Dropbox, Synology Server, and Creative Cloud

[cainerd]

Hello LR Fam,

This will be my first post in the forum, so please bear with me

I've tried avoiding the pitfall of not reviewing previous threads, and I'm sure I've missed some really useful posts, yet I can't find a relevant answer to my situation.

Scenario:

• A library of 500 GB of Raw+JPG images for our small company.
• A mix of Studio and Lifestyle photos to be used on Instagram, and on our website and landing pages
• The current Lightroom Classic CC library keeps growing, and I only have 500 GB on my laptop.
• Multiple users should be able to access the photos
• We have a synology server, dropbox professional account, and a creative cloud account
• Currenlty, I upload photos, select the appropriate ones (i actually do this in "Photos" on my Mac as it seems more straight forward) and upload them to our office Synology server.
  • The server is synced automatically with Dropbox. We like to have a back up system in place

My goal:

1. To browse around the entire library, and to have the option to preview all photos easily, without having to download all of them to my computer, just the ones I'm interested in.
   1. Ideally keeping the edits downloaded on my computer for a few days or so
2. Find a way where I can easily share my edits with team members, and also allow them to edit
3. Back up my work along the way

Sorry if this is a very rudimentary question, as it feels as if it should easily work.

Many thanks for all your help,
Anders

[dj_paige]

The problem with using Lightroom Classic CC in this manner is that it is not designed to be a multi-user application. There are no easy simple workarounds that I know of that will allow other potential users to essentially use the same catalog that you are using. You probably need to search for DAM software that allows multiple users.

There is no problem with Lightroom using photos on a networked drive (unless the network itself is flaky, which does happen sometimes).

[cainerd]

@dj_paige - thanks for taking the time answering. Is there any DAM software you could recommend for this purpose? I've also seen a few pople suggesting to simply save the LR catalog file in the dropbox folder as an option. 

OK, so how about if we discount the opportunity of sharing photos to edit (I was hoping that this would be seamless in LR CC), and focus on the actual storage, which I'm now running out of. 

Currently, the set up using LR classic kind of requires me to have all photos either on my laptop downloaded (I can't use the dropbox smartsync) or to rely on an external hard drive. Seems like there should be an easier way to operate using the cloud without having to use all storage capacity on my laptop.

many thanks,
Anders

[dj_paige]

AS I have never used a multi-user DAM, I cannot recommend one. A list of DAM software is located at Best Digital Asset Management Software | 2019 Reviews of the Most Popular Systems​, again I can't say how complete or accurate the list is.

Lightroom does not "kind of require" you to have photos on laptop or external drive. There's no reason your photos can't be on a networked drive.

Seems like there should be an easier way to operate using the cloud without having to use all storage capacity on my laptop.

Well, no, storing photos in "the cloud" was never a design feature of Lightroom Classic CC (or its predecessors). If you want cloud storage of photos, there is the similarly named (but very different) Lightroom CC, which does allow you to store photos in "the cloud" and allows others to access these photos in "the cloud" as well.

[cainerd]

Yes, i think this is what I am looking for, to see how CC and Classic CC can function in synergy.

To be clear, it is not a speed issue in terms of connectivity, only issue is that if I rely on one LR catalog to capture all my photos, it requires me to DL all of them if I use DropBox, and if I use the home server, I cannot retrieve them while working out of my hot desk at the coworking space. So to summarize, would be great if there's a way to:

1) Use lightroom CC for storage and mapping of the library.

2) sync the CC with Classic, where I can select certain photos to edit and down load to my laptop. Any change would be still be saved in the CC and Classic libraries.

Many thanks for your patience and support.

[dj_paige]

I don't think "synergy" is a word used to describe how Lightroom CLassic CC and Lightroom CC work together.

Awkward is a better word to describe how Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC work together.

[cainerd]

Would the Bridge program be able to facilitate the "browsing" function that I am looking for on the Adobe cloud?

[Tony_See]

What is your connection speed like?

This can be an issue if large libraries are being updated, synced and shared . . .