Lightroom Classic stuck syncing after downloading photos added to Lightroom

[S.J.Stuart]

Hi,

For the 8th time in a row, I have a serious problem trying to sync my photos from Creative Cloud to my local backup using Lightroom Classic.

Let me explain my normal workflow:

• I pull the photos from my cameras' various SD cards into Albums I create on Lightroom CC (either on my MacBook Pro, or my iPad Mini, or my iPad Pro)
• I typically do most of my edits in Lightroom CC (or Lightroom for iPad) because I edit on the go, and automated sync between devices via Creative Cloud makes my life easier.
• Periodically, on my MacBook Pro, I will load Lightroom Classic and let it sync from the Creative Cloud to one of my SSDs on which I have a Sync'd Collection. This is not only for a local backup, but also to free up space in my Creative Cloud (I take a lot of images at extremely high resolutions, and 1TB of cloud storage only goes so far)

So, this is where I encounter problems.

The photos download from the Creative Cloud into Lightroom Classic, but then it starts showing many of those images (this time around, 60 of them) syncing for Upload and in the "Sync Details/Errors" column on the grid it shows me "Metadata" for all of them.

They will never stop. These 60 images will be stuck "Syncing" forever.

Now, when I load Lightroom for iPad or Lightroom CC on any of my other devices, and try to open one of the images that presently show as Syncing, it will tell me that I cannot edit the photo unless I reset it (losing all of my adjustments both global and local).

The only way to remove the images from the syncing list in Lightroom Classic is to reset all of the listed images, losing countless hours of my hard work.

I've already had to reimburse one of my clients because of this bug, which resulted in my losing 2 days of painstaking adjustments made the photos I produced for them. I now stand to lose another 60 images that I've spent 2 days perfecting.

Things I've tried to get this stupid program to "sync" these photos (even though the version in Creative Cloud is the LATEST version and there's NOTHING TO SYNC!!!)

• Changing image ratings and flags via Classic
• Creating an empty mask via Classic
• Creating a Duplicate (this doesn't work, it just shows the duplicate as stuck in the Syncing grid)

I need help, and time is critical here!

This is 60 images for a paying client that I have no control over!

I've attached a screenshot of hte Lightroom Sync tab showing the unmoving grid of images.

Remember: no local changes have been made to any of the images in this grid! They were literally just downloaded from Creative Cloud into my collection in Lightroom Classic!

[S.J.Stuart]

Just to add before time is wasted with pointless questions (for clarification - before I forget to add information that will waste my own time with questions that wouldn't need to be asked):

• I'm using the latest version of both Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic
• Lightroom for iPad is on the latest version on both of my iPads
• Both of my iPads are running the latest release version of iPad OS 17
• My MacBook Pro M1 Max is running Sonoma 14.2 and is also up-to-date
• The 4TB dedicated SSD I'm using is in tip-top working condition with no dead sectors or other issues (it is NOT a hardware problem)
• The 4TB dedicated SSD I'm using for my Lightroom Collection has more than 1TB of capacity available on it, so I'm not out of space
• The photos load in Lightroom Classic with all of my global + local adjustments just as they should, but any edits I make on them from Lightroom Classic will not sync to Lightroom CC or Lightroom for iPad (which all show that the image cannot be edited without first resetting it, losing all of my work)

[Keith Reeder]

At the risk of provoking your stern castigaton for asking another "pointless" question: could you get round to posting the content of Help > System Info..?

[S.J.Stuart]

Perhaps I used a poor choice of words, since it would appear my tone has been terribly misread. I was actually (paradoxically) attempting to be helpful by expressing that I've eliminated the most common self-diagnosis steps (outdated versions and the like). I'm not castigating anyone for asking a question, nor even stating that all questions would be "pointless", merely that it would be pointless to investigate things like outdated versions (as a suggestion given) since I've already eliminated them.

Sure, I can provide the output of "System Info":

Lightroom Classic version: 13.0.1 [ 202310121438-d2af310c ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-GB
Operating system: Mac OS 14
Version: 14.2.0 [23C5047e]
Application architecture: arm64
Logical processor count: 10
Processor speed: NA
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 2,692.3 MB (8.2%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 415,142.2 MB
Memory cache size: 169.9MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 16.0 [ 1677 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 286MB / 16383MB (1%)
Camera Raw real memory: 287MB / 32768MB (0%)
Standard Preview Size: 5120 pixels
Displays: 1) 4112x2658, 2) 5120x1440

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: Apple M1 Max
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Volumes/4TB-SSD/PHOTOGRAPHY/(LIGHTROOM CLASSIC)/Local Copy/Local Copy-v13.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/simonstuart/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Export LUT
4) Export to PanoramaStudio 3 Pro
5) Flickr
6) jf Metadata Viewer
7) Loupedeck2
8) Luminar AI
9) Luminar Neo
10) Nikon Tether Plugin
11) Smart Shooter 5
12) Wordroom - Auto-Keywording

Config.lua flags: None

[S.J.Stuart]

To @Rikk Flohr: Photography (whom modified the title of my post claiming that there's no such thing as "Adobe Lightroom CC", here's a screenshot of the Adobe folders created by Adobe Creative Cloud, showing very clearly "Adobe Lightroom CC"

[Keith Reeder]

Yeah - scoring cheap (and the very definition of "pointless") points is always a good way to eliict help.

"CC" is a legacy name - it's "Classic" now. There's no forum for CC, which is a clue:

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Lightroom last used the "CC" name in version 2.2.1 in 2019. The product dropped the “CC” from naming in May of that year. 
Internal folders, such as those you have screen-captured, may contain residual naming to ensure compatibility with machines where Lightroom Classic is also installed.

Searchability in the forum is greatly enhanced by using correct, current nomenclature - not only in proper forum placement but also in subject line structure. 

[S.J.Stuart]

I merely wanted to explain why I refer to it as "Lightroom CC" since this is the name by which it was known for quite some time, and may lead to insight from others whom know it still by that name with experience of a similar issue.

Text doesn't really adequately convey tonality, so I do hope that didn't come across as needlessly confrontational or negative.

[GoldingD]

I'm using the latest version of both Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic
Lightroom for iPad is on the latest version on both of my iPads

Speaking of pointless, that word 'Latest" it could be pointless. Always when posting include the actual version number(s). You would be amazed, some think Lr 6.14 is "Latest". Just humor us.

[S.J.Stuart]

I can, though it should be implicit that I have checked for updates prior to making that statement, with no new updates pending or available 😅

And for Lightroom Classic:

And, as I mentioned above... I've checked for updates across the board (Creative Cloud on the Mac, the App Store on both iPads, there are no pending updates)

[S.J.Stuart]

Additional plot twist, having left Lightroom Classic running over night on the extremely off chance that it may resolve its own issues, today I have found that Lightroom Classic decided to crash at some point.

I reload Lightroom Classic, and after around 3-4 minutes of running, it crashed once more.

The entire error log is attached

[GoldingD]

Can you kindly do us, and yourself a favor? Please edit your reply with that crash log, Remove the extremely long log and replace it with an attachment of the log. Yes, at least one member hates attachments and cannot or will not open them, but this is a case calling for an attachment as opposed to a copy/paste as to avoid long scrolls that may turn off some members, they might stop reading a post and move on.

This is actually mentioned in the Community Site Tips and Best Practices:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community-discussions/community-how-to-guide-tips-amp-best-...

[S.J.Stuart]

Done... when I initially posted it, I kind of expected there would be a "Read More" button and some truncation 

[KR Seals]

How many different cameras are you using?  Is there any commonality of the files that aren't syncing with camera type?

Do you always have a solid and fast WiFi internet connection? 

Are you able to see all the images you believe are uploading in Lightroom.adobe.com?

Are you able to see the changes you made on the MacBook in Lightroom Classic at Lightroom.adobe.com?

What do you mean by "extremely high resolution"? Are all the images involved "Extremely High Resolution"?

[S.J.Stuart]

I use a multitude of cameras, and there is zero pattern or commonality when it comes to which photos get stuck in this pseduo-uploading "sync" state immediately after being downloaded.

Sometimes it's photos from any number of my drones, sometimes from my Nikon or Sony cameras, and (at the moment) a combination of shots from the following cameras:

• Sony A7Cii
• Sony A7RV
• Sony A7IV
• Nikon D850
• Nikon D7200
• DJI Mini 4 Pro
• DJI Mavic 3 Cine
• DJI Inspire 3

The photos have nothing at all in common.

I'm actually using a rock solid ethernet connection in my office on the MacBook Pro, and my internet connection is 1gbps down, getting 500mbps up currently.

lightroom.adobe.com doesn't load at all for me (it just shows the 3 horizontal blobs pulsing, and sits there indefinitely) so I cannot answer those questions, sadly.

The images in question range from just 12mpix all the way up to around 1 gigapixel.

They are a combination of original camera raw images, and HDR-merged, panoramas, and even HDR panoramas... again, there's no discernable pattern here! It's a chaotic mix of image types, resolutions, file formats, and even capture dates (right now it's showing me images from April this year (which haven't been touched since April, mind you) included in the list of those stuck in the "uploading" sync state.

[GoldingD]

lightroom.adobe.com doesn't load at all for me (it just shows the 3 horizontal blobs pulsing, and sits there indefinitely) so I cannot answer those questions, sadly.

I would think, that issue is key to your problem and needs to be resolved.

You might want to skip over to the Lightroom Ecosystem (Cloud Based) community and search on that (lightroom.adobe.com will not open) Or perhaps use Google to search for that.

One search in the Lightroom Ecosystem (Cloud Based) community, brings up (for one):

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-discussions/i-can-t-open-lightroom-ad...

That one mentions three dots moving, and resolution was the anti virus.

[Jao vdL]

Agree with @GoldingD here. This is indicative of a networking configuration issue. This might be a misconfigured firewall or indeed some antivirus acting up. Also possible is that ipv6 is configured but not actually being routed correctly (common issue as ipv6 is hard even for the 'professionals' at your ISP). Turn of ipv6 at your router or on your machine to test this. Or it is a DNS server problem. Many ISPs nowadays hijack DNS in a way that breaks things so you're usually better off using 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 as your DNS server in your router settings. If you get a ISP page instead of a normal page not found error from your browser when you mistype an address this is your issue and you should switch DNS servers. 

[GoldingD]

hmm, at that reminds me of something to look at network wise. Are you using a proxy server?

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/proxy-authentication-support-creative-cloud.html

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-discussions/lightroom-cc-no-network-c...

[Cristiano33967416qjog]

hmm, at that reminds me of something to look at network wise. Are you using a proxy server?

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/proxy-authentication-support-creative-cloud.html

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-discussions/lightroom-cc-no-network-c...

By @GoldingD

[S.J.Stuart]

Some Updates...

Based on (much welcomed) feedback from several of you (again, thank you for taking the time) I was able to restore access to lightroom.adobe.com.

In that particular case, I found that my hardware firewall (through which my DNS requests are routed) had been updated (it's a "Managed Firewall") to include a whole bunch of new tracking and ad blocking lists, one of which resulted in a number of websites (including lightroom.adobe.com) failing to execute some scripts, therefore failing to load properly.

That matter is resolved.

However, this has not changed my situation regarding Lightroom Classic, which now not only fails to sync images (images, I should reiterate, that have not changed since they were uploaded to Creative Cloud via the NON-classic Lightroom version), but has decided to compound my problems by crashing almost as soon as the Sync process begins (after launching Lightroom).

So, today I have done a complete uninstall and reinstall of Lightroom (yes, restarting between as I've seen Adobe staff suggest in other threads). I have also fully reset the Preferences for Lightroom Classic, which is another suggestion I've seen Adobe staff suggest.

If I immediately hit "Pause Sync" the instant Lightroom Classic loads my Catalog, Lightroom Classic will sit happily and not crash at all.

Within 20 seconds of resuming Sync, it will crash.

Sync is completely broken, and even fully reinstalling Lightroom Classic doesn't fix it.

I welcome any troubleshooting suggestions people may have to offer. I've had to reimburse 2 clients, and am having to refuse additional work because I now cannot do my job.

[S.J.Stuart]

Additional bit of craziness that makes no sense.

When I look in Lightroom (the Creative Cloud version no longer known as CC, but formerly known as CC) I have REMOVED all but the most recent images that were still to be processed (I've literally removed everything else from "All Photos" up to the 12th of November this year).

However, now that I have access to lightroom.adobe.com, I can see photos that were REMOVED from my Creative Cloud storage via Lightroom (no longer known as CC but formerly known as CC) in 2018!

In fact, there are almost 1000 images sitting in lightroom.adobe.com that are completely not present in Lightroom (formerly known as CC but no longer known as CC) nor on Lightroom for iPad.

Worse: if I want to remove them via lightroom.adobe.com, I have to select all ~1000 of them one by one.

Why? Why are these images still there on lightroom.adobe.com but not on Lightroom (formerly known as Lightroom CC, no longer known as Lightroom CC)?

[S.J.Stuart]

And when I say "removed" (because I know someone will suggest it) I mean Permenantly Delete all.

[S.J.Stuart]

I've now removed these phantom photos (selecting all ~1000 of them one by one, of course)... Classic still crashes, Lightroom still stuck in "Syncing" state with no images showing under the filter for photos that are syncing.

[S.J.Stuart]

Another Update:

In the last two days, I've done some "persistent testing" with Lightroom Classic. I noticed that, each time I relaunch Classic after it crashes, the syncing numbers would change in the instant between syncing starting and it crashing once again.

After more than 50 relaunches (I lost count, honestly) I managed to get it into a state where it remains open.

I have now removed all of my collections from Sync up to the current "working sets" (collections containing photos for my incomplete client jobs), taking the number down from over 25,000 images in sync, to just 3,763.

Lightroom (formerly known as Lightroom CC) is now showing as fully-sync'd.

Classic, however, is showing an arbitrary number of photos syncing each time I reload it, and shows 12 images in error (but I cannot see the causes of these errors). All of the images showing as error are presently visible in Classic, Lightroom (formerly Lightroom CC), and on lightroom.adobe.com.

In summary: Classic is still stuck with an ever-changing number of images showing as syncing (all those without error showing "metadata" in the "Sync Details/Errors" column on the grid) and refuses to complete syncing. Classic, however, is no longer crashing mere seconds after Sync begins.

My problem remains very-much unresolved, and as yet I haven't receieved any actual support from Adobe for this SaaS suite for which I pay a considerable sum of money each year.

This leaves me to question the sense in continuing to pay for a subscription service that is all subscription but clearly no service.

[S.J.Stuart]

So, I have now accepted that there won't be any support from Adobe, and I won't be renewing my All Apps + 1TB Creative Cloud subscriptions.

That the only response from an Adobe employee was to point out that Lightroom CC is now just called Lightroom, well, frankly it's downright insulting for the price.

I'll take my business elsewhere.