Missing files and sync issues after Importing from Previous Catalog

[ThierryH]

Hi,

After having issues with all the new features of LrC v.14.4 and bringing that to the Community, some suggested me to create a new catalog and to import the previous catalog into it. After many attempts I figured out I only got a small part of the 70000+ pictures and empty collections. Result: I had to import the previous catalog twice to get all of the pictures and collections with their History. 

See [V. 14.4 Denoise doesn't work (error)] for more on this.

Now both the new Denoise AI and Distraction Removal (Reflections/People) now work as expected..

Note: the new catalog had a different name and path from the previous when I created it.

I got in trouble again when I started Synchronizing LrC with the Lr ecosystem.

First Lightroom Classic downloaded everything from the web, taking days (and that is not yet finished). The "From Lightroom" collection exploded. I had 5 sync errors in LrC which I deleted. I noticed my collections were not in "Sync" status. So I activated sync for all collections I share with Lr Mobile and Portfolio. I unsynced all within From Lightroom, but that didn't stop downloading. 2 days ago I chatted with an Adobe consultant, who said I had to wait for it to be processed, but yesterday I still had the same number of files (2701) to be processed.

I also noticed that I now had pictures  (CR2, CR3, TIF, DNG, JPG and XMP) that were missing in LrC, and I found many of them in the Pictures\Lightroom sync folder. I can't explain what they were doing there, as these are all from totally different places. I moved some of them back to their original folder, but that didn't help. Today I can't find these full sized originals. "All sync errors" give 47 files that are missing.

All this behavior is nowhere to be seen in the documentation. Can someone explain what happened? What should I do? Where should I find them? 

Note: Lr Mobile should not have Auto Add from Device wide open by default.

Windows 11 Pro v. 23H2 on ConceptD Intel Core i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz

[GoldingD]

MS OneDrive is perhaps messing you up. There are many discussions about LrC and OneDrive. Many of us find it best to avoid associating our catalogs with OneDrive. It just screams for trouble. It is highly likely that the folder you place your catalog in is one that gets automatically synced to OneDrive. Blame this on MS for insisting that Windows users login using MS accounts instead of local, and treating OneDrive as the best thing since sliced bread (White bread, not so great). Most members do not intentionally place their catalog in OneDrive, that is, they do not actually run the catalog from OneDrive, or any other Cloud or Network Share, but instead just accidentally, no fault on their own (read bad bad MS) .

To stop this connection between the catalog and OneDrive, you could create a folder that is not associated with OneDrive, and move your catalog to it, or you could manage your OneDrive and disassociate the catalog (or more likely the folder) from OneDrive.

Some think that OneDrive is a great place to backup to, but how much OneDrive space do you have??? And if you do want to do that, then sure, copy or backup your catalog, but do not auto sync.

A consideration considering LrC catalogs and auto sync to OneDrive. Each and every edit, each and every mod, heck if you even look cross at your catalog, results in a sync to OneDrive. This can get very very chatty across your Internet access. Apparently LrC does not exactly like such busy talking back and forth. Performance can degrade, and catalogs can (rarely) get corrupted.

[ThierryH]

Hi @GoldingD and thank you for your feedback.

My complete catalog files and all original pictures are on an external 4TB SSD and are never moved outside of LrC once they are imported, so I don't understand how they could have been deleted. They are not linked to OneDrive in any way. They are weekly backed up to an external drive. That synchronization has never failed before. Yet my lost pictures are not on the backup disk anymore.

Initially, the LrC synched images location was unspecified at first, which is Windows' Pictures\Lightroom folder. My OneDrive is 1TB, so it has never been a problem before. The Adobe Consultant changed that to the "Desktop" folder, also part of OneDrive, even forgetting a "\Lightroom" subfolder. This made my desktop being quickly overpopulated with previews and other sync files.

As soon as I saw that, I decided to connect a blank 1TB SSD drive, hoping for speed and efficiency. I changed the sync to this drive's \Lightroom. I moved all the existing sync files to that folder.

What are the file sizes of the synced pictures? Are they the size of the (Smart) Previews? Do they have the same file extensions (CR2, CR3, NEF, JPG...) as the originals?

I might have changed the previews from 1:1 to standard previews to save time in the last days.

Note: Since the v. 14.4 update and with the new catalog, I get a corrupt catalog every 2-3 days, which gets repaired, but still not a great perspective.

[ThierryH]

Hi, I found, copied and re-imported most missing pictires from LrC's Sync Issue list. Lightroom Web's Sync Issue list has 0 pictures.  What should I do with LrC's 47 Sync Issues? 
I also disabled the Auto Add feature in Lightroom for mobile.

I have 2 "Lightroom" folders with resp. 2332 and 1877 synched pictures. Many pictures – even those that started in Lightroom Classic – still sync back to LrC. Can I delete the older of the 2 "Lightroom" folders?

[ThierryH]

Hi @GoldingD,

I found out that the endless 2000+ syncing in progress and the 47 LrC sync issues all had to do with the older sync on the c: drive. I backed it up and then deleted it. That solved both these issues: LrC is synced.
I noticed many pictures with conflicts: I chose keeping (LrC) over importing (from XMP), but both should contain LrC edits anyway...

We are one day later and all of my pictures have a totally empty History state. What now?

[ThierryH · Accepted solution]

I had to remove all the pictures from LrC with an empty edit history and did browse to locate the missing ones. Then I (re)imported the pictures that got lost by LrC. For those pictures with conflicts I (again) chose keeping (LrC) over importing (from XMP).

I'm still not sure if I handled correctly, but I have no more sync issues and will keep using 14.3.1 for a while until I can trust LrC enough to update again.

Is there more information about beyond the basics sync rules and issues?

E.g. I get "From Lightroom" edits for LrC pictures that didn't get edited in the cloud/Lr ecosystem. How should I handle or avoid these?

Best regards,

ThierryH

Windows 11 Pro 23H2, LrC 13.3.1 (again), CR 17.3.1, Lr Desktop 8.4