# How to best manage Lightroom CC with Creative Cloud in two locations?



## Toolio (May 22, 2018)

Hi all.

After researching this topic for some time I remain confused. I’m hoping to get some sage advice here.
I split my time between houses in two locations, Brazil and Canada. I have the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan with 1TB cloud space, Lightroom  CC and Classic etc. I want to synchronize my LR CC to ensure everything is, and remains, the same on CC on  Windows 10 computers in both locations and in the cloud. Basically, I spend a few months in one location, then a few months in the other. There is never any simultaneous work in both locations. Photography is a serious hobby, not my profession.
Before the new CC and my cloud subscription I would cart around a portable hard drive and sync manually every time I switched locations. I want to get rid of that manual process.
Here is how my current situation breaks down.
I left Brazil a couple of weeks ago. When I left, my entire collection of photographs was synced between the cloud and CC on my computer in  Brazil. Everything I want and need is in this setup, including my entire photo collection,.
and is working like a charm.
Now that I have arrived in Canada  I want to duplicate that collection on CC in the computer here, which would mean replicating what is on the cloud at the moment. As things stand, the photo libraries on both computers are similar, with the exception of the fact that because I was away from Brazil for six months, there are six months of photos and edits  missing in Canada (these were added and edited in Brazil while I was there.) So now I want to make my CC setup in Canada  identical to the one in Brazil. When I go back to Brazil, I will want to update everything at that end, again using the cloud.
To further complicate things, I use LR Classic frequently because its enhanced editing abilities. However, I seldom use Photoshop. I also sync with Lightroom mobile on my iPad and Android phone. Currently these are up-to-date and synched  with the computer in Brazil.
Because I was away from Canada for six months, the new versions of LR CC  and Classic  were not on my computer in Canada until I installed them this morning. When I was last in Canada I also did not have the cloud subscription, 
So, in a nutshell, I need to know what I must do to get both Brazil and Canada versions of CC in sync and keep them that way. I do not need to keep originals on the computer in in Canada. I have gigabit Internet and unlimited bandwidth so going back-and-forth on the cloud is no problem. I do generally keep originals in Brazil because of slower Internet and bandwidth limitations. The only other thing I can add is that I have complete non-Adobe backups of both the Brazil and Canada  LR  set ups, photos and editing metadata.  So if something goes wrong in this process I can rescue everything I have at either end, although clearly I’d rather not have to do that.
Can anyone suggest where I should go from here, at the Canadian location? Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.


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## Jim Wilde (May 22, 2018)

It should be as simple as logging into the same Adobe CC account in Canada as you use in Brazil, then start LRCC. And that's it, LRCC will create a local version of the cloud catalog, with the same images and albums as you see in Brazil. You don't have to do the syncing, the Adobe cloud takes care of that.

The only complication could be figuring out how Classic fits into the picture. Have you given any thought to that?


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## Toolio (May 22, 2018)

I was hoping it would be that simple. But research seems to indicate it isn't for some users. Many people seem to have different, unexpected results. I just tried this after my original message, with fingers crossed. I now have many duplicates photos and a few missing files. Oddly, I see the missing files in the Adobe cloud, so I'm confused . The dupes are easy enough to deal with and I can import the missing photos, which are backed up on another cloud service as well. The trick now is to discover all files that are missing. although at first glance it seems to be related to a fairly narrow time frame. 
 I realize Classic may be complicated.  I'm aiming to get CC totally in line first, then see what I can do with Classic .Perhaps others who have wrestled with this can give me some advice


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## Jim Wilde (May 22, 2018)

I wouldn't have expected duplicate or "missing files". What do you mean by that? What is the All Photos count in LRCC on the computer, your iPad and the Android phone.? It should be the same on all three devices.


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## Toolio (May 22, 2018)

Jim Wilde said:


> I wouldn't have expected duplicate or "missing files". What do you mean by that? What is the All Photos count in LRCC on the computer, your iPad and the Android phone.? It should be the same on all three devices.


I haven't touched the iPad or the phone yet.  But I know I have a lower count than I did the last time I opened LR CC in Brasil (just because I know that was slightly over 20,000 and the new count here is in the mid-19,000 range, which I assume would include the new duplicate files. Dupes are all limited to pics that were on the current Canada computer before I started this process-but by no means all of them. As I mentioned, I had no Adobe cloud subscription the last time I was in Canada, so it seems to be getting confused between what's here and whats on the cloud. I might try wiping out the physical files and resyncing. Perhaps I should have done that first. Or maybe I'll do an iPad sync to see what happens. Something is slightly off, somewhere.


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## Jim Wilde (May 22, 2018)

Something I'm not understanding here....LRCC cannot know anything about any files held locally on the computer unless you "import" them, which I assume you haven't done? So how can it see those local files? Something doesn't sound right, but without a step by step guide to what you did I can't figure it out.

Starting LRCC for the first time, it can only "see" what's already in the cloud, so there's no way there can be duplicates unless they already exist in the cloud. You haven't by chance tried to use the catalog migration tool in LRCC?


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## Toolio (May 22, 2018)

I didn’t use the cloud migration tool today. Of course, I did in Brazil many months ago when the new CC was introduced. But what I did do here in Canada was update the old Lightroom products to the new CC/Classic/cloud subscription this morning. Previous to that LR  had been unused on this computer for six months. It looks like perhaps some dual cloud/hard drive importing for reasons I don’t understand. However, the dupes are confined to a specific time range and have now been deleted.  It is also possible that I could have mistakenly created those dupes in a Brazil and not noticed until now. I did have a drive failure a week or so before travelling, so there was a lot of file restoring going on.  It’s starting to look like missing files are inside a small number missing folders, so I may be able to rectify that quickly. Then I’ll see if the file count here is closer to what I remember in Brazil. I also wouldn’t rule out the possibility that I’ve done something odd. I’m computer and network savvy, but by no means a LR or Adobe cloud wizard. I appreciate your input and help.


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## Jim Wilde (May 23, 2018)

I'm struggling with the concept of "missing files". Can you explain what you mean by this? Are they files that you expected to see in All Photos but can't? Or something else?


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## Toolio (May 23, 2018)

Jim Wilde said:


> I'm struggling with the concept of "missing files". Can you explain what you mean by this? Are they files that you expected to see in All Photos but can't? Or something else?


Specifically, about 1,000 photos I took in Barcelona in  late March and early April weren’t there, in all photos.  I had imported them via CC in Brazil and edited a few. However. I’m now beginning to suspect that I might have unwittingly removed those from CC, and hence the cloud, when I rep,aced a disk drive after a failure and restored files just before leaving for Canada. I won’t know until I return to Brazil. So I have reimported the originals here in Canada, which were backed up via another cloud service. Things on my Canada LR CC install and the Adobe cloud now appear to be ok. I’ll tackle Lightroom Classic today.


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## Toolio (May 31, 2018)

I’m back, and looking for more advice. As noted above, I seem to have sorted out the LR CC sync with my Adobe Cloud by reimporting missing photos. Photo numbers are now equal in the cloud and CC.
Now I’m frustratingly trying to sync LR Classic with the Cloud/CC from scratch. Basically, I just want to populate Classic with what’s  in the Cloud. I only need smart previews . I have 19,500 photos in the Cloud, LR CC shows that number, as do my phone and iPad.
When I try to sync Classic the “all photos” number falls far short, at around 13,000. Worse, syncing stops and reports 80 files left to be synced, while the sync panel in preferences says it is waiting to sync (not “pending”). I’ve tried the delete sync.lrdata folder trick  a few times. When the sync restarts it says syncing 19,500 photos, which is correct. It then quickly counts down,  but “all photos” again ends up at about 13,000 and  the blue “syncing photos” list stops at about 80.
Honestly,  I am clueless at this point. Where are the other photos, as far as Classic is concerned? And why does syncing pause? Is there a way out of this? In my other location both CC and Classic report the same number of photos.
Basically, all I want is access to my 19,500 photos that are sitting in the cloud on Classic on my computer in Canada, just as I have access on CC in Canada, on mobile everywhere and on both CC and Classic on my Brazil computer. (For insurance I have used the Adobe download tool to download the entire 19,500 photo collection to a portable drive in case I screw something up.)
Ideas, or straightening me out on what I’m doing wrong, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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## Victoria Bampton (May 31, 2018)

Toolio said:


> Basically, all I want is access to my 19,500 photos that are sitting in the cloud on Classic on my computer in Canada, just as I have access on CC in Canada, on mobile everywhere and on both CC and Classic on my Brazil computer..


What you're trying to do is an exercise in frustration, because Lightroom Classic isn't built to be a cloud-client. Even if you manage to get it to download all of the photos into Classic in Canada, you're going to run into problems with Classic when you go back to Brazil, because only a single Classic catalog can be synced at any one time. Classic can sort-of download cloud contents, but it's meant as a disaster recovery situation, not a way of keeping two LR Classic catalogs in sync.

I'd suggest one of two options:
1. If you're going to use the cloud to make photos available in both places, only use Classic in one location, and use CC to access the photos in the other location.
2. If you want to use the cloud and Classic on both computers, have a single Classic catalog and physically take it with you to open on your Canada computer or your Brazil computer. That might mean you put the catalog with previews/smart previews in a cloud folder (like Dropbox, or Creative Cloud Files) or on a USB stick or small hard drive. That solves the issue of Classic not being a cloud client, and gives you access to your photos in Classic. Using the same catalog on multiple computers is slightly more prone to sync errors, but not half as much as trying to download cloud contents.


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## Toolio (May 31, 2018)

Victoria Bampton said:


> What you're trying to do is an exercise in frustration, because Lightroom Classic isn't built to be a cloud-client.


Thank you very much for your helpful and informative reply. I can access a backup copy  of my catalog in Brazil from Canada, so I’ll give your “one catalog” approach a try.  I have a paid Dropbox account.
If that doesn’t work out to my satisfaction, what, in your opinion, would be the best way of accessing and editing individual photos from Adobe Cloud or CC in Classic in the second location (Canada)? Let’s say, for example, that I give up entirely on the Classic sync idea and use only CC as the main sync tool In both locations, syncing via Adobe Cloud. But I want to edit “photo X raw” in Classic because I require editing tools that aren’t yet available in CC. Is there a suitable workflow to ensure that I download the individual  photo and any previous edits (xmp sidecar file) from my Adobe cloud or CC (or a suitable smart preview), then ensure those edits get back into the Cloud for use in the other location (Brazil)? Brazil will always be my primary location because that’s where I spend most of my time.
I realize the day will eventually come when CC has most of what I need for editing, which will solve this problem. Unfortunately, it’s not there yet.
Again, thanks to both you and Jim for helping me out.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 1, 2018)

Toolio said:


> use only CC as the main sync tool In both locations, syncing via Adobe Cloud. But I want to edit “photo X raw” in Classic because I require editing tools that aren’t yet available in CC. Is there a suitable workflow to ensure that I download the individual  photo and any previous edits (xmp sidecar file) from my Adobe cloud or CC (or a suitable smart preview)


The one catalog option is still your cleanest if you expect to continue to use Classic extensively. However, if you went CC as your main repository but needed something specific in Classic (such as HDR/pano merge - practically everything else is already in CC), then Saving from CC as original format and importing those original format photos into Classic would work. You could then do the merge, and add the merged photo to CC as if it was a brand new photo.


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## Toolio (Jun 1, 2018)

Victoria Bampton said:


> The one catalog option is still your cleanest if you expect to continue to use Classic extensively. However, if you went CC as your main repository but needed something specific in Classic (such as HDR/pano merge - practically everything else is already in CC), then Saving from CC as original format and importing those original format photos into Classic would work. You could then do the merge, and add the merged photo to CC as if it was a brand new photo.



Thanks. I’m going to try to switch my editing focus from Classic to CC. Perhaps weaning myself off Classic at this point is the best option. I’ll use your suggestion when CC is a necessity.  I’m also trying to improve my Photoshop skills (which at the moment are limited), so there’s also that option.


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