling bugs where using them along with Lightroom can cause problems or delete keywords. If you use them together, be sure to check your keywords to make sure everything stays correct.

H

Hamza25291388dqeiAuthor

Known Participant

OK, thanks for the headsup!

gary_sc

Community Expert

This forum is good enough.

This is a very complicated question because it may seem like it should be all over the place, but isn't.

A collection made in LR Classic, if set to sync, will show up in LR Desktop, LR Mobile, and LR web.

A collection made in Bridge will show up in Bridge. This is because Bridge is nothing but a viewer. It has no syncing capabilities, no database built-in (and you cannot attach one), and much of what you do in Bridge will be placed in the metadata in the file(s) but no version of LR will read that data unless you import those files into LR whereupon the link to Bridge is severed (because Bridge doesn't sync to anything).

Or, to use a colloquialism, what happens in Bride, stays in Bridge, and what happens in LR will stay in parts of the LR family.

So, to your final question: Not only can you not share keywords and collections between LRC & Bridge, but you cannot even have labels that you use in Bridge show up properly in LRC.

To make matters even more ugly, if you take an image that you have imported into LRC and open that file up in Bridge and then Adobe Camera Raw after you make changes in it and later open that file up in LRC, you will get a warning saying that this file was altered outside of LRC, which version do you want to use?

Suffice it to say, do your LRC stuff inside LRC and your Bridge stuff inside Bridge.

I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but sorry, that's the way it is.

H

Hamza25291388dqeiAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you for your comprehensive answer.

"A collection made in Bridge will show up in Bridge. This is because Bridge is nothing but a viewer. It has no syncing capabilities, no database built-in (and you cannot attach one), and much of what you do in Bridge will be placed in the metadata in the file(s) but no version of LR will read that data unless you import those files into LR whereupon the link to Bridge is severed (because Bridge doesn't sync to anything)." Let me clarify if to understand.

- Isn't there some sort of database/file thing for it to know collections, tags, labels, etc?

- Keywords made in Bridge will show in in Lightroom CC? How about collections?

- Keywords made in Bridge will not show in Lightroom Classic?

"To make matters even more ugly, if you take an image that you have imported into LRC and open that file up in Bridge and then Adobe Camera Raw after you make changes in it and later open that file up in LRC, you will get a warning saying that this file was altered outside of LRC, which version do you want to use?"

- What about opening up in Lightroom CC? Does Adobe Camera Raw properly behave?

Here I thought Bridge is meant to 'bridge' all the Adobe products together ...

gary_sc

Community Expert

"The keywords will show up in Bridge but if you add new keywords, you'd have to re-import into LRC because the Bridge action took place OUTSIDE of LRC's database. "

I thought LrC prevents reimports by greying out images during an import session?

Is there another way to force a refresh of metadata?

"Simply, it's never a two-way street between LRC and Bridge. The same thing applies to LR CC."

I'm currently using Bridge to extract/select 'actual photos' from my phone backups. I group them with tags; then once done, the chose ones go into LrC catalogue (probably a new collection too) - I can then share to Lightroom Cloud (said collection) . I don't want every random shot in my LrC catalogue, hence the use of Bridge.

To clarify, can Lightroom CC see keywords (and changes) from Bridge?

My understanding is that keywords can always be passed between all three (LrC, LC, Bridge) because they're stored in the image metadata, but collections from any of the three cannot?

By the way, is Adobe Camera Raw work/settings shared between the three? Might start using that soon so curious.

Thanks for providing insight into your workflow and uses!

Yes, you are correct; if an image already resides in LRC, you cannot re-import it. I was incorrect; writing in a hurry is never good.

OK, now I understand what you're doing and why. I wish you had started with your goals. But let me point out a different pathway: just stay in LRC. If you take 5 minutes to cull through 50 images, add keywords, etc., in Bridge, and then import the images into LRC, how different do you think it would be to import them first into LRC, cull them, provide keywords, and be done?

I've known people who try to do this culling outside of LRC and end up with duplicate images on their hard drive (but only one in LRC) which wastes space. The whole thing becomes a complicated logistical mess. If LRC is going to be your final destination. you probably will be better off just starting there.

BTW, I believe I said earlier that any enhancements you make in ACR, LRD, LRW, or LRC, are all read by the other applications. However, in LRC, you must turn on that Catalog setting I mentioned earlier. This always places any adjustments into your raw, tif, or jpg image (or updated adjustments). Otherwise, the adjustments only live in the catalog.

Glad to help.

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