Smart Previews File and Dropbox for two computers

[kirkster501]

Hey guys,

New to Adobe and LR/Photoshop and on big learning curve.  I love Terry White's videos and tutorials!

I am using Lightroom classic latest version on my iMac and Macbook.  Photos are on my Synology NAS and the LR catalog is in Dropbox.  Cool.  Works great!!

Now, so I can work on photo edits on my Macbook when on train and out and about, I decided to build smart previews for my 16000 (and counting) photos.  The SP file is 15G.

I have a fast computer and fast Internet.  Takes forever to upload the Smart Previews file and even if I just open and close LR with no changes it goes through a upload of this file to Dropbox again. I thought that Dropbox offered to only change the difference between starting and finishing the session, not uploading the entire file again?

Is there any way to optimise this process please? Whether in LR or Dropbox?

My biggest criticism of LR is the way the catalog has to be local to the machine.  The way people work nowadays, with two or three computers, Adobe should address this limitation.  I think they should also be a bit more accommodating and allow access to three computers for the CC plans. I have my two macs but occasionally oudl like to use my PC as well.

Steve

[JohanElzenga]

I’m very surprised about your observation. The smart previews ‘file’ isn’t really a file, it’s a so-called ‘package’. That is a folder that looks like a file and behaves like a file in the Finder, but it’s still a folder. Dropbox should never completely sync this ‘file’, it shoud only sync those things inside it that were changed. Are you sure it’s the smart previews that are constantly synced? The catalog file should be, not the smart previews.