P: Multiple catalog syncing

I know this is a very old thread but found it when searching for guidance or suggestions on the net on how to utilize multiple catalogs best because I need to go there. A bit ironic. I too am a long standing LR user. 1.x-2.x. I struggled with the whole single catalog concept since day one and saw it as an expected longer term problem - to be addressed maybe by version 3 or 4 possibly. 😉 But...I drank the koolaid, followed guidance and have been dealing with performance issues, struggling how to figure out how to work with it mobile as well as at home base simultaneous now for years. It's just not intuitive or user friendly any way you do it.  And as many people, I have created a mess. I knew this was coming, and it is here, now and ugly. Up til now it has been working acceptably (mostly except all the known performance problems already stated - and sorry -  but they DO exist, I don't understand how anyone can position it otherwise as a user error) using a single catalog.  
I find Adobe's position LR was never meant to be a pro/business class level digital asset management system and 'beyond scope' of application design a bit strange. Didn't they target professional photographers and as a photo management system? It seemed that way to me. It's not like you can just open a file and edit it using LR tools like you can in Photoshop. LR insists on an import and managing files in order to be used. It was the driving force in the design I thought, you have PS over here to do your major editing, we will just help you do common simple stuff here but our goal here is to 'manage' your files and help your workflow, we will even help integrate it with Photoshop. I guess they didn't mean, be 'really successful with it' maybe?

That being the case - you would think dealing with multiple catalogs should have been expected', (as in "We didn't design this to get 'too big' though") so larger customers will certainly need that.   Especially with what you see in the activity to go to subscription based and Cloud services model. But, I guess, just don't get too successful or we can't support you with any products we have. You want to be a full service cloud company or not? Non professional or casual photographers and users don't really need the power of LR and Creative Cloud suite right. Perplexing.

I didn't come here really to bash Adobe or LR. I guess this just hit an old nerve for me as well. I think it's a great product and tool in many ways. But I too have toyed with looking elsewhere and would rather not. It's  what I know and the editing part is awesome.  It gets the job done and the improvements in a lot of functionality really has been great. I just had to deal with the management part headaches and to me that is it's whole purpose for existence I thought. Photoshop has for the most part always had that covered. But if I can't find the plans to support real working workflow issues I just may be forced to move. 

8MB sized images of the past kept the issue from surfacing but now with 50MB RAW files and 4K video, I quickly need to figure out the multiple file location storage/ catalog / mobile use /non mobile syncing, how do I track were things are at problem now cuz it wont fit on one drive anymore.   Not in version 2020 or 21. That will be way too late. Maybe the focus should have been stop spending resources duplicating Photoshop here and more on it's main purpose of file, process and workflow management. Of course not the 'sexy' part and harder to sell. I would be different if you didn't already have the market leader for editing in photoshop.
 
It seems simple to me, LR isn't it, ok, for you successful people here is Lightroom PRO (Enterprise /Studio whatever), decent real database plugin and performance, one higher level up integration for sycning  multiple data sources and separate offline temp field 'catalogs' and managing the on again and off again connection of mobile workforces which of course their customers have been since 1.X. Sure seems your direction is to try and own the creative/design world workflows. 

Anyway, I would be happy to deal with a one-time catalog conversion to a new database schema if required if you solved that problem. It's not like you have had catalog conversions requirements in the past. I believe that's the beauty of a subscription/Cloud model. All my systems will get updated anyway. Your cloud services would certainly look more attractive to me if you did. At the moment, the model just isn't usable.  Last thing the entrepreneurs  you target want to waste time doing.

Or - do they have a product I'm not familiar with that offers or syncs with other true business class DAM systems for those in need if that isn't this product's target market? Maybe I'm just not informed and this has been solved. Search continues.

I agree. My loyalty toward Adobe is not worth the frustration anymore. I'm so sick of wasting time with slow software that triples my editing time. I don't even do more than basic corrections and syncing in LR. Spot editing, brush masking I leave to PS as LR is embarrassing slow. They've ignored us for years and I'm ready to put my money toward competitors who care.

I commented on this thread years ago and still get replies on it. Sadly, I don' think Adobe is ever going to overcome this limitation. That's fine. I've moved on. I've been using other tools since last year, and I'm pretty sure that when my plan comes up for renewal this fall that I will choose not to renew. Sad really, but with new tools the that are iterating faster than Adobe is with LR, and at a lower price, there's little point in holding out hope.

I couldn't agree more. Some of us here have been vocal about this for years now, and nothing has changed. Not only that, I've been scolded here on the forums for complaining about the LR CC and Classic CC change and have been told more than once that this is not the forum for that, to which I say "bullS$$t". This is the place. 

Adobe has ruined LR. The work flow between LR Classic and LR CC is a mess. Trying to use an iPad with a camera in the field is a mess, but I've been told here in the forums that it is Apple's fault. Again, I think that's nonsense. Adobe needs to own this. Adobe needs to do user testing with real users in the field to see how the current "work flow" is a complete non-starter, and the LR CC features are wholly lacking. 

I recently did a photo shoot in Honduras. I took my laptop and used LR CC Classic and PS, because LR CC is such a mess. But Adobe for years now has kept trying to put lipstick on a pig and convince us that are complaints don't belong in the forums, and that things will improve with time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The program manager that thought up this ill-advised scheme should be fired publicly. 

LR Classic=Lightroom. Nobody I know uses LR CC nor do I want to use a half assed raw editor that syncs everything to a cloud. I want LR Classic to return to Lightroom CC and focus solely on that. Ditch the user friendly CC your money comes from pros. Accommodate or isolate us and watch the product take a hit financially. Other competitors will release a full accommodating program in the end which will address OUR needs. Getting ready to abandon Adobe altogether at this point.

I am guessing you mean Lightroom Classic. Lightroom CC allows for multiple computers of the same catalog that both sync. It does only allow for a single catalog per Adobe ID however. 

I totally agree! I use Lightroom CC on two different computers for 2 different purposes and can't sync my favorites from both across to my phone, I wish there were a solution, this has been a problem for 5 years already!!

+1 for multi-catalog synching to Lightroom CC.  My use case involves having two catalogs that I maintain.  One for my personal photos and the other for my photography business.  I do not ever want to co-mingle these images, and my approach to organizing and keywording them within their respective catalogs is entirely different.  Therefore, I'd like to be able to synch Collections from both catalogs (personal and work) to Lightroom CC under a single Adobe ID.  Thanks!

The Retina display certainly requires a lot more processing power, because it's having to process a lot more pixels in order to show them on the screen. That's true of retina desktop computers as well as laptops. I'd leave GPU enabled when using a retina screen, as that's an issue the GPU is designed to help with. 

Have you started that new thread yet? Let's troubleshoot there, rather than cluttering up in inboxes of people who are interested in multiple catalog syncing.

Hi Victoria, thanks for the clarification about the hardware. I’m using a 15” Retina MBP for LR as I’m mostly on the move. Do you think that’s the reason why I’m facing these performance issues with the develop module? As soon as I go to the develop module and make any edit, the CPU spikes to 150-200-400-600% with each edit that I make.
Should LR only be used on desktop Mac OS systems?

I’ve tried various steps such as disabling GPU, not upgrading to Mojave, reinstalling LR, disabling writing edits to XMP and so on, to no avail. That’s when I went down this tangent of splitting my catalog.