# LR4 Export or publish to iCloud



## vmarks (May 19, 2012)

Hi,

Is there a way to export a LR collection to iCloud? I've seen several threads on similar topics but no definitive answer.

If I must use iPhoto is there a way to setup such that iPhoto has a "watch folder" and pushes to iCloud without user intervention. A script or Automation solution would be preferable to running iPhoto.

Any help/suggestions appreciated. My use case is one-way "push only". I've seen suggestions for grabbing PhotoStream into LR; I'm not looking for that, or two-way sync, just publish albums easily. Any help/advice/ideas welcome!

Thanks
-vm


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## clee01l (May 19, 2012)

Welcome to the forum,  You can publish to the iPhoto Watch Folder (Yes iPhoto does have a Watch Folder).  Let me put together some instructions to describe what I did to get LR to freely exchange images with iCloud.  So stay tuned ...

One thing that you will need to do is entrust your image management completely to LR and turn iPhoto off when not needed to do the exchange with the iCloud photostream.


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## vmarks (May 19, 2012)

*Cool*

Thanks for your response, awesome...

I only fired up iPhoto once to see if I could make this work. It will never need to run on my machine/workflow 

Thanks
-vmarks


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## clee01l (May 20, 2012)

*Setting up LR to Publish to the iCloud Photostream.*

*Setting iPhoto Preferences*


Open iPhoto preferences and on the Photo Stream tab  check or uncheck the following checkboxes:
Check "Enable Photo Stream"
*Uncheck* "Automatic Import".  There is an app named Photostream2Folder that will intercept all PhotoStream downloads and route them to a LR WatchFolder.
Check "Automatic Upload".  Until something better is available, we have to use iPhoto's automatic process to send any images that LR publishes to the iPhoto Watch Folder to iCloud.

Close iPhoto.  Also make sure that iPhoto is not automatically started on boot.

*Creating an Alias for the iPhoto Auto Import Folder*


In Finder, Open the "Pictures" folder and {Right Click} on the iPhoto Library.
From the context menu, choose {Show Package Contents}
Right Click on the  "Auto Import" folder.
Choose  "Get Info"
Copy the path from the "Get Info" window for the folder named "Auto Import"

Next, you will create an alias of the Auto Import folder in a location that the LR Hard Drive Publish Service can access.
Open a terminal Window (found in the Utilities Folder in your Applications) This method for creating an Alias works even though OSX has disabled the GUI "Make Alias" option in Finder for the folders in the iPhoto Library.
On the command line type or paste the following:
ln -s {Source folder (auto import)}  {Target Folder}
The complete command will look like this: ln -s "/Users/{Your UserName}/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Auto Import" "/Users/{Your UserName}/Pictures/{HardDrivePublish Parent Folder}/{LR Auto Import 2 iPhoto Folder}"  where you have substituted appropriate folder names for the values in Brackets {}.




*Creating the LR Hard Drive Publish Service:*



In LR, Right click on one of the HardDrive Publish Service header lines.
Choose {Create another Publish Service via "Hard Drive"}
In the Export Location section of the Lightroom Publishing Manager dialog  Choose
Export to: {Specific Folder}
Navigate to your Alias folder created in step 6.2.2 above. (Note that even though you selected the alias folder, LR points to the iPhoto Auto Import  folder).
Complete the remaining Publish Service sections as you desire and {Save} the new HD Publish Service.

This completes the HD Publish Service target folder setup.

*Receiving iCloud PhotoStream images automatically into LR*


For the PhotoStream2Lightroom part, create a Watched Folder in the Auto Import Settings dialog. (e.g.: /Users/{User Name}/Pictures/Photo Stream/iCloud)
Complete the LR Auto import Settings and enable LR's Auto Import to receive any images sent from the iCloud  PhotoStream.
Download and install the PhotoStream2Folder Application from: http://www.petits-suisses.ch/PhotoStream2Folder/index.php.
Donate to Laurent Crivello.  The application is well worth what you can afford.
Configure the PhotoStream2Folder application Supplying the LR Watched folder path to the {general} tab and checking the box labeled "Integrate with Lightroom Watched Folder" on the {Lightroom} tab.
This completes the PhotoStream Source Folder set-up for integrating with LR's Auto Import function.

*Workflow
*

*iCloud PhotoStream to **Lightroom*


With PhotoStream2Folder running at start up, any images that iCloud sends to your Mac will be intercepted by PhotoStream2Folder and placed in the LR Watched Folder.
With LR's Auto Import enabled, LR will import any images found in the Watched Folder.

*Lightroom to iCloud PhotoStream *


To Send LR finished images to the iCloud PhotoStream, drag the images to the HD Publish Service target folder collection.
Press the {Publish} button
When the images in the Publish Service have completed publishing, start iPhoto.
When iPhoto initializes, it will import any images found in the iPhoto watched folder "Auto Import".  It will also automatically send iPhoto imported images to the iCloud PhotoStream.
Once the images are in the iCloud PhotoStream, you may at your option delete any or all images from your iPhoto library.
Quit iPhoto.  If iPhoto is running when LR is publishing images to the  iPhoto watched folder "Auto Import", iPhoto will attempt to import the images it finds and disrupt the LR Publish operation (and fail miserably).

*Some Setup Screens:*


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## waybigevo (Jul 22, 2012)

does this only work in LR4?


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## clee01l (Jul 22, 2012)

waybigevo said:


> does this only work in LR4?


Welcome to the forum. I can't remember if I set this up in LR3.x or if it was after LR4 came out.  I'm fairly certain that the same instructions can work in LR 3.x.  If you have problems we can probably work it out.


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## barnaby (Aug 27, 2012)

Excellent looking solution from Clee01l. I went with a slightly simpler/noddy approach: 

*1. *Publish Lightroom to a Dropbox folder
*2. *Use 'Automator' to automatically import these files into Aperture / iPhoto. 
*3. *Set up Aperture / iPhoto to automatically push these imported files into iCloud photo stream.

Took me a while to work this out yesterday, due to never having used 'Automator' before.

Step-by-step guide with some screenshots here:  http://www.barnabyrobson.org/2012/08/26/tutorial-export-from-lightroom-to-icloud-photo-stream


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 28, 2012)

Excellent, thanks for posting those instructions Barnaby, and welcome to the forum!


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## clee01l (Aug 28, 2012)

Barnaby, Welcome to the forum, I could never get an Automator app to work, so my instructions were developed accordingly. 

I would like to try your automator script and if possible get Dropbox out of the picture.


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## barnaby (Aug 30, 2012)

Thanks Both. 

Cletus re the dropbox folder, you could use any old folder. I just went with one in my dropbox, so i could route images from my android phone into the photostream on my ipad. Just tested and works like a treat.


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## Doug B (Aug 5, 2014)

Hey guys. I know this is a two year old thread, but glad I discovered it, instead of creating yet another one. Since the source material for getting either of the above methods done is pretty old now, and we are using updated OS's etc.. Is there perhaps an updated method for exporting from LR to iCloud?
Thing is, since the inception of "Shared Photo Streams, which I believe doesn't adhere to a set number limit when sitting on the iCloud server, it would be advantageous to create several different shared streams for exports. I'm really asking the same ol' question as the OP, but want to know if there is a better/newer way of doing it. 

Thanks, 

Doug


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## clee01l (Aug 5, 2014)

I really have not found a better way.  Once I get photo into the iCloud Photostream, I use an iDevice to arrange into shared albums.  LrM offers some new possibilities as you can autosync the Camera Roll from the iDevice to Lightroom folders but apparently not the other way around.  AFAIK, no one is trying to work with Apple's Photostream. This may be a limitation of iOS7 and I've heard might not be a limitation in iOS8.


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## Doug B (Aug 5, 2014)

Thanks Cletus. The main reason I asked is because I don't have a great understanding of Automator, even though it is seemingly straight forward enough for a techie.. I suppose. There is a minor difference between Automator in Lion vs. Mavericks, and thus, not sure if the workflow still applies. In Lion, one of the steps is to "import photos", while in Mavericks, the only option close to that which I see, is, "Import into iPhoto". Which should be enough, but when I get to the end of the workflow, I can't seem to have it auto run. And when I test the run, I'm given two errors. The only way that the photo moves from my LR created output folder, to the photostream, is to manually run the script. And even though it outputs with errors, it actually works. I guess the errors pertain to the fact that it is not auto running. Might you be able to lend a hand with this Cle?


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## clee01l (Aug 5, 2014)

I don't use Automator.  I publish directly to "/Users/[userName]/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Auto Import".  iPhoto does the heavy lifting to the Photostream.


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## Doug B (Aug 5, 2014)

Nevermind! I got it. Just re-tried and it works now. There's a little issue of the photo I import into the folder doubling its self, but I'll work on that. Also, iPhoto opens its self when I export to the folder, but I guess that's a necessity?

Doug


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## Doug B (Aug 5, 2014)

clee01l said:


> I don't use Automator.  I publish directly to "/Users/[userName]/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Auto Import".  iPhoto does the heavy lifting to the Photostream.



Ooh.. That seems like a more elegant solution! Though, I'm not sure I'm able to do this. I moved my iPhoto database library on to an external drive. And when I attempt to create a new HD export location from the Lightroom export manager, the iPhoto database library is greyed out. Hmm.. that would have been nice. 

Doug


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## clee01l (Aug 5, 2014)

You need to create an alias. And since OSX10.8 or so, creating an alias to a hidden folder is not so obvious.


Right Click on your iPhoto Library Package and choose "Show Package contents".
 Navigate to the "Auto Import" folder inside the package.
Create a new (empty) folder inside of "Auto Import"
Right Click on this new folder.
Choose Make Alias from the context menu
An Alias folder is created in the "Auto Import Folder
Drag this alias folder to a location outside of iPhoto
Select the Alias folder and use the short cut key  ⌘+I to open the Info dialog.
Copy the path information listed in the info field labeled "Original"
Click on the {Select New Original} button
Press ⌘+⇧+G to enter a custom path.
In the dialog that opens paste the contents of the info field labeled "Original" as the path
The path needs to be truncated to not include the subfolder inside "Auto Import". The result will look something like this: "/Users/[UserName]/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Auto Import/"
Commit your changes to the Alias.

Now you have an alias folder outside of iPhoto Library that is reachable by the Publish Service Setup.


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