Lightroom 5.4 to Lightroom Mobile sync is soooo slow - why no local sync?

[x2mt]

I am testing the new Lightroom 5.4 with Lightoom Mobile. What really annoys me is the fact that all photos are going up to the Creative Cloud. I have private pictures which should be private. Always. No upload. No Cloud sync. It is important!

Speed is the next major problem. LR 5 is way too slow for a fluid workflow. But this is mentioned from other users.

What absolutely makes me sad ist the sync speed of LR5.4 to LR Mobile. 100 Photos took up to 4 hours. On a typical wedding I have 2000+ images. Depending on the speed of the first 100 photos I have to wait 80+ hours? Are you kiddding me? This makes LR Mobile unusable. My clients are expecting results fast. Speed is one factor to the next contract.

Overall, I don't want to sync anything into the Cloud. I want a to use my fast local sync via WiFi or USB. Only those two options. I want to sync photos even without any internet connection successfully and quickly.

I'm fine with authentication with Adobe servers for licensing verification. But that's it. The rest should be configurable by the users whether they Cloud sync or not.

[DdeGannes]

@markalanthomas post 39

Fact is your iPad just does not have the computing power or capacity to run the full Lightroom program in the same manner as your Laptop or Desktop.

[DdeGannes]

@markalanthomas post 39

Fact is your iPad just does not have the computing power or capacity to run the full Lightroom program in the same manner as your Laptop or Desktop.

[markalanthomas]

I don't expect it to. I just think Lr mobile seems silly without the ability to import and sync back to the desktop. I'm not saying it can't be useful as it is, though.

[Wolf Eilers]

I like the look and feel of Lr Mobile as well but it's just not practical if raw images have to be sourced from desktop Lr. When we can sync between a desktop and a laptop using full versions of Lr then things get interesting.

[Jim Wilde]

I'm also in the UK with typically 40 Mbps down and 7.25 Mbps up. Testing to San Jose produces varied results depending upon which server I use, the fastest one gives me around 38 down and 6.5 up. Ran some tests last night (results probably skewed a little due to hyper-activity on the CC servers!), 800 x 22mp raw files with Smart Previews pre-built took just over 38 minutes to upload, which is 2.88 seconds per image.

A second set of 800 images, this time without pre-built SPs took just over 51 minutes, which is 3.88 seconds per image.

Running a 4 year-old i7930 with 12gb of RAM, Win7x64.

Not sure what that really means without some further testing, though it does seem that if you're only getting 10 seconds per image then there may be some other issue at play rather than just "slow syncing". Have you tried again today?

[KeesJansen]

Sync is extremely slow on fact connections

There no reason why this could not work on a local wifi network.

It's crazy to do this through Adobe servers. They can't make Creative Cloud work properly.

[Brode2]

The answer to all your problems is to use Photosmith instead.  Rather than cloud, it uses WiFi to sync and has many more features than does the LR app.  You can keynote, rate, flag, caption, create collections, and sync both ways.

[Bob Somrak]

I agree Photosmith is a slick app.  The busy work of keywording, flagging, rating, etc can be done easily.  You can also download RAWs directly from the camera in the field which gives you an automatic backup.  When you get back to your PC you can just sync on fast local wireless.   For now I can't see the advantage of editing on a non color calibrated device where all your colors are going to need to be redone in Lightroom.  Final sharpening and noise reduction using the Smart Previews are not even recommended by Adobe, even in Lightroom, as stated here. 

http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2013/04/editing-off-line-files-in-the-lightroom-5-beta-using-smart-prev...

[Brode2]

While I haven't yet had the chance to play around with LR Mobile because of the sign on problem, and don't know how extensive are it's editing capabilities, they have to be limited.  Besides, there are alot of other very good editing apps out there like Photogene and Snapseed.  Edit on those if you must, import into Photosmith, tag to your hearts delight, then sync to LR at home.  I have not experienced any significant color differences between my images on the IPad and my calibrated MAC, probably because they are both Apple products.  But then, my needs may not be a critical as yours.

[Bob Somrak]

The disadvantage to Photogene and Snapseed is that your edits will not sync up to the RAW files in Lightroom.  That is the whole point of Lightroom Mobile.  Its a Version 1.0 app so we will have to see what progress will be made.  For me, if I want to edit on a small device in the field I will just get a Microsoft Surface Pro/clone or Macbook Air and put the full version of Lightroom on it.

On my Ipad, the colors are a lot COOLER on the Ipad than the calibrated Imac.  More info on Ipad colors here.

http://regex.info/blog/2012-03-27/1964

[Brode2]

Bob,

I read the recomended article and took the test, noticing with appropriate shock the blue color on my IPad 4, but I still don't buy into what he is saying, because my images transferred back and forth between my MAC and IPad are nearly identical in color rendition, certainly not grossly out of gamut as the ones he displays.  I do note that his article is dated 3 years ago, so maybe Apple has added color management to later versions of IPad?

[Brode2]

Bob,

I read the recomended article and took the test, noticing with appropriate shock the blue color on my IPad 4, but I still don't buy into what he is saying, because my images transferred back and forth between my MAC and IPad are nearly identical in color rendition, certainly not grossly out of gamut as the ones he displays.  I do note that his article is dated 3 years ago, so maybe Apple has added color management to later versions of IPad?

[Brode2]

Bob,

I read the recomended article and took the test, noticing with appropriate shock the blue color on my IPad 4, but I still don't buy into what he is saying, because my images transferred back and forth between my MAC and IPad are nearly identical in color rendition, certainly not grossly out of gamut as the ones he displays.  I do note that his article is dated 3 years ago, so maybe Apple has added color management to later versions of IPad?

[Brode2]

Bob,

I read the recomended article and took the test, noticing with appropriate shock the blue color on my IPad 4, but I still don't buy into what he is saying, because my images transferred back and forth between my MAC and IPad are nearly identical in color rendition, certainly not grossly out of gamut as the ones he displays.  I do note that his article is dated 3 years ago, so maybe Apple has added color management to later versions of IPad?

[Brode2]

Bob,

I read the recomended article and took the test, noticing with appropriate shock the blue color on my IPad 4, but I still don't buy into what he is saying, because my images transferred back and forth between my MAC and IPad are nearly identical in color rendition, certainly not grossly out of gamut as the ones he displays.  I do note that his article is dated 3 years ago, so maybe Apple has added color management to later versions of IPad?

[Colin Mulcahy]

I was excited to hear about Lightroom Mobile. 🙂

I had 2 scenarios where I thought that this would be a great addon to my workflow.

a). I shoot large events where I could shoot anywhere from 500 - 4000 images. Intially my illusion was that I could backup my cards at the end of the event, import into Lightroom and sync to my iPad. I could even make a quick selection while at the event and show the client a quick slideshow on my iPad. The main selection would have been while travelling, I could pick and reject, do the sorting and when I got home I could sync back to my desktop and process the selection.

b). At a photoshoot, it was my illision that I'd be able to thether my camera to my laptop with my CamRanger, auto import into Lightroom and sync to the Ipad. With this feature I could litteraly give the client the iPad, they could sit at a distance in comfort and could select and reject as I shoot without the need for them to sit at my computer.

Sadly, it is not to be! The use of the cloud here is the showstopper for me. Yes I have a great internet connection (100MB) for the cloud roundtrip, but this is not how I was expecting it to work.

I was expecting it to work locally, either plugged in or over my local network wifi.

I experimented with 20 RW images and created Smart Previews and it just took way to long. The kind of long thats just frustrating, the kind where you'd throw your iPad against the wall (only joking). Even just editing the name of the collection on the iPad took way to long to sync back.

I can understand the need to logon for subscription authentication, but the cloud hosting is going to kill the use of this product.

So after a brief engagement with a great idea, I am sadly dismissing this product straight away. 😞

[Brode2]

Colin,

I tested syncing 12 images in a collection and found the speed to be ok. Perhaps it is your router that is a bit slow? Before you give up altogether, check out the Photosmith forum on the subject of workflow. They built their app totally with the professional in mind, working in the field with large numbers of images (JPEGS OR RAW), sorting, rating, attaching keywords, then syncing with LR at home for editing. At this point their app has no tonal editing capability, having approached the workflow from the need to sort in the field rather than edit, but they are working on that too. In defense of Adobe, they approached it from the tonal editing side first, and will add additional functionality as they go. I thin they did a reasonably good job on the limited features they broke with. They certainly need some more advanced features to compete in editing with Photogene or Snapseed, but their starting interface is great.

Take a through look at Photosmith and tell me what you think.

Mike

mike.brodey@gmail.com

[W1111AM]

Hi,

I have a problem with slow syncing (uploading to the cloud). I installed 5.4 yesterday (iMac 2010 OS X 10.9.2, 2.93 GHz Intel i7, 4GB RAM) and created a new catalogue of 1400 images. Installed lightroom mobile on my iPad mini and tried to sync.

This morning, it is still "Syncing 958 photos". This is outrageously slow. I just ran speedtest.net: 0.8Mbps–1Mbps upload speed and 29Mbps download speed on my end. Not the greatest speed but globally probably above average which makes the service flawed. So, after nearly 10 hours I have uploaded about 400 images. That is disappointing.

That makes the service extremely poor for using Lightroom Mobile as an approval/rejecting and light editing part of your routine workflow before doing more involved editing on desktop, for which it otherwise seems fairly well suited. I agree with a few comments here that the workflow is in reverse, I would like to upload via USB/SD card reader to a device and then sync to desktop, so I can do more involved and detailed editing on Lightroom desktop as the last stop in the workflow.

I will test the flow again in a week to see if the bottleneck on the upload speed changes. I am using trial. There is potential but I don't see sense in paying a monthly subscription when I have lightroom desktop already which works great.

I hope that helps for improvement considerations from Adobe, and I like to see Adobe experimenting with new ideas like this one. Good work.

Will

[SecondCityNick]

I get this too - the upload speed is slow for me. Also, my syncing just quits periodically. Lightroom will quit syncing after a random amount of photos.

Oh Adobe, you fickle software you!

[kiawui]

I managed to get 526 photos onto my iPad in around 2-3 hours. I am not really bothered by this because I am not a professional and does not have strict deadlines to meet. What bothers me really is when the photos fully synced onto my iPad, it took a good 2-4 seconds for an image to load. I can successfully slide through 3-4 images that are sharp sometimes, then the next image will have the spinning wheel which takes another 2-5 secs before it gets sharp. This is a pain when I am trying to share the images with my friends and relatives.

And also I noticed that it's using internet connection too when I am viewing the images. I tried turning off data and wifi and it won't load. I thought the images are already synced into my iPad? The whole reviewing process should be fast and smooth like when I am viewing my camera roll on my iPad. Or am I missing something? Someone please enlighten me.

[Brode2]

Look at the Photosmith app. Much better for everything except no editing (yet).

Sent from my iPad

[kiawui]

Thank you. Will try it out and see how is it. If it works better than I may refund my LR 5 n Photoshop subscription. One of the reason I bought it is because LR mobile and it is a bit of a disappointment at this point of time.

[Martin_Klefas]

Kiawui, I've not had an issue with needing a connection on my iPad - have you made sure that the collection is enabled for offline editing, and that it's finished downloading?

[mwb1]

‌I thought i saw the slowness issue for a few days, but now it seems to have resolved.  I'm not sure if it was changing wifi to different access point, or freeing some memory on ipad ( I found that i had to delete my text messages to free up about 3 gig memory used by photos, maybe thats ios undocumented feature), i also had re-install LR mobile a couple times.

[Swedrone]

‌I've done some testing!!

Macbook Air late 2012, wired LAN, speed down 270 mbit, uplink 170 mbit

iPad Gen 4, connected thru WiFi downlink measured to 115 mbit, uplink 75 mbit

Both using the same router which connects to internet with a Fibre LAN 250 mbit

So first i tested importing 100 RAW files from a Canon 5D, they are 25 mb each.

Sync for theese files were ~ 60 seconds each, another few seconds later they appear in Lightroom mobile  on the iPad

Also tested 100 Raw files from a Fuljifilm X100s they are 31 mb each. Theese took ~ 75 seconds

NOW i tried to sync jpg's taken with "Fine" settings on the Fuji. The are 6 mb each. Synch was ~ 15 sec each.

So the filesize/conversion/etc of the RAW files seems to be the bottleneck, not internet or network speeds.

15 seconds per 6 mb seems to be the formula.

Building Smart previews during import doesn't change synctimes either

My Macbook processor, memory and fan gets maxed out during sync, could be that a newer one would be faster.