# Syncing LOTS of photos



## karelowe (Dec 26, 2013)

I have taken pictures for a time-lapse video and have thousands of photos.  I have adjusted the first photo and am applying that same process to the rest, BUT, it will only sync to pictures when they are in the center portion of the LR screen, so I am having to scroll up at about 40 thumbnails at a time to let them all sync.  I let it set, but they don't sync until I continue to scroll through them.  Is there something I am overlooking?  Thanks.  Karen


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## clee01l (Dec 26, 2013)

You can sync them all in the Library grid view.   If you understand the Adobe concept of "most Selected", then select the adjusted image first and the in the grid select the rest.  The adjusted image should show as a selected white border while the rest will show as a light gray.  In the right hand side at the bottom, there are two buttons {Sync} and {Sync Settings}  Choosing {Sync Settings} will adjust the selected image to the develop settings of the "Most Selected".

Another option is to select all of the images and then go to the Develop module.  Select {Enable AutoSync}  (Under the {Settings} menu) and make adjustments to one of the selected images.  All of the Selected images will get the same adjustments applied.  Be sure and turn off {Enable AutoSync} when you are finished or else you may get surprised the next time you enter the Develop module.


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## karelowe (Dec 26, 2013)

Thank you.  I did this, except from the Develop module, and all the pictures do sync, but only after I scroll down through ALL of them which is time consuming in this particular case.  If I am just doing a few (non time lapse setting) it isn't much of a problem, but when doing the number I am doing for the time lapse, I have to sit and babysit the whole group as they do not sync unless they are the current picture showing.


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## Kiwigeoff (Dec 27, 2013)

If you are Syncing a large number of files it can take some time. Personally I use the Develop module and either method - Autosync or Sync, you can see three dots on top right of the thumbnail frame in the filmstrip as the files up date. It can take time for that to happen and the thumbnail to be updated.


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## karelowe (Dec 27, 2013)

Yes, I can see the 3 dots, etc, but if I walk away and just assume that they will be in sync when I return, that isn't the case as when I scroll up, they start syncing the ones that were not in the middle window.  They don't all sync automatically.   They do not sync unless they are visible on the screen.


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## Kiwigeoff (Dec 27, 2013)

So to be clear are you doing this in the Library Module or the Develop Module???


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## BobMc (Dec 27, 2013)

It may be that the library records for the "to be sync'ed" records are updated and complete, but the previews that show the change are not created until you scroll through the images.


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## karelowe (Dec 27, 2013)

I made my "fixes" in the develop module and would eventually go to the Libray, Grid mode so that I could see more thumbnails because they didn't sync unless they were in view.  Thumbnails not visible did not sync until I scrolled through the group (page at a time) and then they would pop up and sync.  I will go back to the Develop mode and try a drastic change to confirm my issue there.  Thanks


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## karelowe (Dec 27, 2013)

BobMc said:


> It may be that the library records for the "to be sync'ed" records are updated and complete, but the previews that show the change are not created until you scroll through the images.



I thought of that, but yesterday I did a shorter time-lapse and only some of my pictures were synced and some not when my final video was exported.  That is what made me wonder if/why I had to do them a page at a time.


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## clee01l (Dec 27, 2013)

karelowe said:


> I thought of that, but yesterday I did a shorter time-lapse and only some of my pictures were synced and some not when my final video was exported.  That is what made me wonder if/why I had to do them a page at a time.


Your profile says you are running version 5.2 not 5.3.  When I first conv erted to LR5.0 I had lots of focus stacks that took the same develop settings and I used Autosync to achieve that.  I noticed a lag between the settings up date and the time when the thumbnail got refreshed.  I do not notice the latency now that I have gone to LR5.3.  So if you are on 5.2 and seeing the latency, update to 5.3 and see if that resolves your issue.


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## karelowe (Dec 27, 2013)

clee01l said:


> Your profile says you are running version 5.2 not 5.3.  When I first conv erted to LR5.0 I had lots of focus stacks that took the same develop settings and I used Autosync to achieve that.  I noticed a lag between the settings up date and the time when the thumbnail got refreshed.  I do not notice the latency now that I have gone to LR5.3.  So if you are on 5.2 and seeing the latency, update to 5.3 and see if that resolves your issue.


Thanks for that possibility but I am on 5.3, I just hadn't updated my profile.  I have done that now.  I also just did another major change to a group of pictures from the develop module.  They do not sync unless I scroll through and move through all the pictures.  If I am in the Develop module, the filmstrip at the bottom will change, but if I move along the bottom of the film strip, those not visible have not changed.  I let it set and went and did other projects and came back and nothing had synced until I moved the cursor to a new group of photos.  It is doing the same whether I am in the Develop Module or in the Library Grid module.  Thanks again for the possibilities.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 27, 2013)

karelowe said:


> I thought of that, but yesterday I did a shorter time-lapse and only some of my pictures were synced and some not when my final video was exported.  That is what made me wonder if/why I had to do them a page at a time.



What you see is entirely normal, apart from this.

Lightroom typically only builds/rebuilds library previews when the image is brought into view, either into the Library grid or the Filmstrip. You can see this most clearly if you "hide" the previews file (e.g. by renaming it), start Lightroom and it will create a new initially empty previews folder and starts to populate it....but only for images brought into view. Page down in the grid and you'll see grey thumbnails, the three dots, and the thumbnails gradually appearing.

So in this scenario I think the same process applies. To test, I just created a new empty catalog and imported 3000 images, and then built standard previews for them all. I then selected the first image, went into Develop, did Ctrl-A to select all 3000, turned on AutoSync, then hit V to turn the first image to B&W. AutoSync then kicked in and started to apply the B&W change to all 3000. I waited for the progress bar at top left to finish, then I went into the Grid view in Library. I waited until all thumbnails in view (using an 8x4 grid, so 32 images in view) were updated, then I initiated an export of all the images.

I waited until about 200 images had been exported before cancelling the Export, checked in Explorer and saw that all 200 had been exported as B&W images, then back in Lightroom I paged down to reveal the next 32 thumbnails....which were of course still in colour initially but quickly changed to B&W as the previews were updated.

All as normal as I expected, but your experience seems to be a little different as you say that some exports still showed the pre-change position. So I have to ask: are you sure you waited until the sync progress bar completed before you initiated the export?

EDIT: Just for completeness, I redid the export but this time let it finish all 3000 images. On inspection post export all 3000 exported jpegs were indeed B&W, and subsequent scrolling through the grid revealed that all the thumbnails (apart from the less than 200 that I had previously viewed) were still in colour and only update to B&W if I leave them showing in the grid or filmstrip for a few seconds.

On this basis, your sync should have updated the database entries for all your selections, even though the thumbnail previews don't all update until you scroll through them. You need to re-examine that export that you did....if you are certain that the sync had finished and some of the exported files did not show the adjustments, then clearly something is going wrong on your system as that is not the expected behaviour.


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## karelowe (Dec 27, 2013)

Jim, *THANK YOU SO MUCH* for all your homework on this scenario.  Of course I "thought" I had waited, but....now I am second guessing myself and perhaps I didn't.  This was the first time I had done anything like this, so many parts of the project were new to me, so..... I may not have been as precise as I thought.  Your explanation though was very helpful on what transpires behind the scenes.  To recap..... as long as the bar across the top left (export bar) has finished, all pictures should have the adjustments made to the output photos.  Correct?   Thanks again so much.  Your explanation was very good.  Karen


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 27, 2013)

karelowe said:


> To recap..... as long as the bar across the top left (export bar) has finished, all pictures should have the adjustments made to the output photos.  Correct?



Yes, that's what I believe should be the case.


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## karelowe (Dec 27, 2013)

Jim Wilde said:


> Yes, that's what I believe should be the case.



Jim, Thank you again for taking all that time to help me.  I truly appreciate it.  Thanks again. Karen


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