Lightroom 6

[ronaldr62482060]

I have been a Lightroom user beginning with the first version.  Although earlier versions have had their glitches, they have worked reasonably well.  LR6 has been a nightmare.  I have lost pictures, it won't read my external hard drive where all my pictures are stored and the "Find Pictures" app is useless.  I have uninstalled the program and reinstalled it three times.  I've also had problems with print settings.  These problems seemed to start around the time Adobe was trying to get people to switch over to their cloud service. Cloud storage is not an economical option for me because I have approximately 65,000 pictures.  I believe Adobe is trying to force people to subscribe to their cloud service.  It had been a good run with Adobe but now I am sick of them and am looking for a development program that will sync to my LR files.

[ronaldr62482060]

Thanks for all the ratings.  My post was not exactly a compliment or endorsement for Adobe products.  Maybe if you actually had a person reading it rather than a machine, you would have gotten it.

[JP Hess]

I believe you have a misconception regarding Lightroom and the cloud service. Yes, Lightroom is now a subscription program. The photography plan, which includes Lightroom Classic, Lightroom (the cloud version) and Photoshop costs $9.99/month in the US. Lightroom Classic works very similar to Lightroom 6 in that it utilizes a local catalog, stores images locally on your hard drive, functions very much the way you are accustomed to using Lightroom. It has many new features that Lightroom 6 does not have and will never have. Lightroom, the cloud version, is optional. It stores your master images in the cloud if you choose to use that version. The choice is completely yours. If you have made your mind that you are going to look elsewhere for other software, then that is your choice. Lightroom Classic is my choice. It performs to my satisfaction on my Windows 10 computer. However, if you feel that you need something completely different then the world is wide open for you to choose what ever you want to switch to. If you want to use Lightroom Classic it will function very much the way you have been accustomed to using Lightroom 6. Adobe simply uses the cloud as the delivery system to keep the program updated periodically.

[ronaldr62482060]

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post, Jim.  The information you provided is helpful and gives me another perspective to pursue.  

[DS256]

It sounds like you have a number of issues.

• What is your computer configuration? If it's an older model, you may not be able to upgrade if you desire.
• "...it won't read my external hard drive..." Depending on your OS, check to make your you can access the drive outside of LR. Also check that the drive letter (Windows) or volume (MAC) are the ones that are referenced inside LR. You also didn't mention if the photos have just completely disappeared, which would require some action on your part, of if the are just showing as a lost link (!).
• "... the "Find Pictures" app is useless" Not sure where you are trying to find your pictures from. Best is to go to Library, Grid View, to expose the Library Filter tool bar at the top. What problems are you experiencing?
• "I've also had problems with print settings." Printing is a multi-step process. Check out this article and see if that helps.
• "Adobe was trying to get people to switch over to their cloud service" I use the new Lightroom Classic which works with local pictures and not those stored in the cloud.  I have 20GB of cloud storage I never use because I don't use the 'cloudy' version of Lightroom or any mobile apps.  I have installed Photoshop to use with Ligntroom Classic. I don't think Adobe is trying to make people move to the cloud. Classic still has more features than 'cloudy'. 
• "It had been a good run with Adobe but now I am sick of them and am looking for a development program that will sync to my LR files" Sorry to hear that. I was a happy LR6 user and am now a happy LR Classic user. It sounds like the problems you are experiencing can be overcome. If you are looking to move to a different platfrom, check to see if you need to have your edit information in a XMP sidecar file. This is a setting in preferences and applies to RAW files.

Good luck

[JP Hess]

"Adobe was trying to get people to switch over to their cloud service." Some users really like the new version of Lightroom. It is streamlined and meets all of their needs. For many of us Lightroom Classic is still the version of choice. But Lightroom Classic still enables the user to share collections of smart previews with the cloud. And the nice thing about sharing smart collections is that they do not impact the 20 GB allotment that is provided in the photography package. In other words, it is possible to share hundreds of collections of images without ever using up that 20 GB of cloud space. The only time that space is used is if you decide to also use Lightroom (the cloud version) and import master images directly to the cloud using that version.

Since you have been using Lightroom 6 and haven't had the opportunity to share images with the cloud, this whole concept is foreign to you and you probably won't understand it at this point. So don't worry about the concept. Just know that Lightroom Classic is what you would want to use it if you chose to subscribe.