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Lightroom CC sync very slow

Community Beginner ,
Jan 28, 2018 Jan 28, 2018

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I have read a number of posts here about the sync in lightroom cc being very slow, but I don't think I've read a solution or an answer as to why this is happening.  my content is syncing much, much more slowly than the network resources would indicate in task manager.  Has anyone found a solution?

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Explorer ,
Nov 19, 2018 Nov 19, 2018

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I can upload about 1000 smart previews per hour (using Sony 24 MP ARW files). That's slow but acceptable. My new problem is that LR keeps crashing every like 90 minutes. Tonight it crashed and messed up the syncing files, so I had to re-sync everything.

What's worse, it that after every crash LR litters my SSD with humongus log files (in C:\Users\Max\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CRLogs) which are not deleted by the software, so I have to manually do it every time.

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Participant ,
Nov 27, 2018 Nov 27, 2018

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To anyone having issues syncing thousands of files, be sure to check what your physical upload speed is even capable of. I'm on a business-grade plan with my ISP that is 75Mbps download, but only 5Mbps upload. This is BEST CASE speeds, which degrade even further once you factor in the dozen or so other internet connected devices, computers, phones, tablets, etc. all sharing this connection. I'm also using two cloud backup services (Arq to B2, and CrashPlan Pro) on different machines, which further bottlenecks my upload bandwidth.

So for me, that typically brings my usable upload speed down from 5Mbps to maybe 3-4Mbps, depending. A steady upload at 3Mbps is only 375 KB/s or 0.3 MB/s. If you're uploading iPhone raw images, they are 44MB/each for me from LR Mobile. So that's about 2 minutes per image to upload. So if you're uploading 20,000 images, that would take approximately 27 days, best case, if you're going full speed 24/7.

Do a connection speed test and run some numbers on the quantities you're uploading. You might be surprised. There is no magical way that Adobe can make that process faster. The sad fact is that most ISPs sell you on these huge transfer speed promises, but those are "up to" speeds, not guaranteed; and typically the upload speed is MUCH slower.

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Community Beginner ,
May 18, 2019 May 18, 2019

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It seemed way to slow compared to other syncing services until I did the math and realized it was my connection after all. 

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Participant ,
May 18, 2019 May 18, 2019

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You May have a slow connection, but it’s compounded by Adobe’s pathetically poor bandwidth. They have always had poor bandwidth, and are not interested in upgrading it.

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Participant ,
Jan 24, 2019 Jan 24, 2019

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Yep. This is now January 2019. I'm going to be a lot older before my collection syncs.

The interface on CC is telling me I have 23,267 images

The interface on CC-Classic is telling me I have over 30,000 images.

Something is out of sync????

In either case, at the speed that it's syncing, I'm going to be dead and gone before it's finished. It's pointless trying to use CC for the cloud benefits. when there is no benefit. If you have only got a few hundred photos it probably works fine. If you have a commercial quantity, upwards of 5000 thereabouts, the sync speed is pathetic and not worth the money for the sub.

I live in hope, because being able to use my iPad, iPhone and Mac on the same collection would be a real bonus.

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Explorer ,
Jan 25, 2019 Jan 25, 2019

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I agree.  I have tried everything I can think of to get mine to sync.  No luck.

If you happen to find a solution please post!

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Participant ,
Jan 25, 2019 Jan 25, 2019

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I’m not sure, butitmay be a cloud thing. Here’s what I did

I have over 50,000 images. I know, a lot. Been saving images since 2004 and even before.

So I moved to CC. From Classic. Too confusing having both.

I store my originals on my Mac as well. As in the cloud. I have NOT opened Classic again.

I have CC on my Mac,my iPad and my iPhone. Last night I left them all open and ‘syncing’

This morning all done. All in sync.

I tried with only the Mac open but iOS complained that it needed to be open. So I did. Closed the door and went to bed.

I also checked the web version. and synced. All good.

i have a good internet connection. 60/40 which i msure helps.

Now to work through them and dump the junk..

robert

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Community Expert ,
Jan 27, 2019 Jan 27, 2019

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i have a good internet connection. 60/40 which i msure helps.

Again as noted several times already. This is absolutely essential. Most internet connections do not have this good of an upload bandwidth. Almost all are only around 5 Mbps. Typical pro speed comcast packet for example are 150/5, meaning 150 Mbps down and only 5 Mbps up. At that speed, a single raw file from a typical 24 MP camera will take 40 seconds to upload assuming you are able to saturate the upload (most cases that is not possible due to other traffic on your connection). For 50k images, it will therefore take 23 days to upload them all. However, with the above mentioned more symmetrical connection with 40 Mbps upload those same 50k images will only take 66 hours (about 3 days), less if most of the images are from lower resolution cameras. So you see what a difference upload speed makes. It's the difference between "never going to happen" and "a few days is doable as long as I am then mostly done."

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Community Beginner ,
May 01, 2019 May 01, 2019

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Everyone here understands file syncing and most of us have onedrive, dropbox, and even google drive syncing the exact same files that we are now trying to load onto lightroom and that is an easy way to compare the platforms upload speeds.  If i can load all of my files to onedrive in 3 days and the exact same number of files takes 3 months in lightroom cc you can't really tell people they even need to consider checking their internet upload speeds since there is clearly a problem with lightroom cc upload/syncing speeds.  It is useful to note your upload speeds though of course though, but upload speeds on the user end don't seem to be the problem.

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Community Beginner ,
May 18, 2019 May 18, 2019

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I am with you. I also upgraded to the 1T Cloud storage, but why? I can't even Sync one photo let alone about 100. What a joke Adobe!

I am getting ready to go to Europe and wanted Lightroom CC to store my photos.  That will never happen, if Adobe can't get this problem fixed. I'll just use the old Download to a external drive.

Adobe, You know there is a problem and you you tell people to go into their computers and tweak this and that. We as customers, shouldn't have to to do this. Your software should be transparent and take care of this.

You have sold the idea of the cloud, so now FIX it! We are paying for a service that does not work as advertised.

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Participant ,
May 18, 2019 May 18, 2019

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The original poster. The only ones with a solution are Adobe.

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New Here ,
May 21, 2019 May 21, 2019

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I have been syncing my photos with Dropbox for years. No speed problems there, ever. When I tried the same with Lightroom (same computer, same bandwidths) I was shocked. Syncing the raw files of my last trip took days. No way that this will be my future work flow.

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Participant ,
May 22, 2019 May 22, 2019

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Well, like everyone else here I struggled with syncing large numbers of images. After weeks of frustration, it seems to have settled down.  However, of course, I haven't had to sync a large number of photos since. So I've begun looking at options other than Photoshop, Lightroom and the whole Cloud package thing.  99% of my work is now on iPads and iPhones. A little on the Desktop. Apple cloud service has no lag or sync problems, so I'm testing Affinity to replace Photoshop. Darkroom to replace Lightroom on the Devices - it's exclusive to iPad/iPhone I think and uses the Photos catalog which automatically syncs to all your Apple devices. And Darktable for the Desktop - an almost direct replacement for Lightroom. It's installed on the Mac by a downloadable file, and It can also be installed by MacPorts or Homebrew. See their install page. It also runs on a host of other platforms including of course Windows.

I nearly forgot SILKYPIX Developer Studio 8 SE. Very nice piece of kit from Japan. Photo editing software. Loves RAW files.

Now, of course, each has their own learning curves, but there are no Syncing problems, they are all stable and well supported and not being built while you watch which seems to be what's happening with the Adobe crowd.

So really. Adobe needs to get their act together on some parts. I mean - I have been using Adobe stuff for years now, and am almost wedded to it, but like many marriages complacency may be setting in. There are a lot of new kids on the block now vying for attention.

So when dissatisfaction really strikes there are now many other options to choose from.

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Community Beginner ,
May 22, 2019 May 22, 2019

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Just got off the phone with a Adobe Lightroom support with regards to this issue. He had me download some pictures to Lightroom so I could Sync to the cloud so he could see what was going on.

I chose two RAW images I captured with a Nikon D800. It took over 30 minutes for just these two images to sync to the cloud. Pretty bad. That means if you had 300 raw images that would take Approximately 4,500 Minutes or 75Hrs. What a joke! I can transfer that amount from camera to a external hard drive in about less than 5 minutes. What's wrong with that picture?

Come on Adobe! You sold us on a subscription that just doesn't meet everyones expectations. And you wonder why people are leaving.

I am paying for a 1TB storage that is basically useless if I can't store images in a reasonable amount of time (Minutes, Not hours).

I will be looking for a alternative to do my photos.

A very dissatisfied customer

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Community Expert ,
May 22, 2019 May 22, 2019

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30 Minutes? That is an effective bandwidth of 533 kbit/second. How fast is your internet connection's upload bandwidth supposed to be? Most people in the US have between 3 and 5 Mbit/second upload bandwidth which is only 5 to 10 faster than your effective bandwidth. So even if people have strong connections (and Adobe's servers actually are able to saturate it) it is still pretty bad for people with large volumes of raw images (your 300 raw images would take 7 hours but I routinely shoot over 1000 images a day). 30 minutes is terrible. Whenever I test Cloud Lightroom I can reliably saturate my bandwidth (5 Mbit/s at home and >100 Mbit/s at work) but I don't really use it this way as it is not a solution that scales to the volumes of data I generate.

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Community Beginner ,
May 22, 2019 May 22, 2019

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You state for 300 images it should take 7 hours. That is still unacceptable. If I am traveling, there is no way I will have the time to save images to the cloud if I were to shoot 300-400 images a day.

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Community Expert ,
May 22, 2019 May 22, 2019

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Most hotels' internet connections are actually much worse than that and 7 hours is not what you should expect when traveling. The cloud is definitely not a workable solution for this sort of stuff on the road. I actually wrote about this in 2016: Jao's photo blog: A mobile workflow with Lightroom?​ Interestingly the conclusions I came to at that time still hold in 2019.

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2019 Jun 11, 2019

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I have a fiber connection both at home and at work.

Screenshot 2019-06-11 19.57.06.png

I imported all my photos ~27k to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (cloud sync version). It's been a week now ... at this point there's still ~25k left to sync. If I'm lucky Lightroom uploads about 100 files during the night. Yes ... I use External drive, but it's Samsung T5 (2TB SSD) and in no way I keep growing 350+ GB photo library on 512GB drive. I have MacBook Pro (2018 model) and SSD is connected with Thunderbolt 3 (should be enough).

I'm willing to provide Adobe any data in order to get this fixed. I'm an software engineer by profession and I know two things ... 1) If this behaviour is not by design, it's a bug, 2) You are going to lose customers if you don't deal with it. I'm willing to wait a week but after that it's a data storage downgrade and Lightroom Classic + whatever sync that works.

So Adobe ... is this by design? ... the slow upload speed I mean. Or is this bug? Do you need help fixing this? I can search system for whatever log you need to pinpoint the problem.

--

Janno

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Explorer ,
Jun 12, 2019 Jun 12, 2019

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I don't know if this applies to anyone or everyone but I believe my IP throttled my download speed for large files temporarily. I was nowhere near overuse but I hypothesize it threw up red flags. It may have been uploading multiple files at once. I took a break until it was normal again and then synced a set of folders at a time instead of trying to let it go continuously. Now that it is done it is fine.

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Explorer ,
Jun 17, 2019 Jun 17, 2019

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Same problem here. I just got back from a gig on the road. Everything uploaded to the cloud quite quickly from my iPad, even in China! But now that I'm home it's taking forever to sync 2500 raw image back into LR Classic on my PC. Totally unacceptable!
UPDATE: If I go to preferences > Lightroom Sync and hit ALT/Rebuild Sync Data there is a flurry of activity with LR downloading 100-300 images in a reasonably fast tempo. But after a while all activity seems to grind to a halt. I did this 4 times, with the same effect every time. Any explanation for this??
I will just keep doing this until all are synced. A bit of a hassle but better than waiting 3 days...

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New Here ,
Jul 22, 2019 Jul 22, 2019

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Just want to add my experience here as well:

I have a business DSL line here that gives me over 100MB/s download and up to 37MB/s upload speed.

Naturally one never reaches these speed in real live but as I am running a fileserver from my office I know that I can get easily 70MB/s down and about 30MB/s upload speed from here.

I once tried to use the sync function and gave up as it was unbearably slow. That was two years ago. By now I hoped that Adobe has done their homework but it doesn't seem like it.

I shoot fashion catalogue for a living and produce large numbers of files a day. The idea that I could edit/cull whilst my digital operator still works on other tasks in Lightroom Classic sounded great.

Long story short: July 2019 and the sync function is completely unusable (at least on a professional level).

I ran multiple tests by now and got at best 4MB/s download speed and 520KB/s upload speed form my system. That is about 5% of the possible bandwith for download and less than 1,5% of the possible upload speed.

Naturally I contacted Adobe customer service as I am paying a rather expensive subscription plan.

Their answer: This is generally a problem of router settings or internet problems, nothing they can (or want to!) help with.

As pretty much any other internet connection from this computer and this office is able to saturate the bandwith I think it is safe to assume that the fault lies with Adobe.

I used IP tracking software and located the server destination Adobe is using somewhere between Washington and Oregon State in the US. Speed tests running from my location (Berlin/Germany) to the  public server closest to the destination of all the uploaded sync data ,Kennewick Washington, give me about 80MB/s download and a maximum 3.5MB/s upload and an awful Ping of over 170ms.

Screenshot 2019-07-22 18.37.39.png

So clearly the connection from Europe to there is pretty horrible (strangely download speeds are ok) plus Adobe seems to use cheap or bad server architecture that is not designed to handle the data volume required for such a system.

I would love to hear from other users that might have tested the up- and download speeds in other countries. My guess is that the experience will differ, depending on your geographic location.

To me it seems that Adobe is advertising a service and a system that is nowhere near ready for professional use or the company simply is to cheap to invest in the required server and broadband structure needed.

A massive fail for Adobe, and that includes the rather smug and useless customer service.

Would love to hear actually from Adobe. So far I could not find any useful or helpful information in this forum or from Adobe.

And if Adobe is not willing to invest in the technology necessary to make sync a useful feature: Just terminate it or even better - consider making local sync to servers of the users choice an option.

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New Here ,
Nov 20, 2019 Nov 20, 2019

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I have to say I had the same problem with crazy long sync time.  I was trying to sync a catalog I have been sitting on for years with 50k+ images and many videos tossed in for good measure.  I'm not a professional photographer, just an enthusiast who started using LR several years ago as an alternative to Photos and after MUCH confusion about what the heck LR CC was all about (I'm a classic user.... and I will echo the masses who say that Adobe seriously botched that roll-out)  I thought I would try to sync and incorporate LR CC into my work flow.  A few weeks ago I tried once to sync and gave up because of the unbearably slow sync time.  It slowed everything down so much it rendered LR Classic useless as it would take up to 20 minutes just to delete a single image while syncing.  Then there were the thousands of virtual copies created by Lightroom CC that utterly confused me but that's a story for a different thread.

 

About a week ago I decided to hold my nose and just get it over with as (like others) I haven't found a solution to the problem.  After about 4 days I finally got it all synced.  This process included many Lightroom classic quits (and force quits) and computer reboots as the entire system seemed to hang up for hours at a time.  This may not be the ideal way to do it but I was out of patience.  I will say that for me at least there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  After everything was finally synced LR classic came back to life and I could start using it again without issue, and my images are also now accessible via Lightroom CC.  Now that my syncs are much smaller I haven't had a problem with it. 

 

I guess the point of my post is to let others know that if you have the time and patience to wait it out, it can eventually work for you.  But if you are a professional who can't give up the functionality of Lightroom for 4 days to babysit a large sync I'm not sure it's worth the headache until there's a real solution to the problem.

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New Here ,
Dec 31, 2019 Dec 31, 2019

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Just jumped on the CC train and spent a ton of time setting up folders/albums (having slacked on that over the past few months in Classic). The sync time is just crawling. I don't think I'll ever get it done. As an example, it has taken 3 hours to get a single image (admittedly, in RAW) synced this morning. I'm really disappointed. Thinking of just scratching the sync altogether, which makes my switch-over completely useless. 

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New Here ,
Apr 20, 2020 Apr 20, 2020

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First using CC sync speed was good.  several thousand images were synched in short order.  Now the sync goes on forever.  2 days trying to sync 4 images.  But I am using data on my internet plan.  I had 1TB of monthly data and the sync took me to 4TB without me knowing.  Something is amiss and needs to be corrected.

 

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Community Beginner ,
May 30, 2021 May 30, 2021

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This!

I am also located in Germany and the aws ec2 my lightroom is syncing to is "US-WEST". The speed I observe is excruciatingly slow. Nobody can tell me that I hit the upload bamdwidth limit with 4-5 kb/s.

aws has regions for a reason. Not using them is an active choice, isn't it?

lightguard23_0-1622363025598.png

 

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