Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

Lightroom Classic (LrC) is stuck - attempting to sync several photos. I have been partially successful in identifying stuck sync images found in Lightroom>Preferences>Lightroom Sync>Sync Activity and I exported them to a separate folder . Then I removed/deleted the originals.

Three photos remain. I have not had any success in removing these. Has anyone experienced 'stuck' synced photos and/or can anyone suggest a solution.

Thanks

rmcgarry331

Deleting the stuck photo from your LrC catalog, does not necessarily remove it from your photos in Lightroom Creative Cloud. This is especially true if your original photo exists in the cloud (rather than a smart preview). To solve the sync issue, make sure the image is removed from any collections that are synced to the cloud, then remove the image from "All Synced Photos". I had the same problem, and this solved it.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Good to see other people using the Lightroom cloud version as well. Adobe made it easy to import images in LRc and sync to LR Cloud but not as easy to do that the other way. I have found that taking images off the server first (Lightroom Cloud) seems to work. Doesn't that also delete them from All Synced Photos?

Personally I like LR Cloud but there are some things missing that prevent me from jumping "whole hog" to LR Cloud. So LR Cloud is still a hobby for me. And my LR Cloud file structure got trashed by that Adobe bug. I didn't lose any images but I lost the organization. That type of thing should not happen and it does not make me want to rush to adopt LR Cloud as my main program.

rmcgarry331

Since the problem exists in LRc, it's probably safer to fix it in LRc. The two programs aren't designed to coexist on the same photo library. In other words if you use LRc as your digital asset manager, you should only import photos into LRc, and use LRc to send smart previews to LR. I have worked out a workflow, allowing me to import into LR, and sync back to LRc. However, once the original capture is downloaded by LRc, I remove it from synced photos, removing it from LR.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

That makes sense.

Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

Thank you all for your help. I took a combination of recommendations and I am all synced up. My primary use is capturing a mobile dng file with my iPhone mobile Lr camera - knowing it will be on my Mac for editing once synced. If anyone is willing to share, I would be interested in how you all leverage this sync feature for other than mobile Lr and how anyone uses Creative Cloud images. Thanks again, Bob

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Interesting.

I have struggled with mobile to Classic capture. I think RMCs approach makes sense. I am interested in knowing the steps people take when capturing in mobile and transitioning to classic.

rmcgarry331

I did an experiment. I shot a photo using the Lightroom camera on my iPhone. I had LrC open on my desktop, and it automatically downloaded the DNG file. LrC was reporting that the photo had develop adjustments. I took the photo into the Develop module to look at what was done, and it was simply imported. Coming back to the Library Module LrC tried to sync a new smart preview to Lightroom, and it was stuck in a prolonged sync. I removed the photo from All Synced Photos in LrC, which removed the original DNG from Lightroom. I was then able to put the photo back in All Synced Photos, and LrC was able to successfully sync the smart preview to Lightroom.
It appears that Lightroom will not accept a Smart Preview for a photo that it has an original. However, with smart previews, edits, flags, star ratings and comments sync both ways. The key to using both together, is all original files need to be stored locally and managed by LrC. You can use Lr as temporary storage, but you must remove the original from Lr, as soon as possible (before making changes), after LrC downloads it.
To find originals in Lr, open the Lr app on your computer, go to all photos, and click on the funnel. Select filter by Sync Status and select “Synced and Backed Up” Those photos need to be deleted from Lr, to allow LrC to upload smart previews.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Interesting. Why did LR-classic try to sync the synced preview back to LR-cloud? I though LC-classic only synced to LR-cloud through collections? Must have something to do with how the synced folder operates. Clearly, deleting it from that folder broke the chain. But it also deleted the DNG from LR-Cloud? This behavior sounds like a bug. Do you think it warrants an Adobe bug report?

rmcgarry331

I think it's less of a bug and more of a limitation on how the two ecosystems operate. According to Adobe's Lightroom Classic sync FAQ page, LrC will sync smart previews, flags, ratings and develop settings. Also on the same page Adobe advises against syncing between LrC and Lr desktop. If you are a user of LrC, or a previous version of Lightroom, you can migrate your catalog to the cloud based Lightroom, using LrC. Alternately, you can use the Lr environment to intake image files and send them to LrC. However, once you start to manage them in LrC, you need to delete the original from Lr. In other words, once the original reaches your master catalog in LrC, you need to eliminate from the Lr environment.