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

Community Beginner ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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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.

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New Here ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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@x2mt: I totally agree with your point. I started testing the Adobe Lightroom Mobile and Adobe Lightroom 5.4. It took for ever to sync 2 raw images(smart previews). I also second that I want to upload my images to the cloud. Adobe can charge me for the app if needed, Adobe can verify my license but I dont expect them to force me to upload my private pictures on to their cloud. Moreover forcing me to purchase the annual plan of Photoshop cc plus lightroom(the cheapest) when I already have bought a full license of Lightroom 5 (I dont use Photoshop cc) is a no go. I hope Adobe changes the policy soon.

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Explorer ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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I was so hopeful for Lightroom mobile.  So far, though, I'm not very enthused with this product.  What I was hoping was to be able to view all the photos in my catalog on my iPad.  I use LR as a casual photographer, not as a professional.  I have ~50K photos in the catalog.

The first thing that struck me was that I had to have photos in a collection.  That's a bit of a pain - I don't tend to use collections too much.  I do use a lot of smart collections, but even those are supported for syncing it seems.

Secondly - the price.  It is pretty expensive for what it is.  I'm looking at it from the perspective that I own LR, and I just want LR on my iPad.  I guess I can adjust my thinking a bit since I think the price includes the price of future LR upgrades?

Lastly - yes it is so slow.  I took an old collection and synced it.  It had 2000 photos from one of my vacations, and it was very very slow to get them on the iPad.

So for me, I don't think I'll be signing up past the trial.  The price, only working with collections, and the speed are pretty big issues for me.

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LEGEND ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Right, the idea you'd sync these huge raw files, just to view them on a non color managed device, to sit at the pool 'editing', then have to sycn back to the desktop, makes this a solution in search of a problem. So if I understand the 'workflow':

Take camera card to desktop or laptop.

Copy images there then wait to sync to iPad.

Do less work at a slower pace and without proper preview color on a device that's not really designed for this task.

Sync back to desktop or laptop. To edit by the pool? I'll just take the laptop.

What am I missing here? Even if the sync was super fast?

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Explorer ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Yep - clearly not a solution for you.  For me - one of the things that I would use it for it to weed out rejects.  I wouldn't mind being able to do this on my ipad while I'm not at my main PC.  I'd also like to be able to do some light retouching, as well as use my ipad to find photos in my catalog to share via email/facebook etc.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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That's my primary purpose, too.

But the slow sync method will work against that and makes it impractical for daily usage. Hopefully Adobe rethinks the transfer workflow.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Short of accessing a faster internet connection there is no way of improving the sync speed. Not now or any time soon. Had there been, we would have it now. The other issues mentioned above can be worked round by those willing to compromise their existing workflow. Some will do so at any price, others will wait until Lr mobile fits with our workflow rather than dictates it.

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Adobe Employee ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Thanks for everyone's feedback.  When reporting sync speed would you mind testing your internet connection speed and reporting that with your results so we can isolate the potential bottleneck?  I recommend speedtest.net for a simple Up/Down performance test.(Don't run that test while syncing with Lr Mobile) 

Also, I realize that some of you are uncomfortable with your images going through Adobe's cloud before reaching your iPad.  But Adobe's servers need to act as an omniscient entity to reconcile your efforts between multiple clients.   We already have a web interface and the phone app is on the way.  A centralized, sever-based agent is needed to keep clients from colliding with sync conflicts.  Adobe will need to gain your trust in our ability to keep your images private and secure and we've actually provided online photo management solutions for many years without incident. (Photoshop.com then Revel)

Let's keep the feedback coming.

Regards,

Tom Hogarty

Adobe Systems

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Explorer ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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My internet connection is decent/typical.  As tested with Speedtest.net, I get 25Mbit down and 1Mbit up (cable).  I have a collection with 2000 photos synced from my PC.  On my iPad Air, I have the LR app open and it is sitting there open.  It has pulled down 171 photos so far, and it adds another one at the rate of about 1 every 10 seconds or so.

I think the issue is on the LR destop side.  It says it is "Syncing 1,963" photos. By looking at my router's realtime reporting, I can see that I'm maxing out my 1Mbit upload. The photos in my collection are pretty large - RAWs between 10 and 21 megapixel each.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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The files synced to the iPad are actually Smart Previews (i.e. lossy DNG), not your actual raw files. They weigh in at around 2.5MB each, irrrespective of what size they were to begin with.

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Explorer ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Raw files are synced from the iPad to the computer if they originate on the iPad, for example those imported to the iPad from a camera or memory card.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Not sure where you get that idea from because Lr mobile does not support raw files from any source.

johngersh wrote:

Raw files are synced from the iPad to the computer if they originate on the iPad, for example those imported to the iPad from a camera or memory card.

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Explorer ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Yeah, I spoke too soon. You can import from the camera roll into LR Mobile. I had translated that in my head to importing from the photo library on the iPad, which can contain raw files. Raw files imported onto the iPad don't go into the camera roll. Many other apps can handle them, but not LR Mobile. My hoped-for workflow won't work; I was asking for something that's apparently not the purpose of LR Mobile, at least for now.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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68mb download 19mb upload, fibre optic.

took 40 mins to sync 87 photos.

Not good..........

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Community Expert ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Something is wrong. With the bandwidth you have available the files should have synced closer to 5 minutes rather than forty. My connection, at best, is 350kbs upload and I can sync 200 in around 1 hour 50 minutes.

Where are you located?

PadPhoto wrote:

68mb download 19mb upload, fibre optic.

took 40 mins to sync 87 photos.

Not good..........

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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See my later post.

The upload speed does not seem to be the issue.

It seems that the Lightroom desktop application takes an age to do the syncing just as it takes an age to export images.

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New Here ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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I agree, this is quite disappointing so far, and I'm having trouble imagining what type of workflows in which this will actually be useful.

I'm on standard cable internet 15Mbps down 1 up. I made a new catalog just for testing with 10 frames from a 5D Mark III, 22mp raw. The total smart preview file size is 18.1MB. It took 6min 30sec to upload this test collection and about 1 more minute to complete the sync on the iPad Air. Estimating this out to about 45sec per image, syncing collections of hundreds or thousands of images is not going to be practical.

Granted, part of this bottle neck the internet connection, but part of it is something in lightroom's upload performance. Uploading an equivalent sized folder (18MB) of jpegs to dropbox took only 3min 39 sec.

Is their theory that we would make smart previews for all our thousands of existing photos, have them available in various collections and then sync those collections overnight so we can work on them at some future point?

I'm happy to hear about the other programs mentioned in this thread. I too am looking for a way that I can access all my 150k photos from any device, anytime, anywhere. But I'm afraid until we've all got super fast upload speeds at home, and unlimited data caps on wireless devices this is not going to happen for several more years.  I applaud Adobe for trying to provide a solution with the smart preview technology to compress a 30MB Raw down to 2.5MB DNG, but this is still not practical with today's home broadband.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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I just created a collection of 91 photo's RAW files.

I selected the options to create virtual copies and sync with mobile.

It took 3 mins to create the collection and copies and a further 51mins to sync.

I have a fibre internet connection with 68mb download and 19mb upload speeds.

I then opened up the Lightroom app on my I-Pad and the sync took about 4 seconds.

The collection had previously been exported to full size JPGS totaling 765mb. I then uploaded them to a test gallery on my website and the upload time was 12mins.

Is the sync speed issue within the Lightroom desktop application?

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Community Expert ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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I've no idea where the problem lies, but be very aware that the download to your iPad requires that you either loupe through the individual images or set Lr mobile for Offline Editing (click on 3 dots in right corner of collection image). If you remain connected to internet these steps aren't necessary. However, say you're in a hurry and go offline as soon as the collection appears on iPad then there's a good chance you'll find that there are no images to work on. Bottom line here, Lr mobile needs to have access to the smart previews in Cloud or downloaded to your iPad. I would be very surprised if it took only 4 seconds to download 91 photos.

Note, I expect a lot of folk will be caught by this, and Adobe have said next to nothing as a warnning.

PadPhoto wrote:

I then opened up the Lightroom app on my I-Pad and the sync took about 4 seconds.

The collection had previously been exported to full size JPGS totaling 765mb. I then uploaded them to a test gallery on my website and the upload time was 12mins.

Is the sync speed issue within the Lightroom desktop application?

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Sorry.... Meant 4mins...

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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My local Internet is 150 mbit/s down and 40 mbit/s up. And it took forever to get some images to LR Mobile. In comparison it took just seconds to get some images into Photo Manager Pro which my favorite app to show photos to my clients. Via WiFi of course. Independent of any cloud or internet connection. Everytime, everywhere, very reliable.

I am very often in hotels with very slow or non exisiting internet. In those locations it is an important goal to catch the clients enthusiasm.

And as mentioned in my opening posting: Privacy is a very, very important part. If Adobe has no further ideas to develop an reliable sync option without transfering all images to the cloud or over need of internet: This Creative Cloud stuff is no option for me. I am very sceptical in software abonnemments and Creative Cloud "features". I see more benefit on Adobes side to get a fixed income and bounded customers.

i am sorry to say that: I am out if there is no fundemantal rethinking in privacy, sync method and sync speed.

And beside of that: I need a workflow which works fast, reliable and completely offline as well.

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Explorer ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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AAh, I see why it's so slow, all the images are going up to the Adobe server before coming to the Ipad. With 19MB ownload and 0.5 mb upload, this is not a workable option for me.

What about a quicker option for those of us who have just one Desktop computer and one Ipad that gives us the option of bypassing the cloud?.

Neat idea but not very workable as it is.

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Explorer ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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Somewhat disappointed in the speed of transfer and then, when on the iPad, the slowness in display and access to tools when scrolling from one photo to the next.

It is far simpler to continue to use my MacBook Air 'on the move' and have access to all the bells and whistles without having to find things to do waiting for LR Mobile to catch-up!!

I therefore remain unconvinced that LR holds any real advantage over using PhotMechanic, Bridge and Photoshop where speed of workflow is far better without the constraining effect of a catalog system.

Peter H

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New Here ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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@Tom: Regarding the sync, I have noticed that once I add a bunch of photos for upload to a collection, it does not show up as and when each individual photo in the collection is synced (Btw I have already created smart preview before starting the sync, when I import the pictures to my PC from my camera). I need to wait until all the photos are synced and only then is my collection updated on iPad. Any cloud based service like Dropbox or onedrive the files are uploaded and synced individually. This coupled with the high upload time it makes for a painstakingly long workflow. Considering I have not missed anything I also do not see the status of my sync. What percent of my collection has been synced and how much is pending which would help me estimate time for the whole process. At the moment it's kind of a black magic that's happening and a slow one at that.

Your point regarding sync conflicts, it would be very useful if you could provide us the option other than sync over cloud like over private wifi and USB etc.. (We trust the creative minds in Adobe to come up with a solution for this :-)) Let Your users choose what best suits them. Power of choice is a wonderful thing and highly appreciated by creative minds. More over passing all the creative content through your servers gives rise to security protection. Anyone who wants to access them knows where to attack. You might have the best intention to protect your customers privacy and content but there are always people out there trying to prove you wrong. Adobe servers where attacked last year and there is no guarantee this will not happen again. So please do give us an option, to either place our trust in you or not. But not force us to do so. Like you have won our trust in your products give time till we do so in your new product(cloud) until then let us enjoy your products that has won us over to its maximum capabilities.

Regards,

Shetty.

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Explorer ,
Apr 08, 2014 Apr 08, 2014

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When sync is running I see a message top left in LR (above ID plate) showing number of images remaining to synch? This is on Mac version and no idea if Windows version differs?

Peter H

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