What All Synced Photos mean?

[Sanpanza]

I have about 3700 images in my "All Synced Photos" folder withing the Catalog menu but not all of them are in a synced collection. Can I remove without deleting them from my library?

[johnrellis]

All Synced Photographs contains all photos that are currently being synced between your LR Classic catalog and LR Cloud (but not synced videos, due to a longstanding LR bug).  A photo doesn't necessarily have to be in a synced collection to be synced between LR Classic and Cloud. 

If you remove a photo from All Synced Photographs, it will be removed from LR Cloud but stay in your LR Classic catalog. 

[Sanpanza]

Thanks for your reply, John. 

So, if I delete all of these images not in my collections, the images will not disappear from my library or hard disk? Is this correct?

[Rob_Cullen]

As I understand it all: [All Synced Photographs] contains-

1) Photos synced UP to Lightroom-Mobile Cloud by having them in LrC Synced Collections (and local folders)

2) Photos synced DOWN from Lightroom-Mobile and stored in local LrC folders. (not all will be in Collections.)

Deleting any photos from [All Synced Photographs] will :

-Remove them from any Sync process and Delete them from the Cloud.

-Photos originating in Lightroom-Mobile, and successfully downloaded to LrC, will remain in local folders. (unless Deleted by the usual methods in LrC.).

[Jim Wilde]

As I understand it all: [All Synced Photographs] contains-

1) Photos synced UP to Lightroom-Mobile Cloud by having them in LrC Synced Collections (and local folders)

2) Photos synced DOWN from Lightroom-Mobile and stored in local LrC folders. (not all will be in Collections.)

Not quite, Rob. All Synced Photographs contains all the photos that are synced to/from the cloud, irrespective of the source. It is perfectly possible to add photos manually to the ASP special collection in LrC, those photos do not have to be contained in any collection (synced or not)..

One "gotcha"....removing a photo from the ASP collection that was in a synced collection not only deletes the photo from the cloud, but also automatically removes it from that synced collection (though a warning message will be issued if the user hasn't previously checked the "Don't show again" box).

[johnrellis]

"So, if I delete all of these images [in All Synced Photographs] not in my collections, the images will not disappear from my library or hard disk? Is this correct?"

If by "library" you mean your Lightroom Classic catalog, that's correct. (Sorry for being pedantic, but "library" can be ambiguous and pedantry can save lives.)

To find synced photos not in a synced collection:

1. In the Collections panel, click and Cmd-click on all the synced collections, so they're all selected.

2. Select all displayed photos.

3. In the Catalog panel, click All Synced Photographs.  Now, the selected photos are those that are in at least one synced collection and All Synced Photographs.

4. Do the menu command Edit > Invert Selection. Now the selected photos are those in All Synced Photographs that aren't in any synced collection.

5. Add the selected photos to Quick Collection.

Note that this only finds photos, not videos, due to the aforementioned bug. To find videos too, or if you have many, many synced collections, use the built-in filter Synced Photos Not In A Synced Collection that's included with the Any Filter plugin.

[DdeGannes]

Just some thoughts to ponder in this scenario, when you “import” images to Lightroom Classic the info with respect to image files is recorded in the Lightroom Catalog and so are any functions you carry out after the import. The Catalog file does not contain any actual image files or copies of the image files.

When you create a Collection in Lightroom this function not create a copy of the original image it is just data recorded in the Catalog file. You can add an original image to multiple Collections. Any changes/ edits you have made to the original image or if you have selected it in any of the Collections this will be applied to the original and the collections.

You can select specific Collections and have them synced to your Creative Cloud storage. All your other Lightroom apps Desktop  or Mobile apps will have access and any changes made with any app will sync accross all collections and back to the original image file. If you delete that original image or remove it from the Catalog it will be removed from all synced devices.

The Synced Collections will be added to the All Synced Photos collection as will any images you add to All Synced Photos and any Images synced from Lightroom Desktop and Lightroom Mobile.

If you select images in Lightroom Classic “All synced phots” and delete / remove them they will be removed from all synced devices including all collections in Lightroom Classic.

The original image files in Lightroom Classic will remain in the Catalog and in the storage folder / disk in your system, edits will remain intact.

[Rob_Cullen]

"It is perfectly possible to add photos manually to the ASP special collection in LrC, those photos do not have to be contained in any collection (synced or not).."

Thanks @Jim Wilde 

So I gather from this that I could simply drag multiple files from folders in LrC, or even 'All Photographs' selected, directly to the "All Synced Photos" list and never need to create synced collections- correct?  (I would not be creating 'Albums' in Lightroom.)

[Jim Wilde]

So I gather from this that I could simply drag multiple files from folders in LrC, or even 'All Photographs' selected, directly to the "All Synced Photos" list and never need to create synced collections- correct?  (I would not be creating 'Albums' in Lightroom.)

By @Rob_Cullen

Yes, Rob.....that's exactly what it means.