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:
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.
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-
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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.