Lightroom Classic Missing Some Syncs from LR Mobile

[ZaneShepherd]

I have experienced instances with four albums now where some actions done to pics in LR Mobile on my iPad are not fully synced back to Lightroom Classic.  Here's the workflow and what has happened:

1) Pics initially imported from D850 to Lightroom Classic.

2) Collections created in LR Classic and set to sync to Lightroom.

3) Albums with all pics appear on iPad in LR as they should (as well as iPhone, cloud etc.).

4) Albums are reviewed on iPad with certain pics flagged and/or star rated.

5) LR iPad, LR iPhone, LR desktop (not Classic, the other one) and lightroom.adobe.com are all perfectly in sync right down to the pick, ratings, etc.

5) The problem is that some of the flags and ratings changes properly sync back to Classic and some do not.  I can't really see a pattern.  Edits however done in LR mobile appear to sync but I only tested a few.

This is a huge problem because now Classic is out of sync with the client's selection made on the iPad.  I do this a lot and have never had this problem until a week or so ago.

Is this a new known issue?  How can it be fixed/re-synced?

[ZaneShepherd]

Excellent feedback.  Thanks @cmgap.  Now maybe we are seeing a pattern!

[ZaneShepherd]

The problem is clearly back with a vengeance.  I'm having more problems than ever.  It seems like it went a couple of months with no issues.  Now I'm missing half or more of the flagged photos.  Adobe, do something!!!!

[Luc Brentener]

Hello !

The same is happening here. I have 264 flagged photos in one collection on my idevices (iphone and ipad) and only 207 flagged in LrC. I have tried to rebuild the sync in LrC. But until now no change. The number of flagged items on lightroom.adobe.com is the same as on the devices. LrC seems to have a real bug. 

[ZaneShepherd]

Thanks Luc for chiming in.  Yes, this is the same behavior I have been experiencing.  I thought it was solved until a a couple of weeks ago when it returned.  Prior to that, it was solid and I was beginning to think Adobe had fixed it.

I have given up any actions to rebuild the sync.  Nothing seems to work.  For the time being, I have reverted to all flagging and rating in LRC.  It's just too much work to go back and fix manually.

Adobe, can you please respond and let us know if this is a known issue?  Well, it clearly is since a number of users have responded to this thread alone.  Most importantly, what is the issue and what does Adobe intend to do about it?

[Luc Brentener]

I have just noticed something weird. This morning, I rebuilt the sync in LrC. The problem was still there after finishing the rebuild. I had left opened Lr on the iPad for an hour. Afterwards I turned it off. This evening, I checked again LrC on my MacBook Pro and noticed that all the flagged photos had been synced to LrC. It seems that the syncing works, but it takes a huge amount of time to finish. I have no idea why ! 

[ZaneShepherd]

Good to know!  I'll keep an eye on that.  Now I know that one of the last occurences had overnight to sync and it did not.  Will just have to keep monitoring I suppose.

[todds21989058]

I'm having the exact same problem. Such a bummer because I want to be able to cull and edit on iPad, and have all changes sync to Lightroom Classic. 

Really hope this can be fixed soon or i'm going to have to completely change my workflow to avoid using mobile Adobe apps.

[Roland6C1B]

Same problem as all the other users. I have a synced collection with 294 flags in LR and only 153 flags in LRC. In the succesive collection everything is fine and all images with a flag are synced. I have to try to rebuild the sync now and to hope that after that all is synced.

[enamic5]

Hello.
I just encountered the same issue. Did the ratings on the iPad, went back to Classic on my iMac, and a lot of ratings did not sync... The weird thing was, they also did not sync and edits now, when I tested them. So unsynced photos, quick edit on iPad, did not sync back to iMac. Edit on the iMac synced back to mobile.

So - that is clearly a bug.

One thing that worked better for me – Tutning the iMac Lightroom classic off. That way, all mobile syncs will sync in one go, when I relaunch Classic, and it does a full sync. 
So - not sure if the closing of the desktop application is the solution, avoiding bitty incremental syncs. 

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I am unable to reproduce this with Lightroom Classic 10.4 and Lightroom mobile 6.4

I have a collection of ~600 images of mixed star ratings. 

• On Classic set all to 5 stars.
• Wait ~ 1 minute
• All Items on iPad are 5 Stars

• on iPad set 50 images to 4 stars
• Wait ~ 1 minute
• All 50 images are changed to 4 stars

• In LrC set Flags on 50 images to No Flag
• Wait ~ 1 Miniute 
• on iPad all Flags set to No Flag

• on Lr Mobile iPad set 25 Flags to Flagged
• Wait ~ 1 Minute
• on Lightroom Classic 25 images show Flagged

If someone could supply bonafide repeatable detailed steps to induce the behavior, I would be happy to test again.  At this time, I cannot reproduce any failure. 

[ZaneShepherd]

Rikk,

Thanks very much for setting up the detailed scenarios in an attempt to recreate the issue(s) a number of us have reported.  Of the scenarios you set up, the one I have had the problems with seems to the last one with flags being set in Lr Mobile iPad that do not make it 100% to Lr Classic.

These types of problems are the most difficult to solve because I went through a stretch prior to a few weeks ago where my experience was back to 100% successful as you experienced with your test.  The failure is clearly inconsistent and none of us know when or why a sync may not work.

I do have a follow up question regarding your test.  Is Lr Classic up and running during the test as you are making the changes on the mobile platforms or is it closed and then you reopen it so that all of the sync's come through and update Classic at once?

Thanks very much for looking into this.  I will clearly document my next sync session in an attempt to construct something as you requested.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

" Is Lr Classic up and running during the test as you are making the changes on the mobile platforms or is it closed "

Classic is open pretty much 24/7 on my production system

[Nichole5D09]

For me, the glitch is totally inconsistent. Anything I do in LrC always syncs over to my Lr on my iPad, but not vice versa.

Someone mentioned here that they had success making sure LrC was closed on their desktop while they worked on their iPad. I tried that last week, did all my flags on my iPad for two galleries (about 400 photos each) and then I came to my desktop, opened LrC, and everything synced perfectly. I thought maybe this would fix the problem.

Unfortunately, I just did the same thing today, but a handful of flags didn't sync back to LrC. On my iPad (where I did the flags) I have 133 picked flags of a gallery of 466. But on my LrC on desktop, there are only 94 picked flags. So 39 flagged photos didn't sync. I can see that the first 17 images of the gallery that I either flagged or unflagged didn't sync back at all. Now I have the giant headache of searching through and finding the remaining 22 images. They're often chunked, but never in any pattern.

This has also happened with another collection that worked on this morning and it's driving me crazy and making double the work. It's unpredictable.

I've had the same issues with my LrC being opened and running the entire time.... it doesn't seem to matter.

[ZaneShepherd]

You describe perfectly what I have experienced as well.  With all the reports of this I'm not sure how it cannot be a known issue.  Adobe employee Rikk Flohr in the thread was kind enought to perform some testing but could not recreate the problem.  I've abandoned my iPad steps for now for the reasons you mention.  Once it gets out of sync, it takes way too much time to reconcile and fix.  When I'm not in a production mode, I'll try my own testing.  This is going to be very hard for us to diagnose.  I've not yet discovered a pattern that could be recreated and sent to Adobe.  I think we're going to need more help from Adobe on this.

[workshop22]

This unfornately is still happening and lately, it's been too much of a pain to re-sync and wait for that entire process to finish. I've since been doing a new workflow where I still cull my images the way I always have. Having both Lightroom CC and Classic installed on my desktop, I'll open both side by side and set my filter on both, whether stars or flags. I'll make a major adjustment to the entire set of images in Classic like turn them black & white and then review which images didn't sync over based on what Lightroom CC is showing vs Lightroom Classic (Lightroom CC is always synced correctly but Classic never is). In the Classic catalog view, I have filenames turned on and for each image in CC that doesn't have the black & white applied to it (the images that didn't sync correctly), using the CC info bar, I find the filename, go back to Classic and then flag that image. It's a pain for sure but the easiest way I've found to get all of the remaining random images flagged in Classic. This process takes me 5 to 10 mins so I'm ok with that I guess until Adobe fixes this problem.

[ZaneShepherd]

Thanks very much for sharing.  The more info we can put out there the more it will hopefully help Adobe find the problem!

[harryg89074945]

Exactly the same problem experienced. 

[ZaneShepherd]

Thanks for sharing.  I did try it again a couple of days ago and had problems as well so the issue is clearly continuing.  I have discontinued using this process until something definitive is received from Adobe.

[Nichole5D09]

Still having issues. I have a gallery with 309 images. I have flagged 80 and edited those 80 on my iPad with Lr. It says it has synced on my iPad. Back on my desktop in LrC, only 54 of those have synced... so 26 edits have not gone through, plus some rejected photo flags that didn't show up on LrC.

BUT... this time, I clicked on the little sync cloud in LrC that shows it's currently syncing. It has been stuck for the past 2 hours saying that it is syncing 22 photos. Those are all from this gallery, but they already show up as synced in LrC. So there are still 26 other images that I need my edits for that are not going through because it seems stuck on 22 images that seem to have already synced.

So, I shut down LrC and restarted. It now says that it is synced but those 26+ images are still not showing any edits in LrC.

Anyone else notice this or have a solution to this? I'm afraid to delete all the synced data as I just spent an hour editing (I don't know why I keep doing it this way) and don't want to lose those edits.

[Nichole5D09]

WAIT!! I THINK I FOUND A FIX!!!!!!!

If your images are stuck syncing or didn't show up, in LrC:

> Click on the cloud in the upper right hand corner where it shows the syncing data.

> Click on the gear for settings (you can probably also get here using settings).

> Hold down Alt/Option and you'll see a "Rebuild Sync Data" button appear. Click it.

When I did this, it restarted LrC. When it restarted, the syncing was paused (the cloud in the upper right hand corner) so I restarted the syncing.

It took a few minutes (not too long as I only have about 2,000 images synced right now) BUT IT WORKED!!!!!! My missing images are there!!!

[ZaneShepherd]

Excellent suggestion.  I was not aware of that function.  I will give that a try.  I had basically quit using my iPad for flagging because of this problem.  I'll try some soon and report back.  Thanks for this!!!!

[cmgap]

This is also available in your preferences under the sync tab. Hold down the option key and you will see the rebuild sync option. 

[Jeffrey Mayfield]

I have had this problem for a few months. The rrbuild of sync does not solve the problem. 

1) I load photos in LRC on my PC (this time 543 pics)

2) I cull them on the ipad pro (flag by favs - this time 173)

3) when I go back to LRC - only some (this time LRC only has 85 of 173 flagged)

4) When I check cloud through adobe - it agrees with ipad 

My workflow is has been to go back to LRC (assuming sync correct) and delete the unflagged pics - but cannot without re-culling on PC. Is there another workflow I should consider in LRC remains unreliable?

[ZaneShepherd]

@Jeffrey Mayfield you have perfectly described the problem I am still having and have been experiencing for almost a year.  There was a period of time a few months ago where things were working fine again.  I got a little adventurous and went back to my old workflow last week which is exactly what you describe.  Import to LRC, sync to a collection, do flags, ratings and cropping on the iPad Pro.  Return to LRC and only a portion of the edits made it back.  Also noting, as you mentioned, that LR mobile and LR desktop are perfectly in sync with the LR iPad.  All of which are now out of sync with LRC which is where I do the post processing heavy lifting.  Ugh.  

Now what I noticed that was different this time and even worse, was that for the first time edits made in LRC did not seem to make it to the cloud and thus to LR iPad, iPhone, etc.  Now everything is really a mess.  I manually went back to LRC and duplicated the missing flags and then did Rebuild Sync Data in Preferences twice.  After that, everything seems to be back in sync but largely due to the manual effort.

So, I'm back to doing everything in LRC which is tragic.  I'm a sports photographer and a high school game could be 2K pics to go through for flagging.  I can fly through that on the iPad laying comfortably in bed after getting home from the game.  Such a shame.

Somewhere earlier in this thread a helpful Adobe team member conducted a bench trial noting every step.  It worked perfectly for him.  Unfortunately, there's untold hundreds maybe thousands of us that it is not working for.  Adobe, I will gladly work with your tech's to diagnose and trace this.  We have this amazing ecosystem of products that unfortunately have a major flaw that is rendering them quite ineffective.  Adobe help!!!!!!!

So, to answer your question @Jeffrey Mayfield the unfortunate answser from my standpoint is that it all has to be done in LRC on the desktop until they fix this.

[sunnyraini]

I'm also experiencing this exact issue... I'm new to using an iPad pro to cull so this was my first time sync'ing back to the LrC and had the issue of some star ratings not syncing. It says all up to date + sync'd (with no errors) but I can see that there are star ratings missing. Restarting LR doesn't seem to encourage further sync'ing but I did notice that occasionally it would pop up saying XX photos being sync'd even though it had said it was already completed (having made no further changes on the iPad). It did make me wonder if it will just slowly be filtering all the sync changes through eventually. Which isn't very practical!

Currently rebuilding sync to see if this fixes the problem...

(I'm not really adding much to the discussion but I am just popping this down here to keep this discussion bumped and hopefully Adobe will take this seriously and investigate this bug further.)