A recent update (12.1?) breaks ability to store images on network drives

[Paul2780122355wy]

I have been using Lightroom (on Windows) since 5.x... probably 8 years or so. I use an Ubuntu file server with a RAID 5 array to store my images. Lightroom itself, and its catalog, are local on my Windows 10 laptop. The laptop has a 1000BaseT wired connection via its docking station. The file server is also 1000BaseT to the same switch. The file server shares the storage over SMB (Windows file shares).

Something in the last update to Lightroom Classic broke this. It was fine in 5.x, 6.x, and Classic through 12.0.

Now, I can still open and edit files from the file server, but, if I try to synchronize a folder, Lightroom will crash (screen goes grey, and, eventually, a popup shows up saying that the app has become unresponsive). Checking in Task Manager shows lightroom.exe pegging a couple of threads and leaking memory. After about 30 minutes, the process had allocated over 11GB of memory.

Process monitor shows a lot of looping between reading the adobedesktopservice.xml, accessing the RTCommon.db, and calls to AdobeIPCBroker.

This is a synch step which, previous to 12.1, took a few seconds.

Sometimes it hangs before bringing up the synchronization page. Usually it hangs after bringing up the page, but without displaying any images. A couple of times it brought up a partial preview of images (10 or so).

Any ideas on a way to make this work again? I think it's a shared component that was updated by 12.1, because switching back to 12.0 did not revert the behavior.

I have an open case with Lightroom support, but they have suggested that I should not use network storage for image files, and should instead manually copy files to my laptop before importing them, and then copy them back to the network when I'm done editing them. That is not an acceptable solution for me.

Thanks,
Paul

[Paul2780122355wy]

I use LRC on a Windows 10 Dell laptop with image files stored in folders on an Ubuntu file server and shared using SMB (Windows network mapped drives). The laptop and file server are connected by wired Ethernet at 1000BaseT through a shared switch. The catalog is local on the laptop. I've been running Lightroom this way in various versions since 5.x - probably about 9 years.

Recently, starting with the 12.1 update, Synchronize Folder stopped working for me. It would hang a little ways into the synch process (maybe on the import screen, sometimes before the import screen), and turn the UI grey. Eventually, there would be an "application not responding" popup. If left to run, rather than being killed, the Lightroom.exe process would continue consuming memory until the whole system was out of memory and the app crashed.

Further experimentation showed that local directories on the laptop would synchronize fine. Adobe support suggested that I should manually copy directories from the file server to the laptop to edit images, and then manually copy them back to the file server when I was done.

Long story short, I found that Import works just fine for those network directories. It even has one benefit, which is that it remembers the last state of the Include Sub-directories option (I always had to clear that when using Synchronize Folder). It's a bit annoying, and something of a habit to change, but this work around will work for me until (if) Adobe fixes the issue.

BTW, I posted about this yesterday, but my post was removed as spam with no explanation. Maybe the admin was annoyed that I listed it as a bug?

[GoldingD]

Admin

Can you, if possible, remove the extra post/reply that occurred (possibly a community page hiccup) I notice that the author is new hence probably not allowed to edit just yet.

Author

"Ubuntu file server"

Have you looked at support pages for Ubuntu for this problem? 

While you have used a server share in the past for storing your photos (not the catalog fortunately) and while Adobe sort of supports that for the photos (not the catalog) at least if smart previews are in use (Adobe a bit not clear on this) the placing the photos on a share can be problematic. For catalogs (yes I know, not on the server) the issue is support on the server, NAS, or Cloud, support for SQLite. Not sure what goes wrong for just photos. Mind you, for just photos on a share, the problem is usually LrC missing the photos (annoying, but fixable)

While on the Adobe pages about catalogs, they appear to support photos on shares, many members will state, No No No, not supported. And you stated, actual Adobe support star stated Do not do that. Probably because many users eventually run into problems.

Inquiry, a Network Server share, why not a external hard drive? Could be a nice unit with RAID connected via USB.

[Paul2780122355wy]

I do not seem to have the option to edit these posts. Note that the second one is not a complete duplicate - it includes the work around of using Import instead of Synchronize Folder.

"Ubuntu file server"

Have you looked at support pages for Ubuntu for this problem? 

You realize you are asking me to Google the very specific "Adobe Lightroom Synchronize Folder feature hangs when files are stored on an Ubuntu server and shared with SMB"?

All other activities work fine with the file store: copying entire directories back and forth, editing, exporting, importing... 

Anyway, I tried this in Google: "lightroom" "synchronize folder" hangs ubuntu smb

Got no hits, but one close-ish hit about someone seeing significantly exaggerated numbers of missing photos when trying to Synchronize Folder with a folder stored on an AFP NAS.

[Paul2780122355wy]

Why not an external hard drive over USB?

Well, for one, because I already have my Ubuntu server and its RAID. For another, because that would make it harder to access the shared image files, and impossible when my laptop isn't in its docking station.