Just Shoot Me, I’m happy to politely continue discussions about features I want and encourage others looking for the same features to make their case. Discouraging people from posting by criticizing their choice of words and encouraging a defeatist attitude doesn’t seem to help reach the end goal of this feature request.
When I create a Collection Set in LR Classic and mrk it for syncing, the same set structure is duplicated in Lightroom Desktop but not in Lightroom Mobile. It would be helpful if that were the default organizational structure for albums in Mobile.
Adobe are very specific and actually recommend people to NOT use both at the same time. From their
"Creative Cloud Photography plans | Common questions" current FAQ:
Should I use Lightroom Classic and Lightroom together? We encourage anyone who currently uses Lightroom Classic to download and
try Lightroom in order to decide if you’d like to switch to Lightroom.
Our recommendation is that you pick one and use it on an ongoing basis.
We don't recommend using both together in the long term.
They are different behind the scenes. Lightroom does not have the functionality of Lightroom Classic yet, and the way the files are stored/ accessed is totally different (ie cloud based). My personal 'hope' is that, when they get to a point that the cloud version has more funcitonality akin to Classic, they will also create a tool/option to upload a previous Lightroom Classic library in full.
Adobe are very specific and actually recommend people to NOT use both at the same time. From their
"Creative Cloud Photography plans | Common questions" current FAQ:
Should I use Lightroom Classic and Lightroom together? We encourage anyone who currently uses Lightroom Classic to download and
try Lightroom in order to decide if you’d like to switch to Lightroom.
Our recommendation is that you pick one and use it on an ongoing basis.
We don't recommend using both together in the long term.
They are different behind the scenes. Lightroom does not have the functionality of Lightroom Classic yet, and the way the files are stored/ accessed is totally different (ie cloud based). My personal 'hope' is that, when they get to a point that the cloud version has more funcitonality akin to Classic, they will also create a tool/option to upload a previous Lightroom Classic library in full.
Adobe, I've been with you since the 90's, and you've always led the way in this industry - I'm clearly a long time fan.
However, please listen to this thread - if you don't create a simple way for Lightroom Classic users to be able to import their libraries to Lightroom, with all the details it's taken them years to organize/create intact, you are missing a HUGE trick and loosing out on a easy additional revenue stream.
I have around 27,000 photos and I'm not even a pro (or semi pro!). The manual tags/ albums/ collections etc Lightroom Classic users have crated to be able to meaningfully view their photos are not just something that's just been used by pros. This is a huge part of why I am using Lightroom Classic in the first place. Also, the 'date' metadata in photos can't always be relied on (scans of older photos, edited
photos that took on a new date due, things saved / passed around between
family phones, etc, etc, etc) so uploading by date is of no use at all
and would actually make sorting much harder.
If I have to go through checking every date and re-creating my entire environment all over again to switch, that's going to sting more than a giant hornet.
Seriously, listen to us on this. Multiple times now I have 'almost' switched to Lightroom on the cloud - which would be double what I'm paying now to get the storage I need - but I have stopped every time because of this. If easier to upload them to Google than another version of the same product, that's a real problem.
Rosie Robinson, the import tool does what you are hoping for. My understanding is the import tool is more featureful than the syncing. I’m just waiting/hoping that Lightroom cloud gets the missing features before I pull the trigger and switch. As it stands now there will be data loss when you import just because the cloud version does not have the ability to store some data (ie hierarchical keywords).
Thanks Chris Brown, I know you saw my longer post too. To me it's simply not my full library without the actual data I've added. And the 'all or nothing, no turning back' migration doesn't help me want to try!
Thanks @rosie for clarifying the integrity of both applications. To be honest I lost the long term vision with Adobe and will probably switch to another application completely. Besides all the problems with sync mentioned in this thread, I would be more than happy to use only Lr Classic but it had been slow since begging and continues to slow down since last years update. I am taking freaking 5min of startup time with crashing on the edge, that's not a professional software and neither company I am expecting from Adobe. Lr Cloud is a lot faster therefore I tried to switch at least partially but it's not possible as you mentioned really. (And I am NOT going to pay for storing 5Tb of my photos on Cloud! Like straight out forget that Adobe)
Bonjour, ce qui m'étonne, je ne vois aucune réation de la part de collaborateurs de Adobe, ni pour contester, ni pour approuver, cette conversation va-t-elle donc être passée par le chemin des oubliettes chez Adobe ?
Yves Crausaz, Suisse, retraité actif dans le monde de la photo et des arts graphiques.
The sync between Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic seems very unfinished to me. I understand they are different products, meant for different purposes but I think syncing between the two could really be improved, without drastically modifying each of the apps.
The idea to sync pictures from Classic to Mobile and vice-versa makes sense, it's nice to be able to find pictures you have stored in your desktop library when you're on the go on your mobile. And it makes sense that if you take pictures on the go, edit them on Lightroom Mobile, then they get synced back to your desktop.
The issue is the sync feature has so many limitations, it's virtually unusable if you don't want to find yourself in a big mess... Especially if you have a big photo library with thousands of pictures.
One thing I find particularly annoying is that collections set don't sync with Lightroom Mobile folders of albums. If you're trying to organize things nicely with a hierarchy of collections and collections sets, or albums and folders in Lightroom Mobile, then this structure just don't sync between the two.
As of now if you want to have a hierarchal structure of collections/albums that stays the same between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Mobile, you have to sync them manually. In 2023 this shouldn't be the case. Every cloud storage nowdays sync files and folders preserving the user's hierarchy.
So it makes sense that physical folders from Lightroom Classic don't sync with the cloud, because Lightroom Mobile doesn't work with folders and files. But collections (Lightroom Classic) and albums (Lightroom Mobile) could sync preserving hierarchy, cause both collections and albums are virtual folders referencing images.
The solution:
Stop syncing Lightroom Classic's collections to Lightroom Mobile's albums. Instead create a new organisational panel in Lightroom Classic, named Albums (could be located between the collection and the publish services in the left navigation panel in library module). This panel would replicate exactly the albums and folders structure of Lightroom Mobile. Then any pictures you place in an album would automatically sync to Lightroom Mobile, and pictures from Lightroom Mobile would arrive in Classic in this new Album panel, in their respective album/folder hierarchy. Also you would not even need to right click and toggle "sync collection" as everything in this new Album panel would automatically sync.
Then Collections would be for organizing pictures you don't want to be synced with the could and Albums would be for organizing pictures you want to sync with the cloud.
One could decide to not use Albums at all if they don't want to use the cloud feature. Or one could decide to not use Collections at all if they want everything to be synced with the cloud.
Basically it would just make everything clearer: one panel for local organization, one panel for cloud organization.
And one more thing: if Adobe decides one day they want to implement smart albums in Lightroom Mobile (which would be great by the way), then it would be much easier to sync them to Lightroom Classic. They would sync to the Albums panel, and wouldn't interfere with the smart collections. That would be great as I don't think a smart collection could ever sync with a smart album, as the way Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC organize files and manage metadata are completely different.
I, too, would like to see the ability to share Collection SETS to Lightroom Web. I teach college-level digital photography. Lightroom Web is an excellent way for students to share photos with each other for peer review. However, every new assignment/collection has to be synced and shared anew each week. It would be a huge time saver if a Collection Set could be shared with the class, separated into the different collections for each assignment, without needing to setup the share each time.
Other things that would enhance the student/teacher usage of Lightroom Web would be the ability to see each other's star ratings withOUT having to select an individual photo. When we made contact sheets, I had them setup the contact sheets with their star rating under each photo. This helped peer reviewers (and me!) review hundreds of photos quickly. I may have to return to contact sheets if Lightroom Web continues to require individual collection syncing (rather than Collection Sets).
Filtering by Comments or "no comments" would also be useful.