P: Ability to sync Lightroom Classic keywords with the Lightroom Ecosystem

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Keywords do not sync correctly: When added on the mobile app (iOS), they do not appear in LR classic and not in LR Web (I deleted the new LR CC immediately, this version does not make sense to me).
Same problem into the other direction: Keywords from LR classic do not appear on the mobile app. 
Attention: At this stage the whole keywording within the iOS app should not be used!

[gobino]

Thanks!

Yea, I don't need my raw files in the cloud, but do you know a way of how I can get my high-res jpgs in the cloud. I mean, smart previews are already great but not up to the size as my original files.

Is there an issue way of getting the jpgs in the cloud? Or would that involve exporting to jpg first and then re-import? And doing this way I lose the original created date, right?

[Jim Wilde]

The only way to get any full-res file, raw or derivative, into the cloud will be to import them directly into any of the Lightroom apps. Note that when you do that, they will also automatically sync down into the sync-enabled Classic catalog, so before you do that make sure you've had a look at the Classic Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab, where you can specify a different location for those downloaded images if you prefer (the default is a "Mobile Downloads.lrdata" folder/package on the local system drive), and you can also choose one of the standard date-based folder structures.

When you export the raws from Classic to create the jpegs for import into Lightroom, make sure you check the option to Include All Metadata in the Export settings dialog box, that way all the metadata, including keywords and capture date, is retained in the jpeg.

[gobino]

Great, thanks for the help!

Much appreciated.

Have a nice day!

[alisonp89568264]

Why oh why can I not add keywords in LR Classic and search for them in the cloud?  Like many professional photographers, I do all of my importing and editing in Classic, and then sync to the cloud to show people.  I have thousands of photos synced, and they all have keywords in Classic on my desktop.  It seems insane to me that I cannot search by keywords in Mobile.  OK, there is a workaround that requires a lot of work to get keywords to sync, but I would have to do that repeatedly over time to get all recent keywords added.

Will Adobe ever properly since Classic keywords to the cloud?  It is soo incredibly frustrating that this is not done.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Why doesn't Adobe feel that this feature is not useful?  If they feel that Keywords are not important then why to they provide the ability to input keywords?  What use are keywords that are different between Classic and Mobile?  It is crazy that this bug has been here since the they started to sync, and they don't seem to want to fix it.  If they wont fix it they should remove keywording; but that would make people realize that there is a problem that most people don't know is there.

[johnrellis]

When LR was rebranded as "Lightroom Classic", Adobe communicated that they would focus most of their efforts on the Develop module (i.e. the part that is shared with Camera Raw and Lightroom). They also explicitly stated there would be no more improvements in sync between LR Classic and LR Cloud.  Supposedly, the Lightroom Cloud product manager indicated at a Adobe conference several years ago that he didn't think manually added keywords were very important.

[robgendreau]

Heh. I wonder if Adobe is satisfied with non Classic; Adobe Literoom so to speak.

Seems it still lags; seems every day in support forums I see people frustrated with it (most recently some with the hobbled cropping choices). So it has a LONG way to go even in just that Develop module.

Bottom line is that the manager might be right...the casual users might be satisfied with just lite features all the way around, and in having just a front end to storage. After all someone with a lot of images, who needs keywords, probably should avoid it for all sorts of reasons.

[gobino]

I'm not even a professional photographer but I agree with you.

What I find strange is that Adobe sells Lightroom and Lightroom Classic as the "photography package" while they almost do not seem to be able to work together. Keywords syncing is one of them, while another one is the file syncing (this thread).

You can only sync smart previews from Classic to Lightroom, and if I wanted my full res jpgs from Classic, I would need to upload them again in Lightroom. But as I sync my edited mobile images from Lightroom to Classic, these full res jpgs would be resynced back to Classic. So either I disable syncing from Lightroom to Classic, or I only use the previews in Lightroom...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Agree with all the posters wishing this feature would be made available. Keyword syncing can’t be hard.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I would love to be able to travel with my iPad Pro instead of a laptop.  When I travel, I just want to copy my photos, flag or rate them, add a few keywords and some do some basic editing.  I often do not have robust (if any) internet service and want to be able to transfer my keywords and adjustments back to Lightroom classic when I get home.  An internet based solution does not work well if you take 50+ go of photos a day.

is this too much to ask?

[Amy Rothstein]

In 2021, is this still true? This is not in any documentation about the sync function, and other metadata is respected.  I found before putting a lot of time into keywording (another artist's life work). The keywords are in the metadata of the files themselves, though, so although Adobe could not manage to respect this important data, other software does. 

[Amy Rothstein]

Not able to read in the existing set of keywords is lame. 

[mribando]

It seems very strange to me that the tagging functionality in LR Mobile does not update LR Classic.  My titles come over but not my tags. Can we fix this limitation?

[Bill in Wisconsin]

I have been using LR since it's inception, and still use LR Classic as my primary library and editing platform. I use LR CC on my laptop and in the past, the keywords from Classic transferred to CC. I now notice that keywords are no longer transferring. This creates a major issue when using CC, particularly if searching for specific images. Apparently from what I read, Adobe has prevented "syning" of keywords intentionally due to differeing formats for keywords between Classic and CC. This is a bug that really needs to be fixed so that the 50,000 images I have in Classic can be keyworded in CC.

[Brendan D Rowlands]

Hello Jim

I cannot believe that LR to LRC doesn't sync keywords!! I just spent hours putting keywords in LR while I was away from the office only to find this "issue" Is there a work around that you know of. I had thought of creating new albums in LR based on a limited number of Keywords (basically by year) and then sync those. Is this an option? Thanks.

Brendan

PS: For Adobe - can this be something to include in an update to these packages?

[Jim Wilde]

You could do that I guess, though personally I'd just bite the bullet and make the same keyword change in both apps if I wanted to keep the keywords more or less in sync. I work on the principle of making all my keywords assignments in Classic before I sync the images to the cloud, thus keeping subsequent changes to an absolute minimum (still ocassionally need to make double changes though!).

Given that it's been 8 years since cloud syncing was added to Classic (LR5 at the time), I've reluctantly accepted the fact that keyword syncing isn't going to happen and work around the problem accordingly.

[wolfgangw44446013]

Ich habe mal einen Versuch gemacht und mir LR auf dem Android Handy installiert,

Die Idee war unterwegs die Bilder als Backup in die Cloud zu laden und etwas vorsortieren und Verschlagworten

Die syncronisation mit LR Classic funktioniert, bis auf die für mich wichtigste Funktion, die Verschlagwortung.

Zum einen kann ich nicht mehrere Bilder auf dem Handy gleichzeitig mit dem selben Schlagwort versehen, allein das macht das schon Sinnlos, denn 500 Bilder einzeln mit den gleichen Schlagwörtern versehen ist dämlich.

Aber die Schlagworte werden auch nicht an LR Classic übertragen.

Ich hatte dann noch versucht mit der Downloadsoftware die Files incl der XMPs auf den Rechner zu laden, funktioniert insoweit, dass die Entwicklungseinstellungen in den XMPs stehen, aber auch hier fehlen die Stichwörter.

Was für ein Mist.

[JohanElzenga]

That is correct and as expected. Lightroom Classic does not sync keywords.

[brunopetit17]

I add my voice to this feature request: Keywords should sync between Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic. 

I understand keywords work differently in both versions of Lightroom, so here are two ways this feature could be implemented:

First, and I think that would be best, Adobe should implement hierarchal keywords in Lightroom CC. They successfully replicated all editing tools that exist in Classic in CC. So why not hierarchal keywords? It's defintitely possible if they have the will to do it. Then if the keywords management work the same in CC and Classic, then keywords sync is possible.

Second, if Adobe really doesn't want to implement hierarchal keywords in CC, then create a new panel in Classic, called for example Flat Keywords. This would create two class of keywords in Lightroom Classic: the hierarchal ones that don't sync, and the flat ones that sync.

[Tate28477058cdbd]

This is kind of a joke the keywords don't sync. Like, WHY NOT?! Having keywords to search images is one of the best things in Lightroom and should be included in what is supposed to be a nice back and forth ecosystem.

[Lyrimage]

Hallo Zusammen,

Wenn ich mit der Kamera Wandern bin und meine Fotos sichern möchte, lade ich Sie über die Lightroom App gern übers Handy oder Tablett in die Cloud. Abends würde ich die Zeit dann gern dazu nutzen die Fotos mit Stichworten, Bewertungen und anderen Attributen zu versehen, so dass ich sie Zuhause dann direkt mit Lightroom Desktop weiterverarbeiten könnte. Leider werden weder Stichworte noch Bewertungen noch Kennzeichnungen zwischen der Desktop Version und der Android Version synchronisiert. Das wäre aber, meiner Meinung nach, ein echter Mehrwert. Sonst kann ich die Lightroom App wirklich nur als Datensicherung nutzen. 

Ist geplant, dieses Synchronisierungs-Feature zu integrieren?

Danke für die Antwort im Voraus.

Markus

[Lyrimage]

Hi Rikk,

Thank you for the Info. What is the reason? You only Worte, that the Issue was  closed, because of a crossapplication workflow. But when I write information in the title of the Image, these information will be synced. So I do not understand the difference so far.

Thank you for your Answer in Advance.

Kind regards 

Markus

[Ralph Lwouvie]

I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I'd rather lose the hierarchical information if it means that I can sync keywords between the two. (I don't use hierarchical keywords anyway in LrC). 

In addition, I use Smart Folders to automatically gather photos by locations, which will eventually evolve into their own photography projects. Not having this on the go is quite limiting. 

Please count on my vote in adding Keyword and Smart Folder sync between the two. 

[Uhl]

Another vote for an option to limit Lightroom Classic keywords to being flat, so they can sync with Lighroom cloud.

I actually already flattened my Classic keyword list, only to be disappointed that they still won't sync. 😔

[Lumigraphics]

Seven years later and Lightroom CC/Mobile is still useless to me.

- I use Bridge at work (product photography) and Lightroom Classic at home. Neither workflow would be usable with LR CC.

- My home library has > 350,000 files, on multiple external hard drives. That's not going in the cloud.

- I have probably 150,000 images at work and again, not usable in the cloud (plus management wouldn't want them there.)

- At work, I make heavy use of keywords in Bridge which are not usable in either version of Lightroom.

- As for the whole syncing issue, keywords are plain text. Parent|Child|Child|Child. I can't believe that a solution cannot be found.

- Also, keywords live in multiple XMP/EXIF namespaces. Adobe hasn't even gotten THOSE right. :sigh:

- Honestly, there should just be ONE version of Lightroom that works with both local and cloud catalogs, allows granular syncing to mobile/cloud, has full support for keywords, is compatible with Bridge, is more easily scriptable (one big reason I use Bridge at work, despite its numerous flaws) and fixes all the poor UI choices. If I was the product manager I'd buy the rights to Aperture and use the UI concepts. Get rid of the different modes. Make it the kind of app it SHOULD be.