Lightroom Sync Loop + thousands of errors with 7.5

[Yukon Dan]

Sync has generally worked well for me in the past but now it has gone completely mad.

Every time I open Lightroom it says "syncing 15,000 photo" and basically it tries to sync everything again. Then when it gets nearly complete, the number starts climbing again and so does the "sync errors" number until you end up with thousands of sync errors.

While it does this, Lightroom basically becomes unresponsive and often crashes and requires a Force Quit, at which point it then starts all over again.

I'm running LR 7.5

While the Sync is running, the sync panel in the preferences menu shows nothing at all. There are thousands of images now in the "sync error" collection, but nothing shows up in the sync activities section so I have no idea what error message it thinks it is getting.

[john beardsworth]

You can try holding down Alt/Option and using the Rebuild Sync Data button, but in the last couple of weeks a pattern seems to be emerging of a number of users getting this (I've responded to a number of similar questions like this). All seem to be on Mac, maybe after a recent OS update. So while you can try Rebuild Sync Data, I'd suggest waiting a few days.

[Yukon Dan]

Yeah I should have pointed out that I have already tried that as well. Initially I thought it had worked, but for some reason what it had done was also pause sync. When you pause the sync, it makes it look like the problem has gone away. But as soon as I turned sync back on it went crazy again.

[john beardsworth]

So looking at the thread I mentioned earlier, would Delete Mobile Data be worth trying? Please notice the precautions we took before going that way.

[Yukon Dan]

Well I have 15,000 images synced. That would be a hell of a thing to delete them all and re-upload them.

If this is becoming a widespread issue perhaps I should wait a few weeks and see if they issue some sort of update?

[heikelarson]

I am having the exact same issue! All synch worked well until about 10 days ago. Now, when I open up Lightroom CC, it correctly shows around 9,000 synched photos. When I hit play on synching (after it was paused or LR Classic restarts) it does exactly what you describe--synchs and resynchs and never finishes, with thousands of persistent synch errors. All the photos are in fact correctly synched to the mobile--but somehow, it doesn't recognize that. I did the synch data rebuild, and I also deleted the synch file in the library in Finder on my mac, and started re-synch--same symptom.

At least now I know it's not just me... But it is very annoying, because it can take hours for a new collection to synch and be sharable with others!

[Yukon Dan]

Well as you say, it's somewhat comforting to know that we aren't alone. But it is hugely annoying. I just had to turn sync off entirely for now.

It's also frustrating that nobody from Adobe is here to help or acknowledge this?  Am I not understanding this forum correctly? Is this not where we are supposed to get help from the people we pay our monthly fee to?

I'm not trying to be funny, I'm genuinely not sure. If you pay for a service that breaks, you expect some sort of customer support but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place?

[time38673426]

Happening on Windows 10 as well

[time38673426]

Also eventually eats up all my memory (64GB), brings machine to a crawl and I need to kill it. Again, Windows 10. LR Classic pretty much unusable except for a few minutes when I first start it.

[Yukon Dan]

Yep same for me. It brings my whole computer to a standstill and I have to kill it.

Why isn‘t anyone from Adobe in this thread acknowledging it or addressing anything?  Where is the support for our subscription fees, Adobe?!?

[john beardsworth]

Adobe support guys do participate but this is primarily a user-to-user forum. I have drawn the attention of more relevant people at Adobe to this thread, and I think the seriousness of this problem is understood.

[heikelarson]

After I've only been using Lightroom CC/mobile, I just went back to Classic. I had hoped that the latest software upgrade fixed the issue. Not so, unfortunately. Still does the exact same looping synch, keeps running (counting up synch errors, and down synched photos), until it hangs itself up and I have to force restart the program.

I do wish that someone from Adobe would at least reply...

[heikelarson]

So I just spent an unproductive hour with Adobe on their support chat. The rep basically asked me to take all he trouble-shooting steps everyone in this chat already tried, which I told them we all tried, without success--and I did link to this forum thread. I asked him to read this thread, and tell me if this was a known issue; didn't get any clear answer. Then he told me to "make sure that I have my collections set to synch"--after I screen-shared several examples of photos that were, in fact, synched between classic and CC, despite being shown as synch errors. Then he told me that "unless he can replicate the error, he can't help me"--all while the thousand of synch errors were visible right in front of him on the screen he saw as he remote-controlled my computer. Very frustrating... I am now waiting 24-48 hours, until someone from "advanced support" can get back to me. I requested that they please read this forum, so they don't ask me/us again to do all the trouble-shooting steps that we all tried, to no avail.

I did not get the impression that this particular support person had any inkling of this issue even existing. Hopefully, someone with more knowledge of the issue will get back to me; I'll keep people on this thread posted...

[munishg120]

Any updates on this? Haven't been able to sync any collections for the past three weeks!

[priyaa4914541]

John is correct- since this is a user to user forum, we ask that you please sign in and report your problem here:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-classic-7-5-sync-issues

We can steer you in the right direction or troubleshoot further as our extended base of developers are reviewing that forum as well.

-Priya

[Yukon Dan]

4 months later and this still hasn't been fixed.

The main reason I have stuck with Lightroom has been the sync features, but I have now had to have this turned off for many months.

Anyone else got theirs working again?

[john beardsworth]

I suspect stuff has been done server-side and what's interesting is that we haven't seen lots of new reports of this happening. Maybe go back and try again my suggestions from the start of the thread?

[Yukon Dan]

Thanks John.  You're correct, it is fixed now! I'm so happy. I just had to clear the sync data one more time now i'm on 8.1 and everything looks back to normal.

[john beardsworth]

That's great to hear, Dan, though I think one should still keep the fingers crossed!

[munishg120]

I too am having the exact same issue.

[john beardsworth]

Did you guys do anything like upgrading the OS?

[Yukon Dan]

No I didn't.

[munishg120]

John, this occured right after updating to OS X Mojave for me.

[Yukon Dan]

We can rule that out I think... I have not yet updated to Mojave

[munishg120]

i'm still having this issue after upgrading to Lightroom Classic CC 8.0, tried rebuilding sync data multiple times. It never finishes before the program freezes. I also tried, downgrading to 7.2 and it still persists. im at my wits end here.