Major sync problem LR Desktop to LR Web/Mobile

[ColinMcD]

I started this problem with a strange issue with a smallish number of images not syncing.

Lightroom web showed exclamation marks and a legend that the sync had not finished. Lightroom on the PC however was convinced that all syncs were up to date.

Initially, there were 18 images greyed out on LR web. So I deleted these in LR web, and re-added them in to the synced collection. No luck. I have now repeated that exercise 4 times, including signing out of LR on the Web, Desktop and tablet, and in fact re-booting both. Still no luck.

Next I exported copies of all the 18 images, and created a new folder and then collection. They would not sync.

I then tried renaming the 18 images, and instantly, they synced.

With some help from the Lightroom Queen Forum, I also tried minor edits on the images concerned to see if they would then update. No change

Having done a bit more digging, I found some other images in other collections with the same issue. At the same time, some of the originals now seem to have synced.

I am left with I think 27 collections totalling approx. 1800 images. Of those, I can now see 12 that are greyed out and "Sync not completed" as far as LR Web is concerned. LR Desktop (PC) however still says all syncs are up to date.

The missing images are a mix of jpg and raw files, and none report as faulty in LR desktop.

A bit more digging however led me to click on "All photos" on LR Web. This contained many images that should not currently be synced. If I scroll right down to the bottom, LR Web reports that there are 3,889 images in my "All Photos".

So it appears that my database/collection list or whatever is in need of some kind of reset.

I'd appreciate any comments.

Colin

Message was edited by: Colin McDonald to add a bit more info

[SeanMcCormack]

Hi Colin,

In the Lightroom mobile tab of Preferences, is there anything listed in the Sync section?

An extreme option is to delete Lightroom mobile from your device then download it again.

[ColinMcD]

Hi Sean

Unfortunately there is nothing to help

It says Sync Activity. (0 Uploading, 0 Downloading, 0 Pending)

No Sync Activities

I did wonder if deleting it might be a solution. Presumably I'd need to delete it from phone and tablet. Does that actually cause a delete on the Lightroom Web side of things?

Colin

[SeanMcCormack]

It won't delete them from the cloud, just the Device.

There is a Delete All Data option that will remove everything.

[ColinMcD]

It does appear that the problem is with LR Web and not LR Mobile.

The "Missing" images are spread across 5 collections.

323 of 324 are present in one collection.

Also present are 9 of 10, 397 of 403, 202 of 205, and 22 of 25 images in the other 4 collections

In each case, LR Mobile on my tablet shows the net number of images ie 323, 9, 397, 202 & 25, and they show no "Missing placeholders".

So I suspect that deleting Lightroom Mobile may not have the desired effect, if it does not re-set the LR web account

[SeanMcCormack]

LR Web shows exactly what's uploaded.

There's a really old tip that's not particularly used.. from here: Re: Trouble syncing with Lightroom Mobile

I've used it in the past.

Could you try to remove the sync.lrcat and restart Lr Desktop.

On Mac it's at /Users/<user>/Library/Caches/Adobe/Lightroom/Sync Data/Sync.lrdata

On Win it would be at C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Lightroom\Caches\Sync Data\Sync.lrdata

[ColinMcD]

Interesting!

I do not have a sync.lrcat file at that location (or as far as I can see, at any other location).

There are only 3 files in that directory (2 .docstore, and 1 .wfindex). When I open LR Desktop, the number of files increases to 9, but none of them are .lrcat files.

Colin

[ColinMcD]

Out of interest, I opened the

"C:\Users\(Users)\AppData\Local\Adobe\Lightroom\Caches\Sync Data\Sync.lrdata"

folder this morning. Lightroom is not open, but there are now 7 files in the directory, but again none are a .lrcat file.

Just to confirm, I do have "Show hidden/system files" set to display all files. 

Colin

[Jim Wilde]

Sean meant to say delete the sync.lrdata folder.

[ColinMcD]

Ok Thanks for the update.

Much appreciated (Like all help).

I've done that, and LR is now in the process of syncing. I'll update later

Colin

[ColinMcD]

I've done that now, and it has had no effect.

In fact I (earlier) did what Sean had suggested, and un-installed LR Mobile from my phone and tablet. I then deleted all data from LR Web.

Then reset the LR Desktop to share folders again. I didn't do all of them, but I now have 937 images synced across 17 collections. A few images repeat, so the collections total 949 images. I'm fairly sure that the three problem images are not among the ones appearing in more than one collection, but its not easy to confirm.

Of these, 3 (a completely different 3 images from before) still say that the sync is not complete. LR Desktop however again says that all updates are complete.

Presumably the fact that these 3 now do not sync, and the previous problem images do sync, tends to suggest/prove that there is no problem with any of the actual images themselves.

[SeanMcCormack · Accepted solution]

Sorry about the delay in responding, it's been a hectic week, mostly trying to create loads of Lightroom videos.

You can check what collections a photo is in by clicking on the double rectangle badge in the thumbnail in Grid if that helps. Personally I had thought being in more than one collection might help it. Obviously other images shared across collections have synced.

Again try deleting just that Sync.lrdata folder (cheers Jim) and restarting Lightroom.

I appreciate this a pain. I also wish there was a straightforward way of dealing with it because each of the different apps that access the same database display such different sync status.

[ColinMcD]

Sean

Thanks for this info again.

I had more or less given up on this issue. I had nine photos still refusing to sync.

Today, I took your advice and tried again. It did not work. So in desperation, I uninstalled (again) LR from my phone and tablet. Then I cleared all the images still on Lightroom web. Finally, after leaving it a couple of hours in the hope that any cached info might be cleared, I then re-synced approx. 13 collections with just under 900 images.

This time it has worked. All 898 images show correctly in LR Web. I haven't yet re-installed LR on the tablet and phone, but the problem was in the cloud saved data, so as this is resolved I'm hopeful that overall, the problem is gone!

It will of course be interesting to see if they stay sync'd in a few weeks. I'll try to remember to let you know.

Thanks to everyone who has helped. It is much appreciated.

Colin