P: Sync between Lightroom desktop and Lightroom cloud is stuck

[Huxley5CC4]

I'm doing some Lightroom housekeeping ahead of a big photo-trip next week, and part of it was deleting a bunch of lousy photos I've taken over the past couple years. After deleting ~15,000 photos, my desktop Lightroom CC (not Lightroom Classic) app (version 4.4 for Windows) is stuck 'syncing' 899 photos, and nothing I do seems to get the process to actually complete.

When I first saw this, Lightroom desktop was stuck 'syncing' 292 photos, and clicking "View" in the syncing menu would get the incredibly-unhelpful "Oh no! A black hole." message. Following tips I've found in other threads here, I tried making a small change to the last batch of photos I imported (I just and flagged them all as "picked"), and the number in the Cloud Syncing menu jumped up to 899, but now when I click "View" in the sync menu, only 607 photos are visible. 

Just going by the numbers referenced above, it can't be a coincidence that there were 292 photos stuck in sync-limbo when this first happened, I imported/tweaked 607 more, and now the Sync menu is stuck on 899 photos total (292 + 607 = 899). I also find it notable that the newest album I created (to contain the 607 photos noted above) doesn't appear in Lightroom Web - only in the desktop app. Something clogged the pipes, and I don't know how to un-clog them!

Help please? I'm really stressed about getting this solved before I leave on my trip in a few days!

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

If you log in with your Adobe ID at https://lightroom.adobe.com

do you see a Sync Issues Album on the left side?

[Huxley5CC4]

Nope, not seeing a "Sync Issues" album currently, and there's nothing in the "Deleted" folder/album either. 

I also posted my problem to Reddit, and someone there suggested that I delete the "lrlibrary file" - is that a recommended solution here?

Thanks for your help!

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Deleting the LrLibrary file will cause a new fresh sync to begin the next time you launch Lightroom.  Your entire catalog will sync back from the cloud to your desktop.  If you have any unsynced items from the Desktop to the Cloud they will be lost and are not recoverable. Ergo, this is not to be considered lightly.  If you are 100% certain. you are fully synced up to the cloud or if you have backups you can attempt this. It will take time...

Generally,  a sync stall is caused by a single asset that is having difficulties. 

A more prudent step for an unidentifiable stuck asset is to create a log file to determine the stuck asset.

For LrDesktop

Go to Preferences

Account Section

Hold down the [Opt/Alt] key to make [Diagnostic Log] button appear.

Some customer review the log file to determine the asset that is stuck, and perform a small edit on the file in hopes it will unstick it.  Otherwise you can share the log with me and I will have an engineer review it to see if it is a transient issue or if a fix is needed to resolve. 

[Huxley5CC4]

Got it, thank you for clarifying! Given that there are several hundred photos in my Lightroom CC Desktop app which are not synced to the cloud (or present on my Mac which also has Lightroom CC Desktop installed), I definitely don't want to overwrite the local catalog with the (inclomplete) cloud version. 

With that in mind, I'm attaching the DiagnosticLog file - can you take a look and help me figure out what I need to do here? Please note that I changed the file-extension from HTML to .txt so the file-attach tool would accept it, you may need to change it back again. Thanks for reviewing it!

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I do not see an attached file or link to a file. 

[Huxley5CC4]

Ugh, that's super frustrating. Here's a direct link to the file on my DropBox - any help is appreciated!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ti148izco6d370z/LightroomLog.zip?dl=0

[Huxley5CC4]

Hey again, quick update: after manually exporting and saving them, I've just deleted every photo I'd imported to Lightroom since this issue started... and it's still stuck "syncing" 899 photos that no longer even exist in my library. I'm leaving on a multi-day photography trip tomorrow and I'm legit losing my mind here - can you please take a look? Here's a fresh log export, made after I deleted the most recent photos: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eueku4n7e79pyj9/DiagnosticLog-2.zip?dl=0

Thanks.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

When you deleted the items, did you also purge them from your Deleted Items area? They will stay there for 60 days.

The logs won't help much until we clear the most recent group of activities you've performed. I fear they have muddied the waters and we need them to settle before looking into the original issue. 

[Huxley5CC4]

Hey again,

I'm lost and frustrated here. I left Lightroom open while I was on my trip (just got home tonight) and not only is it still syncing endlessly, but now it shows that it's trying to sync 19,675 photos - an insane amount, and nearly 2/3 of my entire library. I don't understand this, and I don't understand your advice about waiting for it to "settle." 

Can you please provide some specific, concrete steps that can be taken to resolve this now?

Thank you,

Huxley

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

" I don't understand your advice about waiting for it to "settle." "

I mean refrain from making additional changes hoping to affect sync until your sync counts have completed or stabilized at a number without moving. 

What is the sync count today?

[Huxley5CC4]

Lightroom currently reports that it's attempting to sync 19,675 images. I can see in Task Manager that it's using a lot of RAM and generating a lot of disk read/write activity, but there's no network activity at all, which certainly correlates with the lack of any progress in the sync. Looking in the Web version of lightroom, there's nothing in the Deleted folder and no Sync Conflicts folder/album.

Here's a fresh diagnostic log output: https://www.dropbox.com/s/57ucdtmokcboewg/HuxleyLightroomDiagnosticLogOct25.zip?dl=0

What's the next step here?

Huxley

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I've forwarded your log to our engineering staff for review. Please stand by. 

[Huxley5CC4]

Thanks Rikk, I appreciate that you've enlisted some help from the engineering team! Hopefully they can help me get this sorted - I've just returned from a ~1,500 mile drive all over Northern California + Southern Oregon, and it's a terrible feeling to have so many photos I'm dying to review but have my primary tool stuck like this.

Best,

Huxley

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I've heard back from the engineer.  The Sync issue is related to a recent deletion.

Go to https://lightroom.adobe.com and clear any images from both the Sync Issues (if present) and the Deleted Items. 

Restart your Lightroom App and allow to sync for 1 hour.

Generate a Full Report 

For LrDesktop

Go to Preferences

Account Section

Hold down the [Opt/Alt] key to make [Full Report] button appear.

I will be relaying that report back to the engineer.

Thanks!

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

No longer applies

[Huxley5CC4]

Okay, I've done as you asked (note that there was nothing in the Web version's Deleted Items and no Sync Issues either) - here's the log:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r4a6fka57b63cs5/LrDiagnostics-3.zip?dl=0

Thanks,

Huxley

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I've forwarded to the engineer. Please leave the file in Dropbox for now.

Thanks!

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

One of the files came through as corrupt. Can you create a new report and send it again?

Sorry for the inconvenience. 

[Huxley5CC4]

Okay, here's a fresh Full Log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ib6xtnhpkhbh9ng/LrDiagnostics-4.zip?dl=0

Hopefully this doesn't reduce it's usefulness, but I should note that the previous log (the one you said was corrupt) took 2-3 hours to export while the sync process was (ineffectively) running. This time, I launched Lightroom, immediately paused the sync, and then generated the Full Log - only took 2-3 minutes.

Thanks,

Huxley

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thanks!

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I will be posting recovery instructions for you in a direct message. 

[Huxley5CC4]

Awesome, thank you - I'll check it out ASAP!

Huxley