# Lightroom on the Web: Syncing or Publishing?



## stevevp (Dec 26, 2016)

Am I right in thinking there is no way to publish or sync to Lightroom on the Web direct from Lightroom, you can only drag and drop (or otherwise select) from a folder on an ad hoc basis?

Separately, I have to say that I have struggled a bit to understand the difference between Lightroom on the Web, Lightroom Mobile and Creative Cloud.


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## clee01l (Dec 26, 2016)

Welcome to the forum.
Lightroom Mobile is a two way sync via Lightroom on the Web between a mobile device running LR Mobile and a Master catalog on a real computer.

Starting in the master catalog, any designated static collection (indicated by the "*⥋*") will be sync'd to the web and from the web to your mobile device.






Conversely, any photo created in your mobile device and added to a Lightroom Mobile Collection created on the mobile device or otherwise will get sync'd back to the master catalog.

You turn on Sync'ing in the master catalog by  selecting to do so using the ▼ to the right of your identity plate in the Module Picker.

Does this clear things up for you?


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## stevevp (Dec 26, 2016)

Hi, thanks for your welcome and your reply.

Unfortunately, I don't think this does clear things up. I want to sync my pictures (and/or collections) from  Lightroom CC on my desktop to "Lightroom on the Web" (Learn to use Lightroom on the web) and not a mobile device. As an example, there is a publishing service which will do this for SmugMug but I cannot find a way to do this with Adobe's own Lightroom on the Web, only the manual drag and drop process mentioned in my earlier post.


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## Conrad Chavez (Dec 26, 2016)

stevevp said:


> Unfortunately, I don't think this does clear things up. I want to sync my pictures (and/or collections) from  Lightroom CC on my desktop to "Lightroom on the Web" (Learn to use Lightroom on the web) and not a mobile device. As an example, there is a publishing service which will do this for SmugMug but I cannot find a way to do this with Adobe's own Lightroom on the Web, only the manual drag and drop process mentioned in my earlier post.


There isn't a publishing service because it doesn't work the same way, so you don't need one. A publishing service creates exported versions of the Lightroom images that conform to the requirements of an outside destination like Smugmug, which needs compressed JPEGs for example.

But since Lightroom cloud storage is not an "outside" service, they don't need to be exported. When you enable cloud sync for a collection as clee01l showed, Lightroom starts uploading Smart Previews of those images to Lightroom cloud storage. The reason is that Smart Previews are very compact DNG raw versions of the images so you can edit with raw quality from Lightroom Web or a mobile device, and have those changes sync back to your desktop (two-way compatible). Publish Services only go one way, outbound.

So to answer your question, if all you do is flip on that sync switch for a collection, the images will then become accessible and editable with Lightroom Web in a web browser. That is all you have to do...no Publish Service setup required, just that one click on the sync icon.

If it isn't clear already, there is just one big Lightroom cloud storage area. You sync to that, and if you want to see them from a web browser then you open one and sign in through Lightroom Web. There is no need to think about mobile devices at all, but if one day you suddenly have a need to, those cloud synced images will already be accessible from one of the Lightroom Mobile smartphone or tablet apps.

Note that synced collections are not publicly accessible unless you enable that option.



stevevp said:


> Separately, I have to say that I have struggled a bit to understand the difference between Lightroom on the Web, Lightroom Mobile and Creative Cloud.



That's because it's confusing. They describe different parts of an interlocking system. All Lightroom synced images are stored in Lightroom cloud storage. The other names are just different ways of getting at that storage:

Lightroom Web: Using a web browser to look at the synced images.
Lightroom Mobile: Using a smartphone or tablet app to look at the synced images.
Lightroom cloud sync is a subset of the larger Creative Cloud service that connects the many Adobe desktop and mobile applications and services. The amount of online storage you get for Lightroom cloud sync is separate from and not counted against the Creative Cloud online storage limit. But because Lightroom cloud sync is integrated with Creative Cloud, you can do things like sync images from Lightroom and then directly import them from mobile apps like Photoshop Mix and Adobe Comp.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Dec 27, 2016)

Conrad Chavez said:


> That's because it's confusing.


This is what you get when you have marketing people who get to pick terms and names for things, and who use focus groups to test "cloud" and "web" and "Mobile" and other words to see which are more appealing rather than descriptive.

"Creative Cloud" frankly deserves the award for the most confusing and misleading name in recent years, since what it really meant was "Adobe by subscription" and had nothing really to do with the cloud, other than a few afterthoughts just so there was some "cloudy" connection.

Of course Adobe is not alone, lots of people are offering "Cloud" services that have not changed from when they were "Service Bureau" then "Outsourced" then "Software as a Service" (SAS) and now "Cloud".   

If software marketing people got to name streets the Post Office would go out of business in 3 days from getting lost.


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## stevevp (Dec 27, 2016)

Thanks everyone for your advice. Since I do not yet use a mobile device in my workflow it made no sense to me that I needed to turn on Lightroom mobile to sync to the web. So what do I know!! It's working now. 

And a Happy New Year to all.


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## tspear (Dec 27, 2016)

My gut instinct is one of two things happened:
1. Adobe created the sync for the mobile platform. Then decided to add a web feature, instead of developing or duplicating all the functionality just tacked the web interface on top of the mobile platform.
2. Some brilliant genius in marketing decided that mobile is the future and wanted to push it, so did not consider that some people will not use the mobile sync....


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## stevevp (Dec 27, 2016)

It does seem to be a bit of a committee job ...


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## clee01l (Dec 27, 2016)

There is a lot of money to be  wrung from the Mobile Phone Selphie generation.  The consumer base for real cameras is shrinking.  It is natural that Adobe would want to extend their product line to include the next generation of cameras — mobile phones.


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## johnbeardy (Dec 27, 2016)

clee01l said:


> It is natural that Adobe would want to extend their product line to include the next generation of cameras — mobile phones.



They'd be pretty shortsighted if they didn't want to be in that space.

It does strike me as odd that anyone could say a mobile device isn't in their workflow. You don't have to regard your phone as a camera, or do much "real work" on it, but doesn't everyone like getting some of their favourite photos onto their phone with the minimum of fuss? At its very simplest, that's what Lr Mobile is about.


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## thommy (Dec 27, 2016)

johnbeardy said:


> but doesn't everyone like getting some of their favourite photos onto their phone with the minimum of fuss? At its very simplest, that's what Lr Mobile is about.



And just to add, doesn't everyone want to have a copy of their mobile photos automatically synched to LR desktop?
At least as a backup option with minimum fuss 

Thommy


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## Bruce J (Dec 28, 2016)

thommy said:


> And just to add, doesn't everyone want to have a copy of their mobile photos automatically synched to LR desktop?
> At least as a backup option with minimum fuss



No, actually, not everyone does.  Shocking, I know, but not everyone has a large, unlimited pipe to the cloud.  Don't forget that some poor folk are still stuck on limited and/or slow net connections.  What I would really like is for LR mobile to only sync my phone to my desktop over wireless when it's in range.  Now, that would be useful.


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## clee01l (Dec 28, 2016)

Bruce J said:


> What I would really like is for LR mobile to only sync my phone to my desktop over wireless when it's in range. Now, that would be useful.


On an iPhone, this is set in the OS settings screen.  FWIW, I turn off cellular access for MOST of my iPhone apps to save bandwidth and battery life.


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## Johan Elzenga (Dec 28, 2016)

clee01l said:


> On an iPhone, this is set in the OS settings screen.  FWIW, I turn off cellular access for MOST of my iPhone apps to save bandwidth and battery life.



What he means is direct synchronisation between the iPhone and your computer _over your local wifi network_, not via the cloud. That would indeed be a great feature, but because that would effectively eliminate the need for a CC-subscription, I don't think we'll going to get that.


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## johnbeardy (Dec 28, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> What he means is direct synchronisation between the iPhone and your computer _over your local wifi network_, not via the cloud. That would indeed be a great feature, but because that would effectively eliminate the need for a CC-subscription, I don't think we'll going to get that.



If Adobe wanted to offer local wifi sync, they could easily implement it and make the feature limited to CC subscribers. I don't think we'll get it, but it's because sync via cloud is part of an infrastructure or grand project that is wider than just  making photos available on all your devices, and also includes Lr on the Web, making photos available to all the other cloud apps (eg Spark, Portfolio, Comp, Mix) and to 3rd party services via the Creative SDK.


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## Bruce J (Dec 28, 2016)

Thanks for the replies.  Johan described exactly what I was wishing for.  I do have a full CC subscription, but don't have the unlimited bandwidth.  I agree that we're unlikely to get what I would like; I just get a bit annoyed by the constant assumption (from both developers and users) that everyone has a big, unlimited pipe.  I used to develop SW in a building with a big pipe, and I know how easy it is to assume that everyone has that kind of access.  I'm now retired to a rural location with access limited to a sat. dish, so I see how the other half lives.  Sorry for the interruption; feel free to continue with your regular programming.


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## thommy (Dec 28, 2016)

Bruce J said:


> No, actually, not everyone does.  Shocking, I know, but not everyone has a large, unlimited pipe to the cloud.  Don't forget that some poor folk are still stuck on limited and/or slow net connections.  What I would really like is for LR mobile to only sync my phone to my desktop over wireless when it's in range.  Now, that would be useful.


I do understand your point, but my statement is still valid in the sense that everyone would like to have a copy of their mobile photos automatically synched to LR desktop. If unlimited pipes are not available then we have another situation, were everyone would like to have unlimited pipes to the cloud. But with a fuss


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## Bruce J (Dec 28, 2016)

I won't clog up the airways any further with counterexamples, but I really think you should reconsider the meaning of 'everyone'.  Offhand, I can't think of any desire that I would ascribe to everyone.  But maybe I just lack imagination.  Enough last-word-itis, I'm out of this topic.  Cheers,


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## thommy (Dec 29, 2016)

You are right, Bruce! Cheers..

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking" 
- George S. Patton -


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