Lightroom Classic as backup client

[D0nald]

Dear Adobe,

I came up with the idea of syncing originals from Lightroom CC down to Lightroom Classic. This way I would have a local backup including my edits, and I also could perform some editing functions via Lightroom Classic, which are missing in Lightroom CC (like batch file renaming).

While this may sound like a possible workflow I stumbled upon this interview on "https://prolost.com/blog/migratinglightroom " with Benjamin Warde, product manager on the Lightroom team. Benjamin advised against this workflow, but the exact reasons why were censored by Adobe PR:

>Adobe recommends against syncing Classic and CC, despite the fact that they are designed to do just that. However, Adobe PR asked >me to replace all that helpful information (three paragraphs worth) with this:

>...But it's not a workflow we recommend or plan to invest in going forward.

>Adobe seems really touchy about this stuff. I think what Benjamin wrote would have helped clear the air with some refreshing honesty, >and I’m sad that you didn’t get to read it.

I really think Adobe should be open about the possibilities and limitations when using LRCC and Classic together, otherwise users will run into pitfalls. So, whats wrong with using Lightroom Classic as an additional sync client? Are there just minor issues one could work around or live with till LRCC catches up, or are there major problems endangering ones data?

[JohanElzenga]

D0nald  wrote

Dear Adobe,

I came up with the idea of syncing originals from Lightroom CC down to Lightroom Classic. This way I would have a local backup including my edits, and I also could perform some editing functions via Lightroom Classic, which are missing in Lightroom CC (like batch file renaming).

That already happens. Just sync the Lightroom Classic catalog and it will download the originals from the cloud. Many things you do in Lightroom Classic will also sync back, file renaming is one of those things.

[D0nald]

Dear Johan, please read my post again. Adobe recommends against it but does not go into detail why.

[JohanElzenga]

Just use it. Many people do and it works fine.

[JP Hess]

There are a couple of reasons I can think of why Adobe "recommends against it". When synchronization works, the programs work well together. I have only synchronized a few collections, and have only imported a few images directly into Lightroom CC. The two programs seem to work well together for me. I have read other accounts where synchronization doesn't work well or work at all in some instances, or is extremely slow to the point that it is terribly frustrating to the user. The other problem is that there is not parity of features between the two programs at this point, and it will probably be some time before there will be if there ever really is. Many users have embraced Lightroom CC. Others who have tried to integrate the two programs have become extremely frustrated. If you can find a workflow using the two programs in an integrated fashion, then do it. The Internet still seems to be a bit quirky for many users, and other users just don't seem to understand the difference between the two programs. I think the best advice is to integrate the two programs at your own risk. I have done it to a certain degree, but I don't put "life or death" dependency on what I have in Lightroom CC. This is my opinion, only my opinion. I don't work for Adobe and I'm not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination.

[D0nald]

Hi Jim,

I think I will give it a try and see for myself. It could very well be Adobe recommends against the use of both LRCC and Classic in sync because you will need a very clear understanding of how these programs work together. And yes, LR Classic as the older brother does not behave as well as the newer LRCC which was developed for the cloud from the beginning. I will post and update my experience with both programs so hopefully others could benefit from it. What I have learned so far:

Expected benefits (for me) from syncing to LR Classic:

- Local Backup of originals AND corresponding edits

- Batch file renaming

- use of external controller hardware (MIDI2LR)

Initial setup:

- Always import pictures via LRCC because this will sync down the originals to LR Classic. Other way round, import in LR Classic would only sync smart previews to LRCC

- I have 50.000 pictures / originals (400G) in Adobes cloud. Sync down to LR Classic was indeed terribly slow, approx. only 3000 pictures a day. I could not stand it and had to abort.

- Instead I used the "Lightroom downloader" to download all my cloud content in a "year / year-month-day" folder structure to my NAS, this took only a day. Then I pointed Lightroom Classic to this directory via "Preferences / Lightroom sync", dialed in the right subfolder formatting below, and started syncing again. Lightroom Classic is intelligent enough to recognize the originals are already downloaded, but will still need a day to sync. Thats ok and only a one time effort.

Good to know / caveats:

- Keyword are not synced between LRCC and LR Classic

- Deleted images in LRCC are not deleted in LR Classic, they only lose sync connectivity

- Videos synced down to LR Classic have no sync connectivity from the beginning

- You need a higher cost subscription plan for LRCC, LR Classic and Cloud Space..

[JP Hess]

It appears you have a pretty good grasp on how the cloud works. Enjoy. I really have little use for Lightroom CC. I experiment with it a little, but have no real need for it in my situation. It's good that everyone can make the choice for what works best in their situation.

[D0nald]

While using the "Lightroom Downloader" for the initial sync down from LRCC to Lightroom Classic has been really fast for me, more photos were downloaded than expected. It seemed the "Lightroom Downloader" also got some intermediate edits for download which were still stored behind the scenes in the LRCC cloud.

So after all I used Lightroom Classic for the first sync. And while the first 6000 photos took two days to download, things speeded up considerably later this week, and finally 30000 pictures were synced down in a day which was pretty much o.k.

Number of pictures in LRCC and Lightroom Classic were identical when sync was finished, i.e. sync worked as expected with 50k photos and videos.

[LocalHero1953]

I'm going through the same process at the moment with 38k images. Thanks for your reported experience - very useful. I wish I'd thought of the 'Lightroom download' option - it's taken about a week to download all mine, but done now. Lessons I've learned are:

- avoid getting mixed up between LR CC and LR Classic clients on desktop PC (where the download/sync is happening) and on tablet (Surface Pro) and android phone, all of which may be the devices from which I may import photos to LR CC. At one stage some photos could not be imported because of a reported database error, which I suspect was due to different LR CC clients being out of sync with each other. I'm syncing them all sequentially to avoid this happening again.

- even downloading smart previews, to devices which are not being used for local image storage, seems to take a long time.

[D0nald]

Thank you for your feedback! I have no problems with performance between the new native cloud based LRCC clients (Mac OS / iOS). If in doubt, you can completely delete your local LRCC client and start over again. "The truth is in the cloud", everything will be synced again from the cloud to your local LRCC client.

Also good to know, how to find all unsynced photos in Lightroom Classic (e.g. when you delete photos in LRCC they will not be deleted in LR Classic, just unsynced):

From Finding 'unsynced' photos

Richtige Antwort9. Re: Finding 'unsynced' photos

johnrellis  12.01.2018 12:23 (als Antwort auf: john15973)

In Lightroom Classic I have 641 photos showing  in 'All Photos'. But only 638 showing in 'All Synced Photos' (I sync to LRCC). How do I filter to see which photos these are that are not synced.

Here's a method that doesn't involve flags: 

1. In the Catalog panel on the left, click All Synced Photographs.

2. Do Edit > Select All.

3. In the Catalog panel, click All Photographs.

4. Do Photo > Stacking > Expand All Stacks.

4. Do Edit > Invert Selection.  The unsynced photos are now selected.

5. Add the selected photos to the Quick Collection or do Library > New Collection to create a new collection containing them.