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violetkaren
violetkaren
Participant
April 14, 2019
Question

How do I sync deleting between apple photos and Lightroom CC and Classic?

  • April 14, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1903 views

I have the iPhone8+ and my photos upload to Lightroom CC but when I delete from either they don't sync. In other words, if I delete from within LR CC they are still on my phone and if I delete from my phone they are still on LR CC. What am I doing wrong? I've searched all over for an answer and everything is on how to sync not on how to delete and sync. Even in LR Classic, where I have a folder that says imported photos, and they are synced, it doesn't delete them. Some are greyed out with an exclamation mark and I'm guessing it's because I've deleted them, but others that I know I've deleted are still there. I have the iPhone8+, iPad 9.7 and Macbook Pro and they all sync quite well. I also use a PC desktop still and have LR CC on all 4. They all same number of photos and continue to add new iPhone photos but will not delete. Is this not an option? Can I only add from apple photos to LR and not delete from Lightroom and have it delete in the cloud? If that's the case does anyone have a way they keep it all in order? I hope I've explained this enough ways that someone understands and can help me as I have done a lot of searching for answer with out success. TIA

2 replies

Theresa J
Community Expert
Theresa JCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 17, 2019

Apple Photos and Lightroom are two different Cloud services, by two different companies. They don’t talk to each other. When you add your iPhone photos to Lightroom they are uploaded to the Lightroom cloud as copies. There is no connection back to the original photos on your phone. The best workflow is to add the photos to Lightroom and then delete them from the camera roll after the sync is complete in Lightroom.

Your question about Classic is different issue. Classic is not a cloud application. All photos in a Classic catalog have to reside on a local hard drive. When you turn on sync with Lr CC all of the photos in the Lightroom cloud get downloaded to a local drive. When you delete a photo from the Lightroom Cloud, the copy that Classic downloaded is still there. Only the original in the cloud gets deleted.

It sounds like you are struggling to understand where your photos actually live, and how everything connects. You aren’t alone. It is confusing. I created a course on Lynda.com/ LinkedIn Learning to explain all of this.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-the-lightroom-ecosystem/the-power-of-the-lightroom-ecosystem?u=2125562

    violetkaren
    violetkarenAuthor
    Participant
    April 18, 2019

    Thank you Theresa! The thing is that they are talking to each other through syncing and I need to figure out how things are uploading from my iphone to both CC and Classic. I'm working on redoing some things to see if I can fix this. And the syncing doesn't seem work well.

    I'm thinking I just need to save my iphone photos to a folder on my computer and start over but going to try some things first.

    Theresa J
    Community Expert
    Theresa JCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 18, 2019

    Are your images in the camera roll automatically being added to Lightroom? It sounds like that is what you are describing. There is a preference setting in Lightroom to auto upload anything new in the camera roll. This is not the same thing as syncing between the two. You can turn off the preference to auto upload.

    It is not possible to sync the camera roll with Lightroom. It’s a one way trip only. Images upload to Lightroom and after that there is no connection back to the camera roll.

    And nothing is uploading to Classic, because Classic doesn’t work that way. Images in the cloud will download to your computer when you connect Classic with the Lightroom CC Ecosystem.

    I don’t think you need to start over. I just think you need a little better clarity about how the sync is supposed to work.

      Akash Sharma
      Akash Sharma
      Legend
      April 15, 2019

      Hi violetkaren,

      Sorry that you're facing problems with Lightroom ecosystem as the images deleted by you on any of your connected device do not reflect on other devices.

      I'd recommend that you try the below steps:

      1. Sign out of Lightroom and Lightroom Classic apps on both desktop and Lightroom app on your mobile device, sign back in to see of the issue still persists.
      2. Rebuild the sync data in Lightroom Classic CC:

      Select the option: Classic -> Preferences -> Lightroom Sync -> Press alt/option -> Click on Rebuild Sync data

      Let us know if that helps.

      Thanks,

      Akash

      violetkaren
      violetkarenAuthor
      Participant
      April 18, 2019

      Thank you Akash!

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