P: Background Syncing

Report · May 23, 2015

Lightroom Mobile for iOS should support background sync. Currently, the app only syncs when opened but stops when switching to another iOS app or the display starts to sleep. This makes the workflow less than optimised and required unnecessary user attention. Please consider implementing this functionality.

Report · Jan 31, 2016

I completely agree with Marc. Lightroom Mobile background sync is a must-have. And if someone doesn't want it, they could turn it off, either in iOS settings (Background App Refresh), or maybe Adobe could build it as a selectable feature.

I tried Lr Mobile's Auto Add photos when it first was available, but never used it beyond testing because I couldn't control where Lr stored the mobile images on my desktop. It defaulted to my boot drive and there was no way to change it. Moving the photos manually was too much of a hassle, so I went back to using another iOS app that uploaded iPhone photos to my NAS server automatically. However, that app had its own problems and I have been eager to get away from it.

With the most recent release of Lightroom allowing us to store our Lr Mobile photos wherever we want, it seemed I was back in business with the Auto Add Photo feature. Now I come to discover that Lr Mobile only syncs when the app is open and the iPhone not locked. Really? Of all the apps that backup your iPhone photos to a cloud somewhere...seems all of them work in the background.

Lightroom is the cornerstone of my photo world, so I'm going to suck it up for now and keep using Lr Mobile to add my iPhone photos to my Lr catalog, but Adobe, PLEASE give us background syncing (background app refresh on iOS). It will make life so much easier for those of us relying heavily on Lr Mobile!

Cheers

Report · May 06, 2016

+1 for this. At least to have it as an option that is opt-in only. That would ensure nobody's data plan is savaged by accidental downloads, but users who know their own usage caps can take advantage of this.

This would also closely mimic the native iCloud Photo Library functionality.

Report · Oct 03, 2016

This seems like core functionality and an absolute necessity.

Report · Jan 30, 2017

In Australia we have max 2mbs upload speeds from home cable internet. It takes ages to upload even one photo. I can't leave my phone one long enough to upload a days worth. It is insane not to have it upload in the background. Really disappointing, as I love using the mobile app to take and manipulate raw photos on the go.

Report · Nov 28, 2017

Please make the background sync work. You have already added the “background sync” option switch to iPhone settings, but we still have to leave iPhone on charger with display on in order to sync. This is unacceptable with new iPhone X AMOLED screen, it burns out! And you did not introduce the coding to make the “home bar” disappear

Report · May 27, 2019

My (limited) expertise tells me that this is not an Adobe issue but an iOS issue. I don't think iOS allows non-Apple apps to "self-initiate." It requires manual launching, but CAN continue to operate in the background once launched. I don't know for how long it can remain running in the background.

Report · Jun 01, 2019

2019 and still no luck with background sync on iPad Pro 11

Report · Jul 09, 2019

I was really disappointed this wasn’t an option. I am transitioning from Google Photos to Lightroom and was a bit shocked my photos wouldn’t update in the background.

For previous posters: this is possible on iOS. Traditionally it’s done by allowing Location Services (which Lightroom already asks permission for). Once allowed, an app can register to be notified of coarse changes in location, which allows the app some time to run. When this happens the app checks for and then uploads new pictures. In my experience, it was enough to keep your photos updated automatically even when just going about your day.

I hope Adobe considers adding this. It’s a major flaw.

Report · Sep 28, 2019

And while at it, please also enable auto-import in the background. It would be nice if Lightroom would import & sync everything in the background so that you just have to clear out your camera roll every now and then and you're set.

Report · Nov 05, 2019

The sould at least support slide over and split view in order to be able to continue using the device while it syncs.

Report · Jan 03, 2020

This is crazy how it cannot sync in the background or while the device is asleep. Dropbox has been able to do this for almost a decade... All the other cloud applications work just fine - why not Adobe?

Report · Jan 03, 2020

Agree. I just completed a survey from Adobe about our Lightroom use and put this as the Number One complaint/need for improvement in the product. However, still not sure this is under Adobe's control. It might be that Apple is preventing Adobe from competing with its iCloud-linked products (which do sync in the background).

Report · Jan 03, 2020

Indeed, other apps can do it without issue.
The should also implement split screen and slide over, which could allow LR to remain open and still use other apps...

Report · Jun 29, 2020

Well, he's one way to look at it Adobe. I just plain won't use Lightroom unless you implement this feature. I recently took over 200 photos and had to wait three days for them to sync to my desktop app. That's ridiculous.

Report · Jun 29, 2020

Ditto. I have also linked this thread on the Lightroom Classic forum hosted on Adobe.com.
Hopefully this will finally get fixed. This thread has been active for 5 years now.
https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/apple-iphone-ios-still-times-out-before-sync-finish...

Report · Oct 31, 2023

Any news on this ? Uploaded around 100 RAWs , woke up at morning hoping it would be all uploaded on CC , but only 3 pictures got trough when checked on other devices . Than looked at ipad seeing 3% uploaded ....

Report · Oct 31, 2023

Not only on IOS, Android too. I created a small 6h black video I can run in a popup window to keep the app active and working.

Report · Feb 16, 2024

Here it is Feb 2024 and Adobe hasn't addressed this. I am going to assume they don't care but it does seem like an important feature to me. When synching LR mobile with the cloud on my ipad it renders my ipad useless since the sync speed is so slow and i'm on fiber.

I know my sync speed will be a little bit slower since i work with raw images but what blows my mind is I load raw files from my camera card onto LR mobile, choose save locally and to me it appears it has to send the image to the cloud, then sends it back down to my ipad. Why can't it just copy the raw files over right then?

Report · Mar 23, 2024

Allow sync when Lightroom Mobile is in the background, or phone is locked

(except for when phone settings override background activities of course, such as battery saving mode)

Why:

Saves battery on the phone not having to have the screen active when uploading a multitude of photos, allows you to lock your phone and thus prevent people access to it if you should need to leave it somewhere (charging for instance) so a security measure as well.

My use: I do not carry a laptop with me, is the reason I get the fanciest phone... it does the job (except when apps doesn't allow it) I shoot photos, either on location, or on a trip... at the end of the day I import them to my phone so that I have an extra copy (backup) ... I also like to make sure that they are in the cloud.... for backup. 3-2-1 is the best backup strategy.

Report · Sep 06, 2024

I agree. At least on iOS, each app has resource-consuming settings divided by "When using app" vs. "Always" so it seems logical that any iOS app using network should follow this pattern. Then we could set Lightroom on iPhone to "Always" and additionally whether to use WiFi and/or cellular

Report · Jan 26, 2025

Lightroom cloud user. Android. V10.1.0 Android tablet (galaxy s9) Raw files are in the cloud.

When I hit 'store locally' on a folder it starts downloading them and this seems to work fine, but it seems like I have to be actually in the app with it open and the screen on/unlocked for them to download. I can't lock the screen or move to another app and the download continues. With large raw files, an album of 500 images can be 50gb, which takes a while to download but I can't just, say, leave it overnight to download as the screen will time out and lock.

It would be great to get it to download in the background, which is what Netflix, Spotify, YouTube etc do when you select things to save offline, they just download in the background and you don't need the app open in the foreground to download.

Thanks!

Report · Mar 08, 2025

10 years later:

new Android phone

Still has to sit on the table useless for days, with a specifically created black video (that prevents Android from turning the screen off after it's max timeout of 10minutes), just to get my "store locally" albums on the device.

Yes I did click 3 times ("settings for the album -> "story locally" -> "yes do it") multiplied by 200, because there is still no "select all and story locally" or "store everything in this folder locally" option. Or a simply why to store theses settings so they get reapplied on a new device.