# First sync after transfer



## JEB (Aug 11, 2020)

I am not understanding what I assume are fundamental facts regarding syncing between Lightroom and iPhone/iPad.
I have just made the transition from Classic to Lightroom relatively painlessly up till now.
Desktop
In Lightroom “All Photos” I have 67,206
Under the cloud icon it is telling me it is syncing 53,932 and falling.
Does this mean that the “All Photos” figure is based on the Catalog after transfer and that syncing to the cloud has not yet completed and is still underway? If this is the case do I presume that the images I am seeing are thumbnails.
Mobile devices
On my iPad “All Photos” is 14,732 and rising slowly
On my iPhone “All Photos” is 13,542 and rising slowly
Am I correct in assuming that the cloud is currently downloading the entire “library” to my devices? If this is correct is this normal practice?
I would have expected that in normal working only the most recent (captured) or selected images would appear on the iPhone or iPad. That is basically how I envisage I would work.
I would appreciate any advice.


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 11, 2020)

Did you use the migration tool? If so, everything sounds good. Desktop is syncing everything up to the cloud, so the number left to sync is decreasing. iPad and iPhone aren't downloading all of the photos themselves, just the metadata about them.


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## JEB (Aug 11, 2020)

Yes I disuse migration tool. Thanks for the reassurance. I have a broadband issue at moment following thunder storms so everything VERY SLOW. Nice to know I’m on the right track. 
Thanks


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## JEB (Aug 13, 2020)

Hi,

A little further clarification and assurance please.
To recap. I have recently migrated (more accurately in the process of migrating) from Classic to Lightroom CC.
Due to the recent thunderstorms in the UK I have for the past few days had very poor broadband speeds that have now been restored to normal.
My issue is with the speed of uploading to the cloud and my understanding of what is being uploaded.
Regarding the speed issue I have noticed little difference since before and after broadband issue and during when I was using BT Mobile Data Mini Hub.
If I am interpreting the info I get from the desktop and mobile aps I appear to be sending approx. 4.4 images per minute to the cloud and receiving 4.6 images per minute on the iPhone and iPad. If this is the speed I should expect then I’ll have to accept that but I have no idea what to expect. My images are not very high resolution.
Fundamental to my understanding can somebody explain the following please.
The desktop app tells me I have 67,206 files in “All Photos”. At a recent point in time it also told me it was syncing 41,354. The iPhone and iPad each told me under “All Photos” they had 27,824. I do not understand the arithmetic. By my calculations there is a discrepancy of 1995 images.
I would appreciate some reassurances.
Thanks in anticipation

John


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 13, 2020)

Everything still sounds good to me. That "discrepancy" isn't anything to worry about at this stage, as there'll inevitably be some overlap between the files being uploaded to the cloud, and the files being downloaded to your iDevices. Regarding the speed of upload, that's always a bit of a lottery as the overall speed depends on much more than the upload speed between your home and your ISP router....you will almost certainly find time of day fluctuations.


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## JEB (Aug 13, 2020)

Thanks for that. 
Another daft question. 
The thumbnail s I am looking at, are they smart previews that I can work on.?
presumably until all 60k are transferred I don’t have access to them.
John


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 13, 2020)

Assuming you mean using the Lightroom desktop app? In which case you'll be looking initially at a smart preview until you either zoom into 1:1 or start to edit a photo....if the original is not stored locally at that stage Lightroom would download the original from the cloud. However, in your case as you've only just migrated the files from the Classic catalog those originals would still be stored locally, so would be used automatically without need to download anything.

That being the case, there should be nothing to prevent you working with them, but any changes you make would be added to the syncing stack and I'm not sure what priority syncing those changes would get over the syncing of all the outstanding originals (it may be that if the file is not yet synced any edits may change the priority of the specific image such that it will move to the top of the priority list....this already happens for images that have a rating, i.e. higher rated images are synced ahead of lower rated or unrated images).


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## JEB (Aug 13, 2020)

Hi Jim,
Thank you very much for your detailed response. It all makes so much sense once it is explained!
I was warned that this would be a slow process. I was, however, beginning to wonder how professionals could tolerate being without their assets for what looks like, in my case, several days. 
I do appreciate the service you and your colleagues provide.
Regards,
John


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