Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

I’ve been using Lightroom for years. I use Classic on my iMac and CC Mobile on my iPad Pro and iPhone. My frustrations with Classic are becoming too much. Constant crashes, inability to sync correctly etc. I’ve spent so much time on chat and phone calls with Adobe support and although they are helpful, they never seem to solve the problems and within weeks (more likely days) I’m suffering from crashes, sync errors again.

I have all my original photos (40,000+) on a G-Drive hard drive external to my iMac. I also use Creative Cloud so presumably the images are there too. Backup is via Backblaze to their cloud.

I’d like to have copies of my photos on my own storage (like the G-Drive) as well as available in the cloud. I’m happy to use Affinity Photo on my iPad, and also happy to use Luminar on my iMac.

I’m actually using my old iMac less and less and relying on my iPad Pro. With the introduction of iPadOS (iOS13) this fall, I can see me replacing the iMac with the iPad Pro, external hard drive, cloud storage and an external monitor (for when I’m in the office).

So question is - I know there are programs and systems for moving from Apple Photos to Lightroom, but what about the other way round? IE getting Photos to access the photos on my external hard drive so I can access them from the cloud while giving me access to the photos on my hard drive from my iPad (when connected and once iOS13 is released.

Any suggestions?

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Look at On1. I think it may do what you want.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Odd, I've used LR for many years and no crashes or problems at all. Perhaps it is your equipment and not the software. You might check this out prior to changing software as you could have similar problems with the new software you choose. Some people like ON1, some people like Luminar, or Affinity or Elements. Each program is similar to all the others but also unique. There are two options to use your LR files. One would be to export them, best choice would be a tiff file, and then do whatever with them. Another option is to save the edits to the file, use a Command Save or the menu, and than all of the LR edits would be in the sidecar file or in the JPG file and could be read, depending in the program, by other programs. If you had set your LR file to do this automatically, which I do, then they would already be there in the file. You would need need to check further to determine if the software you choose will read the sidecar file or JPG file with the saved LR edits.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You'll need to likely update stuff - CS5 is old, and Mojave is not going to run 32 bit programs like the previous versions did. Lightroom is definitely not the problem here. I am using the latest version of LR, PS, On1 DXO, Capture One and Photomatix Pro on a Windows 7 machine with 32 gb ram and 8 TB of internal storage - no issues at all. And I built the computer in 2011 and updated the cpu and ram in 2016.
On1 has other issues, and I don't think it is ready for prime time, though every new release shows significant improvements.

mrtaxi Loc: Old Westbury NY, Fort Lauderdale, FL

I had those same problems, crashes, freezing with adobe elements. I switched to LR classic and it was slow but I bit the bullet and upgraded my gear to a true editing machine. Problem solved. Now No crashes, no freezing, no issue opening multiple programs and pictures or video editing . I use 3 screens 2 are 4K, the 3rd a TV. 32 mg ram, a Nivida video “high end gaming type card. This card is very expensive and has huge memory costing more than my prior counter box but is key to fast workflow. Also I have a very fast intel processor, and 1T of Solid state Hard drive(s). Everything backed up to Synolgy system and to Dropbox.

Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

It could indeed be my iMac, which is a mid 2011 27” with plenty of memory. It’s running High Sierra. I’m using the latest version of Classic on a subscription.

Strangely no other programs are affected, just Lightroom.

On1 is interesting, but seems to lack the mobile side of things.

Thanks everyone.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

The only crashes with Lightroom I have ever experienced was not enough RAM. With a computer with 8 or 16 Lightroom works perfectly.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

You don’t tell us how old the iMac is, or how much ram you’ve got with what OS. All of those factors affect how Lightroom runs, or whether it will run at all. Also, you say you’ve got your images on an external drive. Based on my very similar and recent problems with LR and my mac, I’d suggest you run disk utilities to check that drive. In my situation my external was failing. Once I replaced the failing drive, LR runs very nicely, even on my 7 year old machine. No more crashes.

Replacing a computer with an ipad is a dizzying and intriguing prospect. It looks like the new iOS 13 will allow connection to external storage devices, but how well such would work for photo editing wasn’t clear to me. It is possible to connect an ipad to a monitor now I think. Surely all this would require high powered hubs with the capacity to connect multiple devices and move data at the high speeds we take for granted on our desktops, and I’m not sure about how they would work.

To move your existing photos into any version of Apple Photos would be easy, as all it would take would be importing them, but Photos would not be able to read your Lightroom edits. I expect you’d have to export them out of LR with the edits before importing them into Photos in order for your edits to go with the images. And as far as I know, anything you put into your Photos catalog can conceivably be available in iCloud if you purchase enough iCloud storage space. Same would be true of Adobe - they’ll be happy to store as many of your LRCC photos as you want in there, as long as you pay for the storage. And cloud photos can be accessed from anywhere, that is the purpose of it. Photos itself, like Lightroom, doesn’t really care whether your images are on the internal or external drives, as long as the application knows where they are. There’s plenty of information about how to set that up available with a Google search. Here’s just one of many https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/change-where-photos-and-videos-are-stored-pht1ed9b966d/mac. Photos has more mysterious way of handling images that drives me crazy because you can’t get to them once they’re in there. But lots of people are fine with it.

I’m intrigued with the upcoming iOS, as I enjoy using a mix of LR Classic and LRCC on a desktop, laptop and ipad. I don’t foresee going fully mobile as you are anticipating, but I do like the flexible workflow that is now available.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I would try upgrading the computer first. I believe CC is best on modern (less than 4 years old) equipment, and particularly 64 bit OS.
Further, I would get an additional local drive to archive my photo files. For archiving, a minimum of two local drives (I use three). The cloud drive is a worst case backup, in case all your local drives are destroyed in a regional disaster. The local drives are not as limited in bandwidth as the cloud will be if you really have to restore everything.

Leave one external drive on your computer. The second (and third) should be synchronized occasionally and disconnected from the computer. That will avoid problems if a line surge zaps both your computer and your external drive.

"When it comes to backup you can't be too paranoid"

Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

Just to confirm, it’s a mid 2011 iMac 27” with 24GB memory, running High Sierra. The HD has been checked with disc utility and has no issues. The G-Tech hard drive has also been checked with Disc Utility and is running fine. The Lightroom version is the latest, on a subscription. No other programs have issues unless Lightroom is running.

I have the Lightroom library running on one G-Tech drive (3 TB) and Time Machine back-up running an another separate G-Tech drive (4TB). Everything except Time Machine is backed up to BackBlaze.

For me, running totally on an iPad Pro isn’t a problem. I can do most of what I want using Lightroom CC mobile, and where i need more abilities, I have affinity Photo. I’m interested in the upcoming Photoshop mobile that Adobe says will be a fully featured program.

The only thing that I do on the iMac, to be honest, is to renumber the image file names. I like the idea of having my own copies of all my images in addition to the cloud, but that’s achievable particularly when the iPad Pro can access separate drives.

As the iPad can also run a separate monitor, so I can get a 27”, that’s not a problem either.

Thank you all.

DanCulleton

LR Classic runs flawlessly on my MacBook Pro.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

You’ll have to let us know how the ipad-centric workflow works out. Lots of new exciting things on the horizon with the new iOS and the upcoming ipad-friendly Photoshop that Adobe has promised.

If you decide to work to save the old iMac, here’s the resources that helped me most in solving my LR crash problem : Apple Support forums and Victoria Bampton’s Lightroom Queen forum. Adobe Support, while friendly and accessible, were utterly useless and a big waste of time for me and them.

Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

Thanks. Yes, interesting times.

I am on Victoria Bamford’s forum and will go back and look at the Apple Community too.

Thanks again.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

May have been mentioned, but are you sure that it is not your "old iMac"? The newer versions of CC do not work well/at all with the latest iteration of OS X. Memory constraints could also be an issue.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Get a new computer. Either that, or baseline your old computer and start with a fresh install of the latest operating system. If your computer is old, I guarantee that is your problem. I would not rely solely on an iPad Pro for editing pictures. I know that things are heading that way but I don't think the software and the iPads are quite up to the task yet.