• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Sync recovery after catalog corruption

Community Beginner ,
Jan 13, 2025 Jan 13, 2025

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I'm trying to be chilled here and not too critical of LrC.

 

I recently had to create a new catalog - long story short it got corrupted. After several rounds of creating a new catalog and then "Import from catalog" from the old catalog I am back up and running. However as much fun as that was over the last two weeks or so, not a lot can compare to how utterly awful the Lightroom sync experience has been. As part of the creating a new catalog, sync will only sync with one catalog and I learnt the hard way that LRC will then import tens of thousands of smart previews back to your PC for reasons I cannot understand, given that the originals and their previews are there in the first place. 

 

Eventually, I decided to get delete all synced photos and start again. Initially I tried "delete all synced data" in true helpful fashion all this does is direct you to the Lr web site. This is where I learnt that there is literally no "select all" in Lightroom mobile / or web: I had to click - scroll - shift-click my way through 35000 photos to delete them. Then I discovered that all the collections still remained in LrC, so I had to delete all of those.

 

I'm now three days into re-syncing my photos from LrC back to Lr mobile, and my observation, in a sentence, is that Lightroom's sync is an utter shambles. It seems like no one has bothered to check that tool-tips or support statements actually lead anywhere or make any sense. Here's my experience:

 

  • For some reason known only to the gods, the little cloud icon changes from from having a blue circle (indicating syncing) to an exclamation mark. The tool tip when hovering over it helpfully suggests "There are some sync errors. Go to 'all sync errors'  for more details."
  • There is literally no menu item, dropdown, or help topic for "all sync errors", so I assume what they mean is the list that appears when you click the gear icon after clicking the cloud icon. literally all this shows is a (very) long list of files of files with the category "uploading". Incredibly helpfully, the text that appears in the "sync details/errors" column is "image". This is a bit like fumbling for the instructions of your emergency parachute, mid drop, and the instructions say "geese."
  • much reading of the very helpful Lightroom Queen FAQ and web later, I discover the cunningly hidden menu that appears when you hold down "option"  after clicking the gear icon, after clicking the cloud icon. Another helpful option: "view sync status on the web". Ok. Sure. This takes me to Lr web, and, indeed, to a page that says "sync issues" with a number of image icons listed. "Great!" I think: paydirt; this is where I'll find the magic fix. 
  • Not so fast. Having been directed to Lr Web, from LrC on my iMac, I will give you one guess what the uber-helpful tool tip is when hovering over any image in Sync Issues: "Open Lightroom on Mark's iMac to continue syncing."

 

At this point, the sentence that comes to mind starts with "What the actual..."

 

I'm now in a loop where I go to Lr web "Sync Issues", just delete all the photos listed. Then I close LrC, which has the cloud icon with the exclamation, and complains that it is still syncing. Then I open  LrC and it syncs a few more photos before we repeat the process.

 

Only 7000 photos to go. 

 

Thanks for reading this far: it's been cathartic. I'm livid that software can be this bad. 

 

I'd love to know what I'm "doing wrong", aside from living with one of the most awful user experiences I've seen in commercial software. 

 

Honestly, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get syncing smooth, I'd love to know. It would also be useful to know that literally all of these photos, extending back more than 20 years were all synced before I had to create my new catalog. There is no problem with the photos: status quo has been synced for literally years. 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

TOPICS
macOS

Views

91

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 14, 2025 Jan 14, 2025

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Your problem is too complicated for me to answer. I suggest you research the 'in depth' blogs by Dan Harford-

SYNCING- Everything to know- Dan Hartford Photo  

 

"This is where I learnt that there is literally no "select all" in Lightroom mobile / or web: I had to click - scroll - shift-click my way through 35000 photos to delete them."

There is a 'one button click' in Lightroom Web > Account Info where you can delete an entire Lr Library-

2025-01-15 06_26_25-Adobe Lightroom — Mozilla Firefox.jpg

 

 

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 14.1.1, Photoshop 26.2, ACR 17.1, Lightroom 8.1, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 15.0.2, Windows-11.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 14, 2025 Jan 14, 2025

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

Thanks Rob, that "Delete Lightroom Library" is something that I was looking for desperately, but unfortuantely I was looking for it in LrC Desktop and didn't find it on the web - great to know it's there for future ref.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines