How best to integrate LR with Google Photos?

[Zak833]

I just downloaded the Google Photos desktop Auto-uploader to upload the entire contents of my Pictures folder (from which Lightroom also creates its catalogue).

I can go ahead and do this using the desktop app, but when opening Lightroom I noticed the following in the side bar:

I'm not really sure a) Why it appeared, b) Why none of the subfolders seem to be relevant? I do have the Google Photos app now in my Applications folder, so I would expect it to perhaps show up there, but it doesn't.

In any case, I'm just wondering why this appeared and if it would preferable to integrate the two this way for some reason vs. just using the Google uploader app...

Thank you!

[JP Hess]

I have never used Google Photos. But are you aware that the photos that you have worked on in Lightroom will not reflect the changes made to them? Those changes only exist in the catalog.  You would probably be happier if you export copies and synchronize those copies with Google Photos.

[Zak833]

Thanks, this was also helpful. Hmm, so any adjustments only apply to the photos being viewed within Lightroom itself? Is there no way to have them apply to the original in my Mac folder?

[Zak833]

It also just occurred to me that perhaps the integration suggested by that side bar dropdown I posted would result in the catalog being backed up vs. the original folder. But as I wrote, I'm not sure how to do it 😕

[JP Hess]

There is an option in the Lightroom Catalog settings that you can choose that says, "Automatically write changes to XMP files". This will write many of your changes (but not all) to XMP files for your raw images and will write the changes to other file types as well. I have never done this. It is my understanding that doing so can affect the performance of Lightroom. Someone else may have a different view of this option.

You need to understand that the only file Lightroom opens is the catalog. The catalog is a database that is populated with image objects to show your images. It is essential that you backup that catalog on a regular basis. Look through your menu options and find the catalog settings and you can choose how often you want to backup your catalog. That backup DOES NOT back up your images. I suggest that you create some sort of plan for backing up your images. That does not involve Lightroom in any way. You can get software that will automate the backup process. Or you can have Lightroom created a second copy of your images as it imports them. Those backups should be on a different hard drive from where your working images are located.

[dj_paige]

JimHess wrote:

There is an option in the Lightroom Catalog settings that you can choose that says, "Automatically write changes to XMP files". This will write many of your changes (but not all) to XMP files for your raw images and will write the changes to other file types as well. I have never done this. It is my understanding that doing so can affect the performance of Lightroom. Someone else may have a different view of this option.

I don't see how this helps the OP at all, he wants to be able to view the edited photos, writing edits to XMP doesn't achieve this goal. Exporting the photos to Google Photos, or using a LR Publish Service that publishes to Google Photos does allow him to view the edited photos on Google Photos, but I have no idea if this is possible as I have never looked into it.

Way back in Lightroom 1 and 2, writing to XMP might have been a performance issue. The entire code for writing to XMP was re-written somewhere along the way so that this is not a performance issue now.

[JP Hess]

I have not been using the write changes to XMP files option. I just modified an image and pressed Ctrl/S and got the notice that changes to non-raw files are written to the files. What gets written? Obviously, the changes made in Lightroom  don't.

[Just Shoot Me]

JimHess wrote:

I have not been using the write changes to XMP files option. I just modified an image and pressed Ctrl/S and got the notice that changes to non-raw files are written to the files. What gets written? Obviously, the changes made in Lightroom don't.

Yes they do. That is the actual edits you have made in the Develop module. With Proprietary RAW files the edits get written to a XMP sidecar file. With JPGs, TIFFs, DNGs the edits get written to a special place in the file itself. Not sure about PSD files.

If you take any of those edited in LR files into Adobe Camera RAW all the edits done in LR will show up. If you then do more edits in ACR and go back into LR that image will have an exclamation mark on it. LR sees the file has changed and clicking the ! mark a dialog will come up asking if you want to Read data from the disk (File or XMP sidecar actually) or overwrite the data in the File or XMP sidecar from what LR has stored in the catalog file.

[Jao vdL · Accepted solution]

You can use Jeffrey fried's plugin: Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » Jeffrey’s “Export to PicasaWeb” Lightroom Plugin  to setup an export service that uploads your Lightroom images that you choose to Google Photos. That is the way to get your images to reflect how they look in Lightroom. As others have said. Lightroom is a nondestructive editor, so it won't overwrite your originals and so mirroring what you have on your hard drive won't do much good.

[mickmassie]

I have used the Jeffrey Friedl Lightroom to Picasaweb plugin for several years, but it no longer works. I now have to publish to Google Drive using Jeffrey's plugin, and, and then manually copy the photos into the relevant Google Photos Album. It is really a bad backward step and very clunky. I'd love a better solution as Google Photos is my preferred method of sharing photos with others.

[boginbob]

I may be missing something but for whatever:

• create a folder on desktop called Exports
• configure G Photos to auto backup that folder
• be sure you set G Photos to 2048 size so no backup limit
• selectively (folder by folder or collection by collection) export photos to Exports folder as Jpegs
• once uploaded create an album ... and what I do is add parenthesis and keywords like (keyword, keyword, keyword) ... it's really not keywords but adding 3-5 tags allows me to search album where a photo I want may be
• each week I delete the exported images from folder since they are in G Photos

[mickmassie]

This works, but it is still very clunky when compared with the way that Jeffrey Friedl's Lightroom to Picasaweb plugin used to work. I quite often update a photograph with titles, keywords, processing long after I have taken it and want to be able to keep an automatic link from my Lightroom Catalog to Google Photos, just as I can with Flickr or other publishing services. Using the Drive plugin to export to Drive and then manually copy across to Photos is the best way I have come up with, but it is annoying when the previous method was so much better. As I understand it, Google will not publish an API for Photos that will allow a Lightroom plugin to be created.

[louiek47361676]

when you upload to to Google Photos, it does not keep the order that you created in lightroom.  What other plug in options are there that work flawless in lightroom?

[vigas11182343]

Hello louiek47361676

I made an app called Google Photos Fetcher for Adobe.

https://exchange.adobe.com/addons/products/19277

It uses Google's image search algorithm to find the highest resolution image you've uploaded and download it seamlessly.  I wonder if this would be helpful in retrieving the appropriate image. I've highlighted it's working in this video.

GOOGLE Photos for ADOBE Photoshop - YouTube

Hope it helps.

Viga

[SGM]

there is a Lightroom plugin on Github  GitHub - stanaka/lightroom-google-photo-plugin   download the ZIP file and install

[Bruce_]

Unfortunately this is not currently working

[johnrellis]

See the Export To Google Photos plugin: Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » Jeffrey’s “Export to Google Photos” Lightroom Plugin . But note the restrictions on this plugin imposed by limitations of Google Photos:

In particular, Google does not allow this plugin to:

• upload to any album not created by this plugin.
• update any aspect of any photo or video at Google Photos.
• delete or replace anything at Google Photos.

(Friedl is the authoritative expert at LR publishing services.)

[Bruce_]

And I've just tested the Photo upload plugin available from adobeexchange (from new p products). It also has the same restriction. Indeed if you publish a collection with 2 photos, then add a photo to the collection and republish, you end up with 5 photos (the original photos copied). So the republish feature is useless.

[johnrellis]

Right, it's a restriction imposed by Google Photos.  Seems like these major services don't care any more about integration with third-party applications.

[Jao vdL]

Which is completely logical. Google, instagram, etc. want to have you not use any third-party software as they can't sell your eyeballs to advertisers that way. Remember to google and Facebook you are the product being sold, you are not their client.

[Zak833]

Thank you Jao​, I appreciate the reference to that plugin. So if you are backing up your catalog to Google Photos, would that still include the full-sized images? Vs. just the adjustments, somehow?

JimHess​ thank you too. However, similarly, would this backup you are suggesting making (on an external hard drive, presumably) include the full images, or just the adjustments you have made in LR?

[Jao vdL]

Zak, this would put jpeg copies with all changes baked in on your google photos. The image size will depend on your settings in the plugin. They can be full size to whatever reduced size you want. Google has no clue about any of the develop instructions or metadata that Lightroom uses so this is the only option that gives you fully developed images. It is NOT a backup solution therefore, just a way to have images somewhere. They can be a good last resort if you lose all your images in some catastrophe where you would still have all your pictures somewhere for posterity (At least until Google decides to can google photos - they have a habit of canning services that they no longer feel is making them money) If you actually want to backup your original images and Lightroom catalog somewhere offsite, you need to do something like amazon storage, google drive, Dropbox, or an automated backup software solution. Such solutions work well but are limited by your internet upload bandwidth and if you're in north America, that is usually really slow And Lightroom catalogs including images easily grow to many 100's of gigabytes. I have several terabytes of images for example. Also be wary of data limitations that are becoming the norm in the US too. This is why external hard disks are so convenient for backup as they are orders of magnitude faster. They have the disadvantage of being in the same house though and so get lost too if your main computer gets lost due to fire/water damage. You can always make a regular backup to a hard disk and store it offsite in a safe deposit box If you want to be sure. Some of the online backup solutions allow you to make the first backup by mailing them a hard disk Which might be a good solution.

[Zak833]

Hi Jao​ thank you once again for the very informative response.

The only part that puzzles me is that you do not seem to consider Google Photos a viable online backup option, when that is exactly how Google touts it? Is that because, as you say, you think Google may at some point "can" it? Or is it because the backed up copies would be the Lightroom-adjusted versions rather than the originals? To me, this would be acceptable, since these are the versions I would ultimately prefer anyway!

Just curious as to why you described it like that, since the main purpose of it for me would be as a backup utility

Thanks again!

[Jao vdL]

That is exactly what I mean indeed. if just having the adjusted copies is fine than it is probably a good solution for you indeed. I need my original raw images backed up and it won't do that so for me it doesn't work.

[Zak833]

That's great, thanks once again!