WHY was Sync Settings Removed in CC 2015.1

[GraphikJules]

Sync Settings has been removed in Photoshop CC 2015.1. The existing service in Photoshop CC and CC 2014 will become unavailable in the near future. To migrate your presets/settings from an earlier version of Photoshop CC to this release, see Migrate settings. (New features summary: Photoshop CC 2015 release)

Why in the world would you remove this feature from Photoshop and other apps? Part of the point of having things in the cloud is that one could quickly and easily sync their workspace across multiple workstations e.g., home and office computers. Am I now supposed to do this manually? Why remove a feature that so many used to make their workflow more efficient, faster, and easier? Do you have something in the works to replace it or are we just supposed to take a big step backwards. I would like a real answer... NOT links to how to migrate on one computer nor would I like links to your articles and help pages that contain typos and other errors.

[Tanja2014]

well adobe is famous for introducing features and then throwing them into the bin after a short while.

remember pixelbender?

[vudographics]

I agree. They are really pushing this whole cloud this and cloud that and they get rid of this?!!!! I'm just as shocked as you are. This is a step back!

[Todd_Shirley]

Why would they do this? There must be some reason, but I can't find anything on the web. Is it maybe a security vulnerability?

[gwcouk76]

I'm stunned this has been removed. We've had to hire Macs for a short period so don't have access to the old ones to migrate settings (there's no upgrade being done). So now for a week or so on these computers, then again when we move to new Macs, I have to manually recreate every one of the many shortcuts and workspaces I use??? We get forced into a cloud model and get no useful cloud functionality. What is going on at Adobe?? They're losing the plot big-time.

[Benjamin Root]

‌feedback.photoshop.com is where you can complain to Adobe.

[Bezier Kid]

‌This is yet another example of  feature removal without any consultation process. I'm an Adobe Instructor and  a Graphic Designer. These changes have a huge impact on my day to day work. From the cancellation of Single Edition DPS to Cloud Charts and Sync settings. There was at one time a policy of never removing technology from an app, or adding a legacy feature to restore old tool behaviours. Even the tedious ability to install old filters or contact sheets was a work around. But this shows a serious lack of care for Adobe's creative community.

In the case of Illustrator CC charts, I taught an Advanced training course at the start of December, having listed the feature as one of the course topics, only to find that this feature had been removed Without notice. I never roll out a new version and teach from it until I am confident of all impact changes. To simply remove a feature gives me time to react to the impact of change.

To automatically add technology (previews) to apps rather than providing an optional install add-on is a heavy handed Beta testing policy. To my knowledge the sync settings feature had long moved out of any preview phase. I don't want to hear that a feature has been removed, I want to know why?

Has Adobe stopped listening?

[gener7]

It's being discussed heavily here Photoshop CC 2015.1: Why was sync settings removed? This is where the programmers and product engineers lend an ear.

Gene

[zachc1]

I almost never post on any forums, but I'm pretty angry about this. This feature was a great idea, and Adobe just quietly yanked it from the new release without informing paying customers. (I found out it was missing only when I couldn't find any options to sync settings.) Why in the world would Adobe remove this valuable feature? They keep adding cloud services like asset libraries, but then they remove something every CC user could utilize? I'm guessing there were some technical issues with this feature since I had a hard time getting it to work as expected, but problems are meant to be solved. If anyone at Adobe is listening and cares about their customers, please bring this feature back.

[arifkuyucu]

question time: Dec 3, 2015 9:38 AM

today time: March 9, 2016 16:26 AM

No response, no explanation is more than 90 days!

[ProDesignTools · Accepted solution]

arifkuyucu wrote:

question time: Dec 3, 2015 9:38 AM

today time: March 9, 2016 16:26 AM

No response, no explanation is more than 90 days!

An Adobe Photoshop UI Engineer responded on the thread that Gene posted above... Here is his reply:

---

4 months ago

David Tristram, Employee

Hi Everyone,

I'm very sorry to hear how frustrated and unhappy you are over the removal of Sync Settings. I agree it's a great feature that is very useful for some of you. I also regret that no one from Adobe has followed up on this thread. I am not directly involved in this feature, but I was able to learn a few things that influenced the change:

– usability: the feature was complex and difficult for many users
– roadmap changes: Adobe wants more of a focus on CC Libraries
– technical issues: the servers used for the feature are going away

The rest of the CC apps have a means of sharing settings across installations. Photoshop needs to have that too. Here is the last line of the Product Manager's post to the pre-release forum:"Though Sync Settings will be removed from the next version of Photoshop, we plan to continue investigating a solution. It’s too early to tell when such a solution will ship, but we would love to hear your feedback about this area and what you would want in a future version."I am trying to get his okay to post the full message, but above are the main points. I know it seems like Adobe is this huge company that certainly can implement a simple feature like sharing app preferences, but actually the software is very complex and there are many issues competing for the development team's attention.
For Ps CC 2015.1 it was simply not practical to provide Sync Settings while keeping the rest of the application strong.Thank you so for your involvement and passion for Photoshop. It means a lot to me.DavidDavid Tristram
Photoshop UI Engineer

---

For further discussion or to give feedback to Adobe, you may wish to post to, follow, or "me too" that thread:

Photoshop CC 2015.1: Why was sync settings removed?

[RAM-Studio]

So what is the procedure now to sync settings in Photoshop CC 2015.5 ? I wan to migrate all my settings, actions, presets, keys, brushes... to new computer but now i can't ?

Please Adobe what is the procedure now?

Thanks

[War Unicorn]

Migrate presets in Photoshop CC

[Light_In]

Tried this... both panes are EMPTY!

[gener7]

Try Edit > Presets > Migrate from your new version of Photoshop.

[tmacllc]

Please push them to bring this back. Do it for all of us.

[thatnickguy]

For many of us, a significant feature of the Creative Cloud sales pitch was the ability to seamlessly sync settings between machines. This isn't just a bait & switch, it's a bait and pull.

As for the reasons provided for the change, they don't hold water on their own:

– usability: the feature was complex and difficult for many users However, it was also simple and easy for many users

– roadmap changes: Adobe wants more of a focus on CC Libraries Are sync settings & CC libraries mutually exclusive?  CC libraries doesn't offer a replacement solution for sync settings.  Sync settings was capable of a great many things we can no longer do via CC libraries.  They shared some similarities, but they were hardly redundant items.  Did Adobe kill the clone stamp feature to put more of a focus on healing & patching?

– technical issues: the servers used for the feature are going away "Going away" and "gone" are two different things.  Why not keep the feature around if it's still possible? Unless, the decision to remove sync settings was made in order to cut the cost of having those servers.

[Kynning]

Ai and Ps – found out, but what about InDesign? how to export Id presets?

[KenRepasi]

I just bought a new computer. I had no idea that this feature was disappearing so I did not back up my settings. It is more then just frustrating to find this out now. I have to spend time recreating actions. This is time consuming and was not necessary before because I could just sync everything

personally I have no idea how to use libraries and do not know that it would solve my actions problems if I did.

[Light_In]

Adobe has it in their culture to do really dumb stuff and the community always has to find a work around.

it is hard to believe that they survive making decisions like this, but alas, we need their photo processing power. I guess.

Ken,

I just moved from PC to Mac... here is what helped me.
How to Migrate Lightroom to a New Computer - YouTube

Merging Individual Lightroom Catalogs into a “Master” Catalog - YouTube

I used an external drive to move everything. I set it up to copy the files overnight while I slept and then moved it to my mac in the morning and let it copy while I was at work.

Then used the Catalog merge to bring everything together.

Note: I had sidecar files turned off and in hindsight, I would clear the previews and let them rebuild. Less stuff to move that way.

Hope this helps.

[Jason I. Morgan]

Adobe, working in Illustrator then all of a sudden I noticed none of my tools were where they should be! So, now I have to go back to saving a copy of my Pref files in Dropbox again. The USER shouldn't have to use another Cloud service to do your work at this point, you Adobe had it figured out, its 2017 and you pull it back to the stone age! Thanks Adobe for making the User workflow stop flowing.

[Barb Binder]

I noticed none of my tools were where they should be

Tool visibility and location is controlled by your workspace. Have you set up (and saved) a custom workspace? This way you can always reset your workspace to put things back where you want them.

• Set up your workspace just the way you like it.
• Window > Workspace > New Workspace

When tools go missing:

• Window > Workspace > Reset [your workspace name here]

Adobe Photoshop workspace basics

[Jason I. Morgan]

I have a custom Workspace setup, it did not sync to my other computer when I opened the app, which is the point of this thread.

It had been a while since I had to work from home, so I had changed some things in my workflow by this time.

I do not use the default Adobe Workspaces.

Location of custom Workspace (Windows 7 on both computers):

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 21 Settings\en_US\x64\Workspaces

"Your Workspace File"

[Dani Mercado]

Hi, sync settings between computers was very useful. Especially when is time to move work to home. Please consider you bring back this tool. Thanks.

[BenniK]

Totally agree, I'm out of words that this feature is gone. I thought this is the future of working in a cloud. Having your workspace set-up and files ready to start without setting everything up every time. So not wasting time on set-ups instead start working. Really disappointed that this feature is gone.

Happend to a lot of features... like Mini Bridge