# Mobile Sync after restoring catalog from backup



## Alan H (Apr 13, 2017)

After noticing I always got a warning about still syncing one file when quitting Lightroom on a Mac I decided to remove all photos in the All Synced Photographs folder.  Big mistake I realized and so restored my catalog from a backup.  I have unsynced all collections and deleted all photos on my iPhone, although the original collection names remain.

  When I try to re-enable syncing I get the message about may be the wrong catalog and go to mobile preferences and select Delete all Data.  After this it says I need a restart (I assume of just Lightroom??) and it does that.  Then I try again to enable syncing and again get the same message.  I have logged out of my account on my iPhone and back in but that makes no difference.  What to do now?  I have read a number of the Adobe help files and other posts and feel I may be dangerously close to losing critical information and may have to give up the mobile sync.


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## clee01l (Apr 13, 2017)

You can only sync to one catalog at a time.  Changing catalogs results in LRMobile removing images from the previous catalog from all of your mobile devices and adding images from the new catalog sync'd collections.  Assuming that you sync to your "master" catalog, and back up of that catalog file constitutes a different catalog in regards to LR Mobile. Understanding this you can go ahead and sync LR Mobile to this different catalog file.  What will happens is that the Old images will be replaced by new copies of the same images.


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## Alan H (Apr 13, 2017)

Thanks for replying.  I want to continue using the restored catalog as my master catalog.  The trouble is I can't turn on overall sync function (menu under my name in upper left corner) because it sends me to Preferences to Delete all Data and restart and after doing that I again get the same message trying to turn on sync.  I seem to be stuck in an endless circle of deleting and restarting.  Something else, which I must be missing, needs to be done.


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## Alan H (Apr 14, 2017)

Finally found an answer by inference from another discussion.  I  needed to delete Sync.irdata which was deep within my user Library under Caches/Adobe/Lightroom.  Sync now works.


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## Alex Mac (Apr 15, 2017)

Hi,
I have the same problem, I get the same message when I try to unpause the sync in the top left hand corner.
I have followed the instructions, on gone file - preference -mobile - delete all.
The gone to Light room on the web and there are no images there.   
In the catalog section in the top left it says 200 synced photos, but there is nothing on Lightroom web or my phone Lightroom mobile.

I had to have a pc rebuild and so used a back up catalog to get everything going again.

In another thread it said the same about deleting sync.irdata, but I cant find the file on my pc.

I guess I still need to do something, just not too sure what ? 

Cheers for any help or advice, Alex


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 15, 2017)

gmac said:


> I have followed the instructions, on gone file - preference -mobile - delete all.



When you go to Delete All Data, it should send you to the website to delete them. Did you do that?


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## Alex Mac (Apr 17, 2017)

Hi thanks for getting back to me.

Yes it did point me to delete to Lightroom mobile to delete. 
I have checked and there are no images there, but I have not deleted anything, but there are no images.
Do I need to do anything else there?
Thanks for your help.


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 17, 2017)

Follow the instructions to Delete All Data on the web, as that clears everything and tells the catalog to reset sync data too. So go to Lightroom.adobe.com, click the LR icon top left, go to Account Info in the menu and then hit the Delete Lightroom catalog button. Then reopen LR on the desktop and see how you're fixed.


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## Alex Mac (Apr 17, 2017)

Whey hey, that worked 

Funny I was sure that is what I did the other day!
But I must have not followed the instructions.....but thank you


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## RANDY BORCHERDING (May 15, 2017)

Victoria,

I had a similar 'Non-syncing' LR Mobile issue and did as you suggested above and then reopened LR on my Macbook. Now, my LR Mobile iPhone app has no images, none are being added and some are missing from the LR Mobile Collection in my desktop app. Admittedly, those images were missing from the desktop Macbook app before I deleted the catalog from my online Adobe account. I am unsure what to do now and fear I have created a bigger mess. Help!

Randy


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## Victoria Bampton (May 15, 2017)

Deleting the catalog from the cloud will have wiped the cloud and reset the mobile apps to their defaults Randy. Everything that had downloaded to the desktop will still be safely on the desktop. If there were some photos that were added in Lightroom mobile but hadn't downloaded to the desktop yet, you'll need to add them back into the mobile app from your mobile camera roll and let them upload again.


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## RANDY BORCHERDING (May 15, 2017)

Thanks for the quick response. I have managed to get the images that ARE in my LR Mobile collection sets (on my Macbook) to sync with the Mobile app on my phone - by selecting the box next to their name and reactivating (?) their sync status, as indicated by the little horizontal double arrow icon? So, I have some of them back and in sync between the two devices. I am frustrated as to where the rest of them have gone? I have a folder called Lightroom listed above them in the menu, and it shows 420 images. It used to say over 600, I believe - all of which were what synced with LR Mobile, as I understand it. 





I realize I have a mess here and am trying to resolve it. I believe this is a result of copying all my images to one external drive and attempting to feed Lightroom from that versus my internal HD. The resulting process of selecting the proper catalog to open from (from a previous backup), moving it and the Lightroom folder to Dropbox to create a quasi-backup situation for it, losing all my smart previews that had been already created and now this issue has me overwhelmed, to say the least. Any guidance yourself or anyone here can provide will be appreciated. 

Put simply, I now have all my images on one drive, inside one main folder, and I want LR to feed itself from that. When not plugged in, I want LR to be able to supply me with the Smart Previews as I don't need to originals very often. Somehow I have dug myself a hole and can't seem to get out of it. 

Thanks in advance. 
Randy


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## Victoria Bampton (May 18, 2017)

RANDY BORCHERDING said:


> I have a folder called Lightroom listed above them in the menu, and it shows 420 images. It used to say over 600, I believe - all of which were what synced with LR Mobile, as I understand it.


Anything that was downloaded to your desktop hard drive will still be on your desktop hard drive. The Delete All Data won't have deleted any of those. 



RANDY BORCHERDING said:


> I believe this is a result of copying all my images to one external drive and attempting to feed Lightroom from that versus my internal HD.


Quite possibly, yes. How did you go about that? And do you still have the files on your internal HD too?



RANDY BORCHERDING said:


> The resulting process of selecting the proper catalog to open from (from a previous backup)


Hang on, that's a new bit of info again. When did this happen? Do you still have the previous catalog that you were using, before you opened a backup? That might explain where the missing 420/600 images are.



RANDY BORCHERDING said:


> Put simply, I now have all my images on one drive, inside one main folder, and I want LR to feed itself from that. When not plugged in, I want LR to be able to supply me with the Smart Previews as I don't need to originals very often.


Sounds like a perfectly reasonable scenario. So the catalog's in Dropbox on your internal drive? And the photos are on an external drive now?


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## RANDY BORCHERDING (May 18, 2017)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Anything that was downloaded to your desktop hard drive will still be on your desktop hard drive. The Delete All Data won't have deleted any of those.
> 
> Good. That is what I'm paranoid of - losing images that I cannot replace.
> 
> ...



Yes, the current .lrcat file is now residing in Dropbox on my IHD. I have all my images in folders on my EHD and LR knows where almost all of them are at this point, I think? I am not sure I need smart previews of all my images, except for the fact that I may need access to them when my hard drive is not with me (rare, but it could happen I guess) Having smart previews of over 140,000 images may not be the smartest thing as I would guess the Smart Preview file would be huge and also take away from my internal storage issue? 
BTW, I found LR when I needed to replace Google's Picasa as an image management software - Google has killed that software. I have learned to love the editing power of LR but am unsure as to whether I need it to manage ALL of my photos, particularly the 100,000+ historical project images. I'd love to hear your opinion and perhaps should hire you to review my current fiasco. 
Thanks again for your interest and help. I really appreciate it. 
Randy


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## Victoria Bampton (May 19, 2017)

RANDY BORCHERDING said:


> I am not sure I need smart previews of all my images, except for the fact that I may need access to them when my hard drive is not with me (rare, but it could happen I guess)


Yes, it'll take up a fair bit of space. You might just choose to keep smart previews of your most recent and best photos, since they're the ones you're most likely to want to access.



RANDY BORCHERDING said:


> unsure as to whether I need it to manage ALL of my photos, particularly the 100,000+ historical project images.


I would suggest using it to manage everything you're going to keep. If you don't need to manage it, it's time to delete it. 100k is not big in terms of LR catalogs.


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## RANDY BORCHERDING (May 19, 2017)

Very well - I will continue to manage ALL my images in LR, once I get my mess cleaned up. Until then, I am treading lightly so as to not make it any worse. Smart previews seem like the right thing to do, despite the size of the file they create. If I were traveling or away from my main external drive, then I coudl at least have access to my project's historical images - either for editing (rare) or emails, reference, etc (more probable). 

IF the folder I have labeled smart previews is going to grow to 50+gb, though, that in itself creates another storage problem with my internal hard drive. I will have to see how much room I actually have to spare and make a decision. At minimum, Smart Previews for images that I'm likely to edit or modify in some way makes good sense. IF I limit the Smart Previews to those files, I would have to presume the Smart Preview file itself would be much smaller. 

Continued thanks to you and your community for the diligence and attention to my LR issue(s). 
Randy


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## Victoria Bampton (May 22, 2017)

RANDY BORCHERDING said:


> IF I limit the Smart Previews to those files, I would have to presume the Smart Preview file itself would be much smaller.



Yep, you've got it.


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