Lightroom Sync Problems (for years)

[jennylens]

Lightroom Classic (desktop), always the latest version, Mac Catalina, OS 10.15.7. Maybe also High Sierra because I don’t remember what system nor LR version when I recorded this still existing issue in April 2018. Although problem existed for several years prior to recording. (I just compressed today using Handbrake, so might indicate Oct 2022 in Get Info.)

I keep files on two external drives, plus backup external drives and Backblaze.

1 -I start with Importing files.  I then use "Synchronize" to update contents of a folder.

Syncing should reflect an accurate count of every folder. It does not, as you can see in my video.

LR often indicates a number of files that need to be synced or imported. After I click to proceed, a little while later screen displays text there were no photos or videos to import. Or only imports a few images, not the many it displayed to be synced.

So why does it consistently indicate wrong info?

2 - WORSE: LR often indicates photos or clip art are missing. The user sees an image that indicates what the file looks like, but it we see a placeholder image, but I cannot work on the image because the actual image is missing. It's been deleted or moved.

3 - BUT IT IS RIGHT WHERE IT SHOULD BE! It's in the folder where the placeholder image is!!! I have NO idea how many existing images I've deleted because of this error!

Now that I realized it, I never ever let LR delete any placeholder images without first verifying they are missing.

4 - HOW many people have lost images using the sync to delete so-called “missing” images? HOW many have I lost before I realized what was happening??

5 - I’ve been using Adobe products since 1988! Illustrator, which I TAUGHT AT UCLA in 1990s. And using Photoshop since 1990 and also taught, but far more often than Illustrator. At colleges and major training centers.

Before we had the net last century, the best way to learn was to take classes. And I taught at most all sites in Southern California.

6 - Using Lightroom since purchasing version 3 or prior to Adobe Cloud. It’s BLOATED and SLOW. Who needs print, web, other services? Most use other products for those tasks.

Lightroom is Jack of All Trades and Master of NONE. Its greatest feature, LIBRARY, is slow slow slow because program bloated with extra features!

7 - I'm not a newbie. But I use certain features repeatedly and ignore others. So I'm not a "pro" like top landscape photographers who use luminosity masks and features like that.

I rely on Photoshop to color correct scans, crop and more of my classic, published, exhibited rock n roll photos. In the Grammy Museum, Rock Hall of Fame, Smithsonian and my biggest honor, Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. And more. Collected by fans and performers and more.

AND I use Lightroom almost DAILY to look at, sort, edit, and more while dealing with thousands of images. You can see some in my vid.

I find my images in Lightroom, open in Photoshop, and then make art. And many of the videos on my dreamingbig.rocks site were made in Photoshop.

All images on my site I created (except for vids wherein I'm interviewed at Shep Fairey's gallery, where I was only woman included in the show or speaking at LA Library). I rely on Photoshop and Lightroom: dreamingbig.rocks and punkpioneers.com. Plus tons more images using Photoshop’s fine features (and some LR Develop presets/adjustments) but not yet posted.

ANYONE FROM ADOBE PAYING ATTENTION? DO THEY CARE??? ANYONE want to fix this? ANYONE?

Thanks in advance. Jenny Lens, MFA, most published early punk rock photographer, first gen, west coast, 1976-80. Patti Smith called me “the girl with the camera eye,” live from the Roxy stage in West Hollywood.

I could get up close and personal with many now famous rock bands and others. Great fun times! I just want to share my photos and stories to bring joy to people. Keep on rocking!

[CumberLinda]

For question #1, the number you see in the Synchronize dialog box includes files that are not in the catalog in that folder, but some of them may already be in the catalog in some other folder. So if you have the Don't Imported Suspected Duplicates box checked on your Import page, the count of images imported during synchronization gets reduced by the number of those duplicates, sometimes down to zero. And I never check the box for "Remove missing photos from catalog". I want a chance to relink them.

[jennylens]

Thank you. But I don't have the "Don't Import Suspect Duplicates" checked because I DO have duplicates because I don't use Virtual copies. 

Next, LR shows existing files as missing. I HAVE relinked them and THEY STILL show as missing. 

What about people who have not figured out LR is NOT accurate when indicating missing files. If people allow Sync to remove so-called missing files, they will lose valid images. THAT is the point.

AND the fact I have tried and tried to import so-called missing files and LR refuses to ever add them to my catalog. I have moved to other folders, restarted LR, tried many times over several months. Nothing works. I call that a bug.

Finally, did you look at my video? Did you see how the numbers changed all the time?

I am sorry to say your response does NOT address these ongoing issues. Not in a way I understand or helps. 

But thank you anyway.

I REALLY need and want to hear from actual Adobe Lightroom programmers. THEY understand the product better than any of us.