When can we expect to see lightroom mobile able to handle sync'ing multiple catalogs? As it is with the limitation to a single catalog it is very limited in a real business case scenario...
Here is what I have found works... I have Google Drive, but I hear it works with Dropbox etc. I moved the Lightroom folders that were in my Pictures Folder (PC, mac may put them in a different place) to My Google Drive. I have the Google Drive App installed on my PC, both tower and desktop, so it looks like it is another Windows folder. (That is key) So I point LIghtroom to that folder where the catalog is. I still keep my photos on a totally different networked drive, but everything LIghtroom Catalog related syncs via the cloud. The only hitch I have discovered with Google Drive is you need to "pause" the PC sync tool before you launch Lightroom or you get an error message. Just unpause Google Drive when you close LR and it will sync your catalog. The other thing is don't expect to switch between machines instantly, the files need to sync. But if you are working on the tower for example and want to pick up on your laptop once you drive to your home that is usually enough time and you will find your catalog synced. Google it, there are several articles describing the workflow.
Thank you! Dropbox syncing could be a great solution for me. My photos are there anyway. I use Dropbox to deliver to clients and to keep my online archive.
I just split my catalog into smaller catalogs because it was getting soooooo slooooowwwww. So with all due respect, if Adobe LR was designed to only have a single catalog, then it was designed poorly.
I too just ran into this issue. I split my catalog because with over 25000 photos, it had become too slow, and even on a super new MAC with all the memory available to mankind, LR was lagging. Now I realize that LR can only sync folders from a single catalog, and of course I find that very lacking and lackluster. What's more, my recent discovery means that I find the new LR Classic CC and CC to be even less useful in a connected world.
In my less than humble opinion, I think that Smart Collections should be able to be turned into mobile collections with a single click. I think users should be able to make a folder mobile/sync with a single click, and I think users should be able to sync folders from various catalogs, especially given the physical limitations of large catalogs.
Lastly, Adobe should ditch the CC version and make the Classic CC version more versatile in terms of synching. The current arrangement is more than confusing, and honestly, even though I've been a LR user since day one, I am actively reorganizing my photos and looking for a cataloging system that does not include Adobe LR. While LR is still invaluable for processing photos, it has very quickly become unusable for cataloging and maintaining photos.
I resolved this by putting my files on a removable USB drive, and I can plug it into whatever computer I'm on. Both the photos and the catalogs are on the removable drive, so the relative path remains the same no matter which machine i'm on, and it works seamlessly.
Scott, that's a workable solution if your files will FIT on a removable USB drive.
Right now, I'm literally (not figuratively, LITERALLY) driving a file server around in order to maintain access to my original photos. Performing a full backup of this server literally takes more than a day.
Professionals can have hundreds of thousands of images to work with. Keeping them in one catalog is simply not practical for many reasons. A single catalog file endangers all your work when it inevitably corrupts (as one of mine did last week). A single catalog file has one keyword hierarchy for everything. Merging my catalogs would produce a file that is GIGABYTES in size. The preview directories would take up TERABYTES in addition to the original photos.
Contrary to Rikk's assertion, Lightroom Classic was not "designed" to work with a single catalog. If it were, the File menu wouldn't have options to open and close catalogs. There wouldn't be preferences stored on a per-catalog basis. (In contrast, the new Lightroom is apparently designed for NO catalogs, which is equally impossible in my scenario. The new product isn't even remotely ready for professional use.)
Scott, agreed on many counts. Don't forget to say these things if and when Adobe sends you surveys about the product.
I've also been shopping for alternatives to the new-and-disimproved Lightroom ecosystem.
Nearly every day, I wonder who designs this software and whether they have ever worked as a professional photographer (because LR wasn't designed for high volume or efficiency). I also wonder if they have eyes (because it's not designed to be readable -- What's up with the GREY on GREY microtext???).
Brian, that is a plausible hack, but beware that when I tried that it began corrupting large catalogs because sometimes Google Drive wouldn't write the entire file in one go. Same problem with Dropbox.
Syncthing seems to do okay, although it requires a lot of setup. This is made easier with SyncTrayzor.
How do you deal with the fact that program preferences aren't stored with the catalog? (Or at least, they're not on a PC.)
> Lightroom Classic was not "designed" to work with a single catalog. If it were, the File menu wouldn't have options to open and close catalogs.
A little bit of a history lesson... Lightroom 1.0 could only use a single catalog, because that's the way it was designed. Import/Export catalogs were added in 1.1 so that people could take part of their catalog off to another computer, or start a new shoot on another computer and merge it in later. The intention was never that people would have lots of little catalogs on the same computer, but that's the way it's ended up being used by some people.
______________________ The Lightroom Queen - Author of the Lightroom Missing FAQ & Edit Like a Pro books.
An additional data point, Daniel. I am a professional. I have hundreds of thousands of images in a single catalog - the same catalog with which I started in Lightroom 1.2. I have never seen a catalog corruption of my own catalog and even if I did, I maintain a robust backup strategy- something more difficult to do in the multi-catalog verse. Your work is no more safe in a single catalog than multiples - one corruption and data is lost.
I prefer a single keyword hierarchy. My catalog is GB in size (7 to be precise) and the previews while large still are not even half a terabyte.
Victoria beat me to the history of Lightroom demonstrating original design and intent.
My business partner does raw editing for other professional photographers, so speed is of the essence. Currently his catalog is running over 14GB, and it's been bigger.
And the biggest catalog I know of is over 7 million photos. That's a bit slow to open and back up, of course, but beyond that...
Many professionals work with two catalogs - a smaller working catalog, including everything that needs to sync to the cloud and is currently being worked on, and a larger archive catalog that they don't need to access very often.
______________________ The Lightroom Queen - Author of the Lightroom Missing FAQ & Edit Like a Pro books.
I couldn’t disagree more with Ricks assessment. I just split my catalog because it became too slow, and the performance was immediately evident. Whenever I do a large photo shoot, like a dance performance, I always give it its own catalog because if I try and use my main catalog it’s just too slow, and I have a very powerful machine.
If LR really was designed to have a monolithic catalog then they did an extremely poor job of it.
I’m sorry, but I’ve been using LR since day one, and I’m dead sure that large catalogs become extremely slow. Mine was 11 GB when I slplit it. Anyway, regardless of what the marketing specs say, or what the champions insist on, real world users all seem to agree that a monolithic catalog causes performance issues. And now with this classic cc and cc and poorly thought out product confusion with dualing versions, neither of which handles cloud sharing well, I’m on the search for an alternative.
For processing raw photos and batch editing, LR is awesome. But for continued storage, key word searching, maintenance and cloud sharing, it’s really not at all very good.
Feel free to disagree. You are entitled to your opinion.
My experience with 3-4 dozen 250K catalogs on which I've consulted regarding speed issues is that in very isolated areas, performance may improve i.e. launch time, backup time and large scale metadata writing. Catalog size will not typically have an effect on Grid scrolling, Grid/Loupe switch, Develop/Grid switch, Loupe/Develop walking, Develop slider performance, Import/Export processing.
If you are seeing improved performance, I am happy for you but not convinced it is due to catalog size. The real world does not all seem to agree that monolithic catalogs cause performance issue. I see the question asked a lot and the answer from those who work with large catalogs regularly seems pretty consistent.
Regardless, this thread is concerned with multi syncing and we should return to that discussion. Feel free to start a new thread about single vs multi catalog performance perceptions if you like.
The name is spelled "Rikk" by the way - unless you are speaking about someone else.
Given my work flow I do not find Lightroom stable when opening a catalog with over 10,000 photos. Single catalogs allow me to work this way but the way LR does it now is not beneficial to the end user. I vote for a catalog to be like an album when syncing.
If you're not finding Lightroom stable when opening a catalog with over 10,000 photos lacoL, post a thread describing the issues and your system specs. That's something worth investigating.
______________________ The Lightroom Queen - Author of the Lightroom Missing FAQ & Edit Like a Pro books.
Rikk the Dick. Listen, I had to split my large monolithic catalog that had 60k images. I am a working professional and take too many shots for a single catalog. Lightroom ran soooo slow that it was counter intuitive and I was not at all happy about adjustment brushes, scrolling, and changing modules that took too long. It slowed down my workflow immensely and was extremely frustrating. I just created a new catalog today and imported ~1k of RAW images with standard previews. I can ensure you that it runs very smooth. Since I shoot such a high volume of photos, I need to make a new catalog monthly. It is unbelievable that Adobe cannot sync other catalogs. I used to cull and flag on public transit so when I got home it was just editing. And wtf is Lightroom CC!? I tried it for a minute and uninstalled promptly. This was by far the stupidest decision Adobe made. They should focus more on their professional devoted client base not try to sell and appeal to people that use cell phones and instagram! It took me quite some time to devise this new workflow and when I went to sync and got that message, I was in disbelief! Why is this so damn hard to implement!? At this point there is no way I'm editing with my bulky main catalog it is too slow. Adobe is going to go out of business if they keep insulting pros.
This is not a good workaround I'm sorry. How much money do we have to spend already on cloud storage. I paid a subscription for LR, PS, and CC mobile. I really shouldn't have to use 3rd party cloud services with crazy workarounds. Adobe needs to get off their lazy asses and IMPLEMENT multi-cat syncing. It has been YEARS with complaints!
Im one of those guys who has multiple catalogs trying to keep personal and business separate. I would like to see in Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC Mobile work together to sync the multiple catalogs so when Im done editing to sync the catalogs to mobile to when Im with family I can show pictures from the family catalog and in business opportunities to show the business catalog... I don't want to stick them all together in one..
There are various deficiencies in the mobile catalog sync offering, for example, there are no color labels on mobile. The limitation of just one catalog is the second biggest deficiency. If Adobe is unwilling to make multiple catalogs syncable, the catalog sync feature is irrelevant for a lot of cases. It is plain silly to expect that people will keep decades of photos in one catalog. No one wants to access a gazillion photos on mobile. When a person is using LR on mobile, they are focused on a subset of their entire body of work, and that subset is easier defined as a catalog. Without the ability to sync multiple catalogs, this whole catalog sync aspect is just a gimmick.
here’s what a support rep posts to me - word to word - via your twitter support handle - we were troubleshooting the cause of poor performance and extreme CPU usage when merely switching from the library to the develop module :
We may not have such big catalogs like you. You can create a new catalog and add few hundred images into it and check the performance.”
Background: in my previous image I had mentioned that I have performance problems with merely 3000 images in my test catalog.
Your support team is telling me that it’s not tested on more than a few hundred images per catalog, but your comments urge us to put everything into a single catalog. What’s gong on?
Support rep was wrong, they're regularly tested with big catalogs and 3000 is tiny. 7 million is big, and not tested as regularly, but 100,000 is really quite normal.
______________________ The Lightroom Queen - Author of the Lightroom Missing FAQ & Edit Like a Pro books.
Hi VIctoria, I've read many of your articles about Lightroom but I must say this discussion is not where it should be about. LR classic still lacks performance on big catalogues and that is where this thread is all about. LR users are looking for ways to improve the performance of LR. LR offers them this in splitting catalogues. With the arrival of LR in the cloud the problem of multiple catalogues popped up as it is in this discussion. As I said before, get LR on par with other software and there will be no need anymore for multiple catalogues. Kind Regards, Frans van Velzen
(a) if the twitter support rep is repeatedly giving misinformation, why does Adobe even offer support on twitter and
(b) to second Frans’ opinion, the Multi-catalog sync request is as much being driven by absolutely poor LR Classic performance as it is by the genuine need to maintain syncable separate work and personal catalogs.
But if I were to pick one thing I desperately need, it surely is to see LR not using 600% of my CPU when I do the most basic stuff like selecting a different photo in the develop module or switching from the Library to the develop module.
(c) it’s good to hear that LR is tested on min 100,000 images. That being the case what is the min hardware spec for which LR’s Develop module won’t choke up the system and will work reasonably responsively with 100,000 RAW images each having some edits and / or adjustments ?
I’ve been discussing my LR performance issues for almost 18 months now with the twitter support at periodic intervals and the pattern is that they ask me to try with a small catalog .
The advice being offered to paying subscribers is not at all consistent.
Why they give misinformation, goodness knows. But trying to offer support in so few characters is a nightmare, so Twitter's generally a bad choice for support issues anyway. Start a separate thread here on your performance issues and we'll do our best to help figure out what's going wrong for you.
I'm not arguing against the request for syncing multiple catalogs for separating work and personal, but realistically, based on everything I've heard about Adobe's direction for Lightroom Classic sync, I don't think it'll happen. They've very clearly said that sync development is being focused on CC, with Classic focusing on its traditional desktop usage.
Adobe hasn't shared specific specs because there are so many variables and performance tolerance levels too (one person's fast will be another one's slow) but let's get down to specifics in your own thread. Even their most basic minimum spec should be able to handle 3000 photos, although some things will be slower at minimum spec.
______________________ The Lightroom Queen - Author of the Lightroom Missing FAQ & Edit Like a Pro books.
Rikk, some of your "...very isolated areas..." are frankly more common than what you listed; e.g., importing, preview building, keywording, Smart Collection building, editing Smart Collections, etc. In short, just about everything one does in Library is impacted by the size of the catalog.
Hardware is, of course, very important. I started using LR with 3.0 on a Toshiba with 8GB, moved to a MacBook Pro with 16GB from LR 4 to LR 6, and then to a MacPro with 128GB.
As my catalog progressed from a couple MB to—as of this morning—3,919,530 images (a whopping 29.4GB catalog) I have seen performance degrade unless and until the hardware was upgraded.
Sometimes, the performance degraded after an upgrade of LR; LR 7.5 was a pig compared to LR 6; LR 8 was a marked improvement over 7.5. Sometimes the OS improved the performance; Mojave was a Godsend for LR 7.5 and 8 (unless you owned an iMac).
I recently upgraded the 1TB SSD in the MacPro to a 2TB SSD from QWC—four times the read/write speed of the OEM drive. Now my catalog loads in less than two minutes, down from over 20 minutes. (My LR application is on the internal SSD, the catalog and all other files are on a dedicated external G-Tech 8TB RAID with Thunderbolt. All images are on another dedicated external G-Tech 20TB Raid with Thunderbolt.)
Moving to multiple catalogs is simply a non-starter. Presets, Smart Collections, Keyword Sets, keywords—no way to sync them easily across multiple catalogs.
As for syncing to the mobiles apps or the cloud—I never water down my whisky and I do not use LR on a bloody iphone (except for a synced collection to show clients as a portfolio).
However, I am still concerned and still hope that Adobe would change the underlying database to increase performance, referential integrity, and keyword accuracy. I am also pretty much at the end of the line in available hardware upgrades at least until 2020 as Apple has indicated no next-gen MacPro in 2019.
I am in Botswana through the end of the first week of January. The lions are tripping over themselves for a photo op; the cheetahs are sitting on the roof of the Land Rover. My catalog will definitely be over 4 million images before December ends.
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