Problems synching Lightroom mobile to Desktop

[Camila28832654vlfz]

Hello,

I have been using Lightroom mobile for severaly years, but now I have filled my 1TB space. I am therefore trying to synchronise 1TB of photos to my Mac's Lightroom CC.

I have the most recent Mac Book Pro, but this is increasing my memory use up to crazy level (>60GB!), and of course, Lightroom stops responding.

I am aware this is a huge amount of data to synchronise, but I don't know how to cut it into smaller chuncks.... I could for example synchronize collections 1 by 1 then delete them from Lightroom mobile, but I don't know how to do this.

Any help/suggestions would be welcome!

thanks!

[Jim Wilde]

The first thing you need to do is clarify what app you are meaning when you say "Lightroom CC". There hasn't been a "CC" used in any Lightroom name for several years, there is now Lightroom Classic (icon shows "LrC") and there is the cloud-centric desktop app called simply Lightroom (icon shows "Lr"). So which version are you referring to? It sounds like Lightroom Classic, but we need to be certain.

[Camila28832654vlfz]

Indeed, I'm trying to synchronise the photos on my Ipad (Lr) with those on my Mac Book Pro (LrC).

Sorry... all these different Lr names are a bit confusing! 😉

thanks!

[Jim Wilde]

OK, but syncing from the cloud to LrC means that you cannot "sync collections 1 by 1". When you enable syncing in LrC for the first time, a copy of all the original images in the cloud will automatically download into the LrC catalog and will be stored in the local hard drive location that you specified in the LrC Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab (if you did NOT change that location from the default, all those images will be stored in the Pictures folder on your Mac's system drive....which might not be ideal given the amount of space needed).

So the only option, if you want to continue with the LrC download method, is to let it continue until it's finished.

An alternative (but slower) method would be to export the images from the cloud to a local hard drive using the "Original + Settings" export option, which you subsequently can import into a new LrC catalog. The two advantages of this method are:

1. It does allow you to proceed 1 album (or folder) at a time. It's also a disadvantage as it's a slower process requiring more user intervention.

2. It allows you to retain all metadata that you might have added in Lightroom (the LrC download method would not download any keywords or location data if you had added any in Lightroom).

You mention that the download via LrC method is using >60GB of "memory"....is that system RAM, or do you mean local hard drive space? I've down that "download everything from the cloud into LrC" process myself (though only 600GB at the time) but I never noticed anthing major going on with the system RAM. But if you mean hard drive space, then obviously if you are downloading almost 1TB of data from the cloud you need an equivalent amount of free space on a local hard drive.

Have a think about what I've written, then let me know how you might like to proceed and I'll try to help as best I can.

[Camila28832654vlfz]

Hello!

Yes, sorry for not using the correct words (I understand more about photography than computers!!!). I did mean RAM indeed. 🙂

I may try the "slow but sure" solution, at least with a couple of very large collections, so that I free up space.

thanks a lot for the tip.

I will also check for updates.

thanks! 🙂 

[Camila28832654vlfz]

Follow up question: how can I store to an external drive from my Ipad's Lightroom Lr? 

I see the option "store locally", but I can't see how to choose the folder or make sure it takes original + settings...

thanks!

[Jim Wilde]

Follow up question: how can I store to an external drive from my Ipad's Lightroom Lr? 

I see the option "store locally", but I can't see how to choose the folder or make sure it takes original + settings...

thanks!

By @Camila28832654vlfz

It would be a lot easier if you use the Lightroom app on your desktop to do this. I guess it would be possible using the iPad as well, but using the desktop would be a lot quicker and easier to manage. Also, the "Export as Original" option on the iPad does NOT include the settings (edits, other metadata), to retain those you would have to use the Export as DNG option instead. The desktop app DOES include settings in the Export as Original option.

"Store Locally" isn't what you want to use....that's just a means of ensuring that you have an editable version of the files available on the mobile device when you are offline (i.e. store the album locally before setting off, and you can work with the files when travelling). However, they can only be stored inside the app space on the mobile device, and if you delete the images from the cloud, the locally stored copies are also deleted.

[Ian Lyons]

The excessive memory issue when syncing was addressed in a bug fix update (LrC 12.2.1) released last week. If you haven't already updated to same using the Creative Cloud App, then I recommend you do so.

[Ian Lyons]

Official announcement of 12.2.1 and issue it addressed is at https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lightroom-classic-12-2-1-now-available/...

[Jim Wilde]

My understanding is that the 12.2.1 update was to fix a Windows-only sync bug, Ian. The OP is using MacOS.

[Camila28832654vlfz]

I'll still check to see if there are any updates... just in case!

Thank you all for your kind answers! 🙂