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Visions of the Magpie
Visions of the Magpie
Participant
July 17, 2019
Question

Transfer files from DropBox to Adobe Creative Cloud.

  • July 17, 2019
  • 6 replies
  • 4586 views

I have a real problem. I have been using Dropbox for all my photos... approx 60,000 which many have been edited in Lightroom. It seems that Dropbox and Lightroom do not work together, so that each time Dropbox syncs the files, a new file is created. According to Dropbox I have over 327,000 photo files. which has slowed down my computer to a crawl.  I cannot see these files or photos. I really do not want all the various versions of each photo as separate files.

In discussion with Dropbox, my only solution is to download the files to my computer and then upload them to the cloud. (each file takes 5-10 minutes to download.)

In discussion with Adobe Support, my only solution is to download to my computer then Lightroom will have to find them again.( in order to preserve my Lightroom Catalog with all my data including many hours of adding keywords and stars etc, as well as a lot of editing). I do not want to lose this tedious work.

What I really wanted to do was transfer from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom CC so I could use adobe cloud. I do not have room on my computer to transfer my catalog and someone at support tried to help me, would not listen when I said there is not enough room and now everything in Lightroom has disconnected and I am in a desperate situation because they cannot restore it. Basically Adobe support made a mess and has left me without a solution. Most of my photos are missing in the Lightroom Catalog.

Has anyone found a way to get this done without losing the metadata?

Thanks,

Maggie.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    6 replies

    P
    Platon32131272ws9q
    Participant
    September 7, 2023

    1. Try Metadata Backup: In Lightroom Classic, you can create metadata sidecar files that contain your keywords, ratings, and other metadata. Ensure that these sidecar files are backed up to preserve your metadata.

    2.  If your Lightroom catalog is currently missing photos, try to reconnect them manually. Right-click on the folder or missing photo and select "Find Missing Folder" or "Find Missing Photo" in Lightroom.  Use view hidden files in mac. Navigate to the new location and select the corresponding file.
    P
    Platon32131272ws9q
    Participant
    September 7, 2023

    Remember to proceed with caution and make backups at every step to prevent any irreversible data loss. I case you did, try to view hidden files in mac

    S
    SebKaine
    Participating Frequently
    September 2, 2022

    OMG , same here some major Folders containing all productions files and clients works, has magically disapeared from my Dropbox folders. i thought dropbox has done a crash and do something wrong at first. But after doing a search with the folders name, i actually found them, and the 3 projects that have disapeared were magically in the Creative Cloud Files folder. 

     

    Only problem is that i NEVER use this folder and the creative cloud stuff. For simple reason is that i don't truste Adobe Nor OneDrive to host Pro work. I ONLY trust Dropbox. So by some weird stupid magic, CC has suceed to mess up in my Dropbox folder.

     

    That is absolutely not possible to do such things. Fortunatly unlike Adobe CC things , Dropbox is done by proper dev with good support. And i was abble to go back to time. The date of the mess up was 31/08/2022, the day where i manually decided to make an update of all my CC apps, but i don't know if the two are related.

     

    Seriously adobe, with the Photoshop constant glitch disaster and this , i am really at the edge of my patience with you guys. 

     

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 2, 2022

    It's easy and tempting to blame Adobe for this, but I think this is almost certainly user error. I have not seen any reports anywhere that suggest otherwise. The Creative Cloud Files folder is actually very much like the Dropbox folder. If you place items in it, they will be synced to the cloud. That's all it does and AFAIK there are no Adobe apps that actively use it.

     

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
      S
      SebKaine
      Participating Frequently
      September 2, 2022

      Thanks for your answer Johan. 
      I really hope you are right and that i have done the error by myself.

      L
      Lumigraphics
      Legend
      September 22, 2020

      Go buy one or two external hard drives, large enough to store all your images.
      Then try downloading two images that look like duplicates. If they are, you'll need to comb through what's on Dropbox and delete from there, THEN start thinking asbout downloading to your computer.

      D
      DanelleCole
      Participant
      September 22, 2020

      Hi, 

      I am having the same problem! Not only does adobe lightroom take every file of mine out of dropbox and downloads it into lightroom, it also rearranges folders. If I were to go in and 'select' a few pictures to go through it would take those pictures and tuck it away into some random folder that took me hours to find! I use both my computer and my laptop for working on pictures, so it makes it so much easier to use dropbox. However, because of this problem it just becomes a giant mess.

      Tony_See
      Tony_See
      Inspiring
      July 18, 2019

      I'm using Dropbox with Lightroom on a Mac seamlessly.

      I'm wondering if you could share your LR catalog setup here perhaps so we could see/compare to other known successful setups using Dropbox.

      I see your bigger problem as being the massive increase in file numbers each time a Dropbox Sync occurs.

      Would that be a fair assumption ?

      Visions of the Magpie
      Visions of the MagpieAuthor
      Participant
      July 18, 2019

      Everything was working fine, until my computer became so slow when Syncing was turned on.... that's when I called Dropbox support and found out all about how syncing works with Lightroom and Adobe.

      I have 61,000 photos in my lightroom catalog... I do take a lot of photos, and the catalog has been building since 2010

      JohanElzenga
      Community Expert
      JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 18, 2019

      Like I said, Lightroom does not change your images, so what Dropbox says may technically be true (when an image changes it will be copied), but in practice it is not. Lightroom Classic needs the images to be local, however. You cannot work with ‘online only’ images, so that is the problem. That is why Lightroom now shows them as ‘missing’. You will have to change your Dropbox settings so the images are kept locally. There is no other way.

      -- Johan W. Elzenga
      JohanElzenga
      Community Expert
      JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 17, 2019

      I find it very hard to understand what the problem really is. Dropbox and Lightroom work fine together. Many people use Dropbox to sync their catalog and images between computers. What kind of Dropbox account do you have? The standard account creates a local Dropbox folder, that contains all the files. That folder is constantly synced, but it means that you have a local copy of all times.

      When you edit an image in Lightroom, that image is not changed in any way. The edits are not applied directly onto the image, but are stored as a kind of ‘to do list’ in the Lightroom catalog. Same for adding keywords, ratings, color labels, etc. Because the images are not changed in any way, Dropbox will have no reason to sync them again after you have edited them in Lightroom. You say that according to Dropbox you have a few hundred thousand files, but I suspect that these are not only images, but lots of other files as well. And just having a lot of files on your hard disk should not slow down your computer.

      If I understand you correctly, then your first and foremost problem right bow is that your images are shown as ‘missing’ in Lightroom. That happens when you move them without Lightroom knowing what you did. Try to find them on your computer, they should be there. Then read this how to ‘reconnect’ them. Reconnect missing folders rather than individual missing images if possible. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

      -- Johan W. Elzenga
      Visions of the Magpie
      Visions of the MagpieAuthor
      Participant
      July 18, 2019

      Yes... I am afraid to transfer them file by file to an external hard drive then to Adobe cloud... not only is this a massive tedious job, but will it work and is there an easier way?

      Downloading one file takes 5- 10 minutes and I have about a hundred files.

      According to my discussions with Dropbox, they do not support Lightroom so when Dropbox syncs, they see it as a new image and record it as a new image, although I cannot see any extra copies. Dropbox support are the ones who told me syncing takes a long time because I have 327,000 images.. which started my quest to transfer to Adobe Cloud.

      I found that while I had syncing on, our internet speed was used up and we could not watch a movie via Netflix so I had to pause syncing. So I called Dropbox support trying to find out why.  Apparently pausing sync caused further problems. I have been trying to keep my photos online only rather than on my computer, to save space.

      My photos have disappeared from my Lightroom catalog because Lightroom support screwed up. I called to ask a question about adobe cloud, I gave them control of my computer and the next thing I knew, Mohammed tried to transfer my catalog from Classic Lightroom to Lightroom CC. It failed because I did not have enough room on my computer, but he insisted and pressed continue... now it is stuck in limbo.

      I am so pissed off and frustrated, I was hoping someone could help. Adobe support has spent hours and hours trying to fix it... and so far are telling me it is a Dropbox problem, Dropbox says it is an Adobe problem... all I know is I have all my photos in Dropbox but now my Lightroom catalog is empty.

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