# Sync Smart Collections



## William Hatter (Feb 4, 2017)

Hi, I am new to this forum. I reently installed LR and am loving its performance and capabilities versus Elements which I used for years.

I'd like to be able to create a Smart Collection and have it sync to my iPhone. For some reason the box you normally click to make a collection sync is not present for all the Smart collections I have in the Smart Collection folder. Is there a way to activate this?

Part of the reason is that I have 5000 photos on my phone which is taking too much space. My intent is to do a one time import of all the photos from the phone into a folder in LR (using Image Capture on my iMac), then delete them from the phone to free up space. Going forwards, I will use LR Mobile to capture any NEW photos I take on the phone into a synced collection in LR desktop. But I wanted to create a Smart collection which collects any photo taken on the phone in the last 90 days. There might be other Smart collections I'd want to sync too.

Any suggestions?


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## clee01l (Feb 4, 2017)

Welcome to the forum.
This is a feature that I would like to see too, Sync'd collections are limited to static Collections only.  I suspect that the reason for this is that Smart Collections do not really exist but are determined where the criteria in the Smart collection matches a given image.  This does not get refreshed until you actually click on a Smart Collection.  I have parallel Smart and Static Collections The static Collections  sync with LR Mobile.  The Smart collections have all of the criteria that I want for my Sync'd collection plus a criteria that the image is not already in the static Collection.  Periodically I manually add the images in the Smart Collection to the parallel static Collection.


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## mchernis (Feb 13, 2017)

Does anyone make any plugins that could automate the process of updating a Static Collection from a Smart Collection?

Mark


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## johnbeardy (Feb 13, 2017)

No, but if you're only doing one at a time you just select all the smart collection's photos and hit Cmd+N (Ctrl +N on WIndows).


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## mchernis (Feb 13, 2017)

Thanks for the quick reply.  Unfortunately, I have several (20+) Smart Collections that change pretty often that I'd like to sync to Lr Mobile.    I know I can't sync these collections directly but wondered if I could automate the process of "copying" them to static collections somehow.   Frustrating.


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## johnbeardy (Feb 13, 2017)

I've a script that I could adapt for the purpose. What it does is copy the selected smart collections to dumb collections, naming them the same plus the word " shadow".

It seems to work but it's only something quick.

John

Copy everything below this point.


--[[

Copies smart collections to dumb ones

SETUP INSTRUCTIONS
Temporarily save this file onto your desktop and call it "YOURFILENAME.lua".

Now you need to create a scripts folder:
    In Lightroom, choose Lightroom > Preferences (Mac OS) or Edit > Preferences (Windows).
    Choose the Preset tab and select Show Lightroom Presets folder.
    Create a folder in the Lightroom folder called Scripts.
    Copy the "YOURFILENAME.lua" script into the Scripts folder.
    Quit and reopen Lightroom.
You should now see a little scripts menu to the right of the Help menu. It has a single item Title case keywords.
--]]


LrView = import 'LrView'
LrDialogs = import 'LrDialogs'
LrApplication = import 'LrApplication'
catalog = LrApplication.activeCatalog()
LrTasks = import 'LrTasks'
LrFunctionContext = import 'LrFunctionContext'

if LrApplication.versionTable()['major'] <5 then
   LrDialogs.message( "Oops - must be run in Lr5 or later" , "collection:getSearchDescription() is a feature introduced in Lr5")
   else

   LrTasks.startAsyncTask( function()   
   catalog:withWriteAccessDo( "Duplicate smart collections", function()
       sources = catalog:getActiveSources( )
       for i, collection in ipairs(sources) do   
       --LrDialogs.message( collection:getName() , collection:type() )
           pParent = collection:getParent()
           if collection:isSmartCollection() == true then
           photos = collection:getPhotos()
           newCollection = catalog:createCollection( collection:getName()..' shadow', collection:getParent() or nil, true )
           newCollection:addPhotos( photos )
           end
       end
   end)
   end)
end​


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## clee01l (Feb 13, 2017)

johnbeardy said:


> No, but if you're only doing one at a time you just select all the smart collection's photos and hit Cmd+N (Ctrl +N on WIndows).


I think this is a necessary plugin for some smart person  to develop  to benefit  updating sync'd LR Mobile collections. Cmd+N (Ctrl +N) doesn't work for anything but new collections.  New Collections don't sync automatically with LR Mobile. For LR Mobile, I have created Smart Collections and Sync'd Collections with the same name.  Today I have to open each Smart Collection, Select all of the images and drag to the Static Collection of the same name.   And as the OP had noted you can only do one collection at a time manually  If I selected all of my Smart Collection that are paired with static sync'd collection, I could with one click update all of my sync'd collections.


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## Viridian (Jun 20, 2019)

Hi guys,

As a variety of features are missing from Lightroom Mobile, I have looked into syncing Smart Collections to LR Mobile as a workaround.  Since Smart Collections don't sync with LR Mobile natively, I'm looking to use the workaround via Smart Collection -> Copy & Paste into Static Collection, which then syncs to Mobile.
One of my usecases: Lightroom Mobile doesn't have a map module, so I create smart collections with certain location rules for my favourite destinations. That way I dont have to pick through all of the location filters each time I want to see all pictures from a certain location.

I've done some research and found this feature request:
Ability to sync smart collections

And I came across these two workarounds:
Jeffrey’s “Smart-Collection Sync” Lightroom Plugin
Anysource Lightroom Plugin
I would be interested to hear what other people are using and how/best practice.

Many thanks and best regards,

Viridian


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