P: I would like to synchronize over LAN/Cable instead of internet

[Schmeedy]

LR mobile sync is extremely slow. Giving me an option to sync locally would be excellent. And I'm sure very useful for professionals travelling in areas where internet is limited/non-existent or expensive and time consuming.Come on Adobe. If this is designed for professionals this slow sync and data usage issues on global data roaming....? It simply isn't practical. The product as is can't be recommended as is.(please also add keywords, ratings, labels to app functionality)Thanks!

[scoopzuk]

I have a 100MB/S leased fibre line which gives me 100MB/s up and down but that's not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is the way LR queues and uploads the images, it doesn't max out a connection and it's pointless to upload from a desktop to the web just to then download the exact same files from the web to an iPad when the desktop and iPad are connected to the same local network.

I agree the ability to push collections to the web is useful but it's too slow for extremely large collections and also wastes unnecessary bandwidth.

Quite often I'll be working in a remote location and using a mobile hotspot which has limited data bandwidth (5GB) but it's a fast 4G connection with 50Mb/s or more. If I shoot on location and download to my MacBook Pro and then want to edit on the move on my iPad I have two options. Waste 2GB for example uploading images to CC cloud and then another 2GB downloading them to iPad or import direct to iPad and have a broken workflow as raw images won't be on the laptop and backed up.

The ability to sync over local LAN connection (wifi) between desktop and LR mobile is a key feature that is still missing. I pretty much guarantee it will be included in a future update but it needs people to reply to this thread requesting it to help ensure it makes it onto LR roadmap.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi Victoria,
When travelling overseas it is quite common to be in a location where the internet is only available in the lobby of the hotel or not at all. Similarly, if you are going to be on a plane for hours, it would be nice to use that down time to cull and edit photos. Being tied to the cloud becomes a major obstacle in those situations and I've stopped taking my iPad on trips as a result. 
Greg

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

I agree with you Greg & co. I regularly travel iPad-only, so it's important for me too, and I voted on the request at release. I'm sure it will come in due course.

I just wanted to check whether it was specifically the lack of LAN sync that Yves felt made it "unusable" or something else. LRM has only ever been cloud-sync (and advertised as such), so I'm wondering why he feels that he's been lied to. Perhaps there's a web page that needs clarifying?

There's no question it's a very valid feature request that would have significant benefits to many users. Not a simple task, however.

[Schmeedy]

From someone who doesn't code myself why is this not a simple task? Compared to say writing code for it to cloud sync ? My gut feeling is that with local sync people may be able to bypass the subscription payment potentially? But if we are forced to cloud sync adobe ensures more people pay?
I'm not against paying I just want to sync locally fast.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

There are just lots of scenarios that need to be considered, and they need to make sure the cloud sync is rock solid before adding a bunch of additional variables.

For example, with cloud sync, it only needs to sync the data you actually need to view, whereas LAN sync would need to sync everything you might possibly need, because it couldn't go back and get them later. That has space repercussions on mobile devices. 

Then, if you can do LAN sync, what happens if you have multiple users all trying to work on the same photos at the same time, creating a bunch of conflicts? With a cloud as the center of the universe, everything links back into that, whereas LAN sync would then want to move into multi-desktop sync, so how do you decide which is the master, and on it goes...

[Yves-CH]

Proposition :
Si iPad, iPhone etc... connecté via USB, Lan vers l'ordinateur, Transfert des RAWs via ce canal, et ensuite synchronisation vers Cloud en différé comme ça ce passe pour les synchronisation Dropbox entre 2 ordinateurs sur le même LAN.

Proposal:
So iPad, iPhone etc. .  connected via USB, Lan to your computer, transfer of the RAWs via this channel, and then sync to Cloud back like that this passes for Dropbox synchronization between 2 computers on the same LAN.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

> like that this passes for Dropbox synchronization between 2 computers on the same LAN. 

I agree, a Dropbox style sync is the most obvious solution.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I spoke in a forum with someone on the LR mobile team last year and he said they had no intention of a wired connection as wires were a thing if the past. Hopefully we can change their mind.

[scoopzuk]

I don't want a physical cable/USB connection I just want to be able to sync over my Local Area Network (LAN) which, in most cases, would be ethernet from desktop to router and then fast 802.1ac wifi from router to iPad Pro.

[selondon]

My main question regarding this is how would you avoid conflict?

If all photos eventually go to the Cloud, would they just not download to Lr Desktop if they have previously LAN synced?

Adobe aren't going to make Lr Mobile LAN Sync only, so would it just require a LAN only button or just some really clever coding?

It's so obviously a requirement, I am just wondering how it is to be implemented considering the LrM/W are less complex than how users may arrange their folders in LrD?

[alanterra]

Hi Selondon. What I think scoopz is asking for is exactly what Dropbox already delivers -- sync over the local network if possible, otherwise sync to a server in the cloud. This works without any problems on Dropbox.

But, as is obvious, Adobe's bread and butter is photos and graphics, while Dropbox is pure synching, so it wouldn't be surprising if Adobe isn't able to come up with such a seamless solution.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I wish to add my voice (and vote) to those who wish to sync Lightroom Mobile with Lightroom desktop without needing the cloud. When travelling I wish to import my photos to my laptop and back them up to an external drive. Now I have my original SD cards, the laptop and the external drive all with copies of my photos. At this point I'm properly backed up while travelling.

Then I wish to do preliminary entry of location data (while I still remember) and some basic metadata entry. Maybe a little work that can only be done on the desktop version such as Match Total Exposures, adding labels (I label all my panoramas and HDR shots for later processing) and some presets. After that, I want to sync everything to my iPad and work from there. It's especially excellent for rating photos as well as some light work in the develop module. I don't want to be hunched over a laptop while on vacation and it's no fun at all on long flights where the person in front reclines their chair back and crunches the screen.

The above works reasonably well if I'm travelling where there is good internet access. However, most of my travels are where there is no internet (mostly) or else where the internet is so poor that even accessing text only emails is a frustrating experience. Also, I don't want to have to purchase expensive data plans when travelling abroad just to be able to perform this sync.

I don't care whether a cable is required, or bluetooth, or a wifi connection between the two devices. Just make it happen!

[markek47818101]

Synchronization between devices is great but right now the only way to do so seems to be via your cloud service. This is slow compared to via a local network or cable connection and in addition the 20GB cap on the Photography Plan means that I cannot store original RAW files on my ipad and then synch them to my desktop due to this data cap. I typically am off the grid for a week at a time and with 60-75MB RAW files 20GB is reached quickly. While off the grid I cull images and rate them thus the need to synch rather than just copy from my device. For me the current system for synching is a deal breaker as I will not pay Adobe's $10/mnth additional fee to move from 20GB to 1TB when I will not be actually storing images in the cloud and the synching process is so slow. It has meant that I will be abandoning Adobe products for the foreseeable future rather than subscribing to the photography plan. If a more workable solution for synching my originals was in place then I would subscribe.

[anthonyn84237442]

I'd like to see adobe add the ability to view and edit photos across connected platforms either via Wifi or Bluetooth. 

Most professional photographers or travelers don't have access to the internet (or it's very slow) while traveling so editing locally would be much better.

I'd prefer Lightroom to be able to connect and see photos locally so we can start an edit on Mobile and continue on PC without needing an internet connection. 

To be clear adobe (agents) we don't want a Lightroom cc Plan because we don't have interent connections. 

Look forward from hearing from other users and also Adobe.

[dustydoris]

Lightroom mobile does not work over Ethernet for me on a pixel phone or a Chromebook. Every other app on my phone or Chromebook works fine. At least I'd like to sync to creative cloud using my Ethernet connection.

[Antoine HLMN]

You know why they won't implement any practical solution ? Because they want you to hit the 20Go ceiling and purchase a bigger storage plan. That’s why they won’t make it easy to bypass the online solution...

[markek47818101]

Exactly, it’s entirely a money grab but it’s short sighted. For many of us requiring the snyching of originals via the cloud cripples their software. For me it’s a deal breaker so rather than getting more $ from me for more storage they aren’t getting a dime because I won’t subscribe to any of their plans unless this roadblock is removed.

[chrisPhoto89]

I was actually wondering whether it has to do with Sensei.
Anyway, collaborating with one of the major NAS brands (QNAP, Synology) could solve many problems in one go: faster sync speed, decent catalogue backups, privacy of images, access to the catalogue from various devices (desktop, laptop, tablet, smart tv, Webbrowser), storage capacity,...
Why is Adobe ignoring these benefits? Even if Sensei was one of the reasons why Adobe is pushing towards the cloud, they could synchronize relevant metadata between the NAS and Adobe Cloud.

[Rick Baumhauer]

Interestingly, I thought that the 20GB limit would work differently than it does when integrating with Classic CC. I decided to try syncing a my entire catalog with the cloud, just to see how quickly it ran out of space, and made an interesting discovery: Smart Previews don't count against the 20GB cap. Since they also sync relatively quickly, this actually makes Lightroom usable as an edit-and-view-anywhere service for pros using Classic CC. I have a 50k+ image catalog synced with the cloud, and I'm using less than 1GB of my 20GB of space.

There are still some things I wish worked differently: I still would like LAN sync, nested folders in collections carrying over to Lightroom CC would be most welcome, and keyword handling still has issues. Overall, though, I'm getting happier with the service and how it integrates with my workflow and needs.

[Rick Baumhauer]

This seems likely, but it still seems like they're forcing pros to use (what they hope will be) their consumer service (not unlike Apple, but at least Adobe still has their pro DAM/processing app). No matter how good Sensei gets, it's not going to meet most pros' needs (great, you identified that shot as a bird, but I want to categorize by what kind of bird), and the volume of shots a pro can generate over a short period of time and then have to wait to bounce to Adobe's servers and then back down to tablet/phone, far outstrips most casual photographers.

Even with the discovery that Smart Previews don't count against the 20GB quota doesn't eliminate the irritation of being forced into a slower workflow because Adobe has some fantasy that they're going to compete with Apple and Google for the masses' photo processing and cloud storage needs. It's not going to happen, and forcing your best, most loyal customers to jump through suboptimal hoops while you chase the impossible dream doesn't really do anybody any good.

[chrisPhoto89]

Right, and smart previews particularly don’t help if I want to load images on my iPad first (while travelling) and then continue working on my desktop afterwards, since I am forced to sync all my 30mb raw files over the cloud.
I completely agree with what you are saying while trying to understand why Adobe is prohibiting modern mobile workflows (which in my opinion should allow backups and culling without a laptop).

[Rick Baumhauer]

For a "mobile-first" workflow while traveling, they really have no good answer at this point if you don't want to upgrade to 1TB of storage (and give them another $10/mo). The best you can do if you want to do some editing while on the road is keep Lightroom from syncing, then let it sync overnight after you get back and move the synced files from the Mobile folder to your normal folder hierarchy. This only works if you take less than 20GB of photos while traveling, though (or cull and delete to keep under that number) - for short trips, that should be fine, but for longer trips, it may not be workable.

Again, this wouldn't be necessary if they weren't forcing pros to piggyback on a consumer service for very little discernible reason, beyond "it's easier for Adobe".

[markek47818101]

Well said. This sums things up perfectly.

[Antoine HLMN]

Smart previeuws don't count in the quota? I'll have to check this out!! 🙂
Actually, I'd be fine to sync 20 Go at a time. It's fine to have a higer pricetag for the 1To storage, which I don't need. The only thing I'm missing is something to tell me which pictures has already been synced (and I delete or move to smart previews syncs).

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi All,

I think I've found a bit of a workaround for Mac/iPhone, although it's not a perfect solution.

* Plug your iPhone into iTunes.
* Go to File Sharing.
* Click on Lightroom CC Mobile (MLCC).
* Copy the catalogue file onto your desktop (581964c.. etc).

* Open Lightroom CC on your Desktop (DLCC).
* Open DLCC preferences, then click local storage.
* Make sure "store a copy of all originals at specifies location" is selected.
* Then choose a location for the originals to be stored, in my case, I have this folder stored on my RAID.
* Click done and navigate to this folder.
* Inside it, you'll see the same file structure as the MLCC folder that you just saved to your desktop.
* Copy the contents of the 'Originals' folder from the MLCC folder and paste it into the 'Originals' folder that you created for DLCC.
* Now import this DLCC originals folder into Lightroom Classic CC, making sure not to apply any presets on import.
* Lightroom Classic CC will now only download the adjustments from the Adobe cloud and save them as 'virtual copies'.

It's not a perfect solution but, in a pinch, it should save you some time..