Lightroom Classic v11.1 won't Sync with edits made on mobile

[DHPhotography]

I've been having an issue for some time now where the edits and picked images made in Lightroom on my iPhone refuse to sync back to Lightroom Classic on my computer so I can export them.  Every day that this problem continues just puts me another day behind schedule with delivering galleries to my clients.  I've searched multiple times for fixes and always see the same advice.  I already have my time (my most valuable asset) wrapped up in these edits, and I simply cannot afford to lose the work I've already put in. 

Please help me fix this issue, but also please understand that my technical knowledge in this area is very limited.

[KR Seals]

Has this ever worked properly for you before?

Is there a chance you are using multiple catalogs? If so, Lightroom Classic will only sync to one catalog. Re-syncing to a different catalog will cause all the previously synced images to be removed.

Also, In LrC preferences "Lightroom Sync" tab, have you designated a folder where the synced images will go?

[DHPhotography]

Thank you for the reply!

This workflow had worked flawlessly for me for years.  It's mostly within the last year and a half or so that I've run into these issues.  The issue started happening on my aging desktop PC, so I bought a new Dell XPS15 at the end of 2020 but didn't officially transfer my catalog from my desktop to my laptop until a few months ago (sometime around August, when my graphics card in my desktop finally died).  To my pleasant surprise, the transfer of the catalog went smoothly and I didn't lose any of my edits.  Life was great for a bit, but now this same problem has cropped up again.  I'm currently trying the trick I've read about where you delete the "sync.lrdata" file and have LrC resync.  I'm hoping this fixes the problem (the edits show up across all our my different mobile devices.  So I'm convinced the edits are in the cloud, but having trouble syncing from the cloud back to LrC.)  I started the sync last night, but I have over 500,000 images in my cataloge so it's taking some time (but getting close!!).  I'll be sure to come back and update when it's finished syncing.  But I'm also open to hear any other idea on how to keep this problem from happening again in the future.

[DHPhotography]

Sorry, I just realized that I didn't really answer your questions!

I do not believe I'm using more than one catalog.  Essentially I created a backup of my catalog from the desktop and opened it up on my laptop and then never turned my desktop back on.

I just checked about the folder for Synced images.  I do not have the box checked to specify a specific folder for the synced images.

[Theresa J]

After you get the sync process working I recommend moving the sync data (the downloaded images) to a new location. Preferably you would sync to an external hard drive. The default location puts everything in your pictures folder. Eventually that will fill up your startup drive.

[Carlo UK]

Same problem for me. I think its associated with updates of either Lightrrom, The mobile app or apple. I find I have to wait until the next update before it works. Went years with no problems now it seems to happen more and more regularly. No I havent changed workflow or any thing. It Adobe or Appple messing it up. 

[KR Seals]

@Carlo UK Your problem may be different. The original poster is using a Windows computer.

[DHPhotography]

Correct, I am on a Windows PC.  My catalog seems to have finally finished syncing and that did not fix my problem.  I then updated Lightroom on my Mobile device.  The cloud icon at top right of the screen said it was syncing for a long time.  But it too has finished syncing and my edits still have not synced to LrC. 

[Theresa J]

The problem is most likely coming from Lightroom on your phone, not your Classic catalog. To solve this problem you need to determine where the log jam is. Here are three things to check.

1. Tap on the cloud icon in Lightroom on the phone. What does it say? 
2. Log into Lightroom on the web and check to make sure nothing is missing. If you see generic icons for some images, that represents photos that never completely uploaded. There could be several reasons for this.
3. Check the cloud icon in Lightroom Classic. Does it show your catalog is synced?

[Carlo UK]

Well for me the "Lightroom on the web" sync perfectly with my phone so that is all good. My issue is it wont sync up from my mac to the web. Sits there trying to sync for ever. It was working but since updates its broken. I spent hours trying to repair it once then there was another update and it worked fine. I am sure loads of people has this issue as previously when I researched they did. I shall just wait until Adobe sorts it or someone has experienced and knows a work around. For now I export and then upload to social media. A bit of a pain but I just can spend days on it again.   I believe its an issue with lightroom connecting to the web as its related to the other issue which is common whereby Lightroom and Photoshop is so slow at starting up. Been going on for about 6 months.

Regards

[Carlo UK]

Okay I have sorted it. Firstly I deleted all recent sync photos as I suspect its a dodgy one causing all the issues. That didnt help and I wasnt prepared to delete them all but I am pretty sure a dodgy image has got LR sync stuck.

I then went to the LR prefernces and to the LR Sync preferences. Hold down the Alt key(iMac) to reveal secret options. I downloaded the "Generate diagnostic Report" and started looking in there as the error should be shown somewhere. I gave up as it was big and I wasnt prepared to spend ages on it. Hence I clicked the other option "Rebuild Syn Data" After which I had to restart LR and turn sync back on. It then resyned and after about 10mins all is good

Hope this help you guys also.

....For now anyway

[Theresa J]

@Carlo UK which Lr are you using on your iMac, Lightroom or Lightroom Classic. Glad you got it working just want your solution to be clear for others.

[Carlo UK]

LR Classic 11.1

[DHPhotography]

Thank you for your reply, sorry I'm just now seeing it buried under Carlo's conversation with you.. 

1)  The cloud icon on both my wife's iPhone 12 and my iPhone 13 says "Synced and Backed Up".  The edits and selections we make on one phone will also appear on the other phone.

2) Lightroom on the web seems to be synced up with no problems (although it's difficult to tell because I do not know how to sort by selected imaged on the web version of LR)

3) In Lightroom Classic it shows that everything is synced as far as I can tell.  It DOES say  "! Sync Error", but it has always displayed a handful of images that won't sync.  I have 153 images in my "All Sync Errors" section of my catalog.  None of which are the images in question.

Since my last visit to this post I managed to get the 3 portrait galleries that were giving me trouble to sync. These are the things I tried in chronological order:

1) The original selections and edits were made on my wife's iPhone 12.  I then pulled up the selected images on my iPhone 13 and gave them a 5 star rating to see if my phone would push the edits to LrC.  This did not resolve the problem.

2) I deleted the "sync.lrdata" file and had Lightroom resync all 530,602 images in my catalog.  After a full day of resyncing.  This did not resolve the problem.

3) I updated the Lightroom app on both iPhones.  This did not resolve the problem.

4) I restarted my computer.  The images finally synced up.

Now fast forward to today.  I've spent my day editing one of my weddings. And now THOSE edits will not sync back to LrC.  I restarted my computer, and when I opened up LrC I had a brief moment of optimism when I saw 100 images syncing to LrC.  Once those finished syncing...it did not resolve my problem. 

I have 156GB of free space on my computer, so it isn't that I don't have enough space.  Although I would like to put my synced images folder onto an external hard drive like you mentioned.  I'm just hesitant to do this until I can get things working again.

[Theresa J]

Do you still get sync errors in Classic? It sounds like the problem might be there. The number of images in the All Synced Photographs collection in the Catalog panel should match the total number of images in your Lightroom cloud, or what you see with the phones and Lightroom on the web.

When there is a sync issue with a few images it can cause a bottleneck for everything else.

[DHPhotography]

Yes, I have always received sync errors.  What do you recommend doing to unclog the bottleneck?

[DHPhotography]

I went ahead and removed all of the images in my "Sync Errors" folder of my catalog in hopes that it would unclog the bottleneck.  So far this has not resolved my problem. 

Any advice you could give is greatly appreciated.  As it is our business has come to a grinding halt.

[Theresa J]

How and where did you remove images from "sync errors"? Have you checked the mobile sync tab in the Classic preferences? Does it show images trying to sync? If so, post a screen capture of it.

Sometimes quitting and restarting Classic will jump start the sync.

[DHPhotography]

On the left side of my Library Panel there was a section labeled "Sync Errors" right below "All Photographs" and "All Synced Photographs"(if you notice in the screen shot there are 736 more images in the All Photographs folder than there are in the All Synced Photographs folder).  So I clicked on the Sync Errors section, highlighted all the images, then clicked on "All Photographs" and pressed the "Delete" Key to remove them from my Lightroom Catalog.

I don't see a "mobile sync tab" in prefrences.  I only see a tab labeled "Lightroom Sync".  When i open that menu, there is initially nothing in the "Sync Activity".  But if I leave the Lightroom Sync tab open long enough, eventually 4 things appear to be "Downloading".  I've tried clicking on the Asset Path to figure out what files those might be, but it just brings me to Lightroom's Web Editor displaying a blank screen.

I've closed Lightroom, restarted my computer and restarted everything dozens of times over the past few days.  It doesn't seem to fix the problem, at least not reliably.

I also took the step of deleting my sync file and resyncing my entire catalog again.  It went much faster this time, but still no luck with getting the edits to sync to LrC.

I also shot a maternity session yesterday that I then added to my LrC Catalog.  I've had Lightroom running for over 12 hours now and none of the 604 images from that session have synced.  My cloud icon on LrC displays the blue circular sync icon, but nothing is moving at this point.

[Theresa J]

It looks like Classic is trying to download images that no longer exist in the Lightroom cloud. Check your deleted folder in Lightroom and see if anything is there that shouldn't be. Look at all the photos in Lightroom (not Classic) and see if anything is missing a preview. Those represent missing images and can cause issues with the Classic sync. 

A couple of other observations that may help. First, you can rebuild your Classic sync by Alt-clicking in the preference Lightroom Sync panel. Next, it might help to start removing some images from the cloud. Do you really need your entire catalog synced? I only sync the images I want to share with others or edit on my iPad. Less than 10% of my entire catalog is currently synced.

[DHPhotography]

**UPDATE**

Since making this post I've found a few things that make this situation more manageable.

Firstly, I realized that I have to have all the hard drives connected for every image in my catalog.  So if there was an image in my catalog, but the hard drive was not plugged in, my syncing would get frozen.  I only have two USB drives, so I removed all the images from disconnected drives and the syncs are a lot more reliable.  My selections pretty much always go through.  The edits however....

Sometimes the edit doesn't seem to sync, but I noticed if I go into the develop module a "From LR Mobile" appears in my snapshots.  Clicking this sort of manually pushed the edit through.  It's still a tedious process when it happens but it is at least somewhat manageable now.

I hope that helps some of you out there!