# Symlinks



## Speacock110 (Apr 4, 2018)

Just installed 7.3 Presets converted and moved to CameraRaw Settings. I have laways used a symlink for Abobe/Lightroom but now need to symlink Camera raw to get DevelopPresets/Profiles. I have downloded the latest version of your book and followed your instructions. This included your recomended Symlinker program. Again Abobe/Lightroom works fine but no develop presets visible. Reset CameraRaw Symlink to actual folder nd they return. Tried different ways, but no joy. I also finally got round to doing the same on my windows laptop to use same presets/profiles etc and it works fine. Checked permissions etc no joy, using the Symlink in Finder works fine goes straight to my dropbox ??????


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 4, 2018)

Double check the permissions of the .dat file in the Settings folder, as @Paul McFarlane said he had to change his to read/write before it would work on his Mac.


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## Speacock110 (Apr 4, 2018)

Had already made sure that all files were read/write for everyone. I had three dat files one was very old so delete them from settings in original location started Lightroom so it created a new one, copied that to Dropbox, changed permissions and reconfigured to use symlink. No change, symlink still not working


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## Johan Elzenga (Apr 4, 2018)

Speacock110 said:


> Had already made sure that all files were read/write for everyone. I had three dat files one was very old so delete them from settings in original location started Lightroom so it created a new one, copied that to Dropbox, changed permissions and reconfigured to use symlink. No change, symlink still not working


I had not heard about a possible solution concerning the permissions of the .dat file, but knowing what a symlink is, I would be surprised if that did make it work. The camera raw folder has always been a problem with symlinks. Many years ago I already tried to sync camera profiles this way and it never worked.


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## Paul McFarlane (Apr 5, 2018)

Speacock110 said:


> Had already made sure that all files were read/write for everyone. I had three dat files one was very old so delete them from settings in original location started Lightroom so it created a new one, copied that to Dropbox, changed permissions and reconfigured to use symlink. No change, symlink still not working



I set this up and it works fine (admittedly on a Mac but it proves the idea)

I found similarly it wouldn't work - did on my main machine with the symlink but then although in Finder on my Laptop the folder was there, setting a symlink to it LR saw nothing. I found it was the Index.dat file - needed to change permissions on *both* machines to RW for all user entries on the file, then it worked just fine and it's synced correctly since

I assume you already checked the actual link is working on the second machine, so permissions - check on both?


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## johnbeardy (Apr 5, 2018)

A couple of thoughts....  Run as Administrator? Target folder should not already exist?


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## Speacock110 (Apr 5, 2018)

Worked on Windows 10 machine. Not using that at the moment. Just concentrating on my MacBook Pro. Permissions on Folders and Files all set to RW for user(me) and everyone. Dont have an index.dat file in working application support folder nor not working dropbox.


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## Paul McFarlane (Apr 5, 2018)

Speacock110 said:


> Dont have an index.dat file in working application support folder nor not working dropbox.


So there isn't an Index file on the Windows machine? Not a hidden file? My understanding is that this is the file LR uses to organize its view of the Presets


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## Speacock110 (Apr 5, 2018)

Don't know about the windows machine at present as I am only focussing on the Mac as that is the important one for me, and the windows one works. There was a index.dat file on the mac originally last accessed in 2012. I deleted all settings dat files so they could be re-created. The mac works fine when the CameraRaw folder is in the Application Support/Adobe folder without an index.dat file just the recreated one Index_BA339EFBF7C780B2.dat. permssions on that are 777


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 5, 2018)

Hang on then, let's go back to basics. 

Where are the files actually stored?
Where do you put the symlink?


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## Speacock110 (Apr 5, 2018)

First of all for the moment forget windows assume only Mac, and also that the process I followed is the same one that I used for the Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom folder some years ago creating the Symlink using Terminal ( I recently recreated the Lighroom Symlink using your recomended small app to test the app as I knew the original symlink worked, the app created symlink worked fine)

For Camera raw, Copied the CameraRaw folder from  the (user) Application Support/Adobe folder to Dropbox (my MAC sync folder next to the Lightroom folder) then I created a Symlink for each subfolder using the small app, except the GPU folder. Then in the Application Support/Adobe/ folder I Duplicated the camera raw folder, renamed it CameraRaw OLD deleted all subfolders but the GPU subfolder in the original CameraRaw folder. Copied the symlinks from the Dropbox CameraRaw folder  into  the Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw folder and removed the symlink from the filename. I tested each symlink and they all work. Currently the permssions in the dropbox camera raw folder are all 777.

To test I have in the Application Support/Adobe folder 2 folders one called CameraRaw and CameraRaw OLD. To revert back to original I rename CameraRaw to CameraRaw Symlink and CameraRaw OLD to Camera Raw. So there is always a CameraRaw folder that Lightroom can see. The only time Lightroom and CameraRaw(Bridge) see all my presets is when the CameraRaw Folder is the local not Symlink one, I just get a set of default presets.

I have also, as a check, Symlinked the whole CameraRaw folder as I Did for lightroom and it does the same thing.

Just to make sure files did not get corrupted in my testing etc. I have started from scratch (after the .dat file delete stage) so the CameraRaw folder in Dropbox is identical to a working local one in Application Support/Adobe.

Basically I foloowed your procedure exactly but added subtest stages on the symlinks etc. and changed the permissions of all files and folders in the Dropbox Mac Sync folder to 777


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## Johan Elzenga (Apr 5, 2018)

Maybe you should not do this with the entire CameraRaw folder, but with just the Settings folder inside it? That folder contains the presets.

I would normally test this myself and let you know, but I am on a trip right now with only my iPad, not my MacBook Pro.


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 5, 2018)

I'd also try it to other way round - leave the files where they are on the Mac, since that works ok, and put the Symlink in Dropbox.


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## Johan Elzenga (Apr 5, 2018)

Victoria Bampton said:


> I'd also try it to other way round - leave the files where they are on the Mac, since that works ok, and put the Symlink in Dropbox.


I tried that too, but couldn't get it to work either. The problem is on the other computer in that case. The symlink on the first Mac will work fine: the folder contents will be uploaded to Dropbox. But that means that Dropbox syncs this folder to the other Mac(s), and now you'll have to find a way to sync that with the original folder on those Macs... Normally you would do that by replacing the original folder by a symlink to the folder in Dropbox, but that is exactly the problem. That doesn't seem to work. I tried replacing the synched folder by a symlink, but that didn't work either. Dropbox knows this symlink is not the same as the folder it just synched, so it creates duplicates on the server.

A workaround is to use a synchronisation utility on each computer to sync the camera raw folder with a folder in Dropbox. Ideally, that utility should watch both folders for changes and launch itself automatically when a change is detected. I've set that up for now, and that does work. I use Synchronize Pro.


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## Speacock110 (Apr 5, 2018)

I have just gone through the exercise of replacing the symlink folders in the application support/adobe/cameraraw folder with real folders one at a time. As soon as there is a real folder not symlink folder it works but individual symlink'ed folders dont. IE. a populated Settings folder show the presets but the camera profiles don't show. So as far as i can see it is symlinkls that Bridge-CameraRaw and Lightroom breaks. As I am currently only concentrating on it working on my MacBook a second machine windows or mac is not an issue. This confirms other comments on the web that say that Lightroom breaks symlinks somehow


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## Mickey (Jan 22, 2019)

Is there a solution to using symlinks for the CameraRaw file in App Dat?  I'm using Windows and I find that with the symlink, LR creates a new folder in the original location so I end up with two, one is a link and the other is the new file.  In both cases it's just an index file and doesn't appear to have anything in it.

I've used the symlinks as outlined in Victoria's book for years and this is the only issue I see, but not sure what to look for.  I'm on Windows 10 on an older computer but working on shifting to a laptop so I'm rethinking my decision to use the symlinks versus just storing presets with the catalog on dropbox.  I plan to use the laptop for most things (lots of memory, new CPU chip and 4K screen).

On a related note if I continue using symlinks, will there be a problem if I create links to the individual AppData....Lightroom subfolders rather than the Lightroom folder itself?  I'm thinking of doing that exclude the preferences folder as I need a few different preferences on my old desktop than my laptop.  If this isn't a good idea I can certainly work with out and just change things when I need to.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 23, 2019)

No, for some reasons symlinks do not work in the Camera Raw folder path.


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## Mickey (Jan 23, 2019)

So is the best recourse to eliminate the symlinks entirely and use a sync utility to keep the files up to date with Dropbox?  This would be for both CameraRaw and Lightroom folders in AppData.  I’m on Windows 10 if that matters.

Other option is to stick with the laptop only and stop using the desktop entirely, at least until I upgrade (if I ever do).


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 23, 2019)

So the Lightroom ones are still ok for you? Doing just the subfolders to exclude preferences would work fine Mickey.

The issue with the Camera Raw folder last time I looked was the GPU folder, so again, just symlinking subfolders may work ok.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 23, 2019)

AFAIK, it's the entire path. I tried to sync camera profiles and lens profiles using symlinks a long time ago, and never got it to work. I now indeed use a synchronisation utility to do it.


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## Mickey (Jan 23, 2019)

I’m just trying to get my new laptop set up.  I actually haven’t had many issues over the years but I also only used a different computer when on vacation so maybe that’s why.  Anyway, while poking around my hard drive to get my laptop set up with everything, I found multiple camera profile folders under the camera raw file.  My guess is that LR or maybe Camera Raw itself is creating additional copies because the symlink isn’t working.  So far it’s only that folder.  I have the symlinks on the sub folders and excluded the GPU sub folder per your instructions.

Johann, if you can give me guidance on how to test I can do some more experimenting.

Mickey


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 24, 2019)

Mickey said:


> Johann, if you can give me guidance on how to test I can do some more experimenting.


The only guidance that I can give you is to not mess with symlinks because they won't work.


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## Mickey (Jan 25, 2019)

Thanks, Johan.  I'll keep an eye on things.  I will also investigate a file synchronization option and switch to that if I find more issues.


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