Lightroom CC and syncing to cloud?

I've been looking around all morning after signing up for the Photography CC package, but... Is there a way to sync my work between multiple PCs running Lightroom? I currently maintain my catalog on my desktop at home, but would love to be able to sync files / catalogs to my laptop when working on the road. I'd rather not import my photos on the laptop, make my edits, and have them stuck in that catalog forever. Ideally, I'd be able to import and edit on the laptop, and then *somehow* sync those new files to my desktop.

I keep my actual photo files on an Ubuntu server network share at home, and the catalog lives on my desktop PC locally.

Also, it'd be great to import or transfer the photos from my android phone into lightroom on a more regular basis... I just did a massive import of everything from my phone so I could free up space on there (DCIM was taking up ~9GB!), but it took a while to transfer everything over and run the import.

talz13 wrote in post #17534583
I've been looking around all morning after signing up for the Photography CC package, but... Is there a way to sync my work between multiple PCs running Lightroom? I currently maintain my catalog on my desktop at home, but would love to be able to sync files / catalogs to my laptop when working on the road. I'd rather not import my photos on the laptop, make my edits, and have them stuck in that catalog forever. Ideally, I'd be able to import and edit on the laptop, and then *somehow* sync those new files to my desktop.

I keep my actual photo files on an Ubuntu server network share at home, and the catalog lives on my desktop PC locally.

Also, it'd be great to import or transfer the photos from my android phone into lightroom on a more regular basis... I just did a massive import of everything from my phone so I could free up space on there (DCIM was taking up ~9GB!), but it took a while to transfer everything over and run the import.

If you would like to "sync" your images from your desktop to laptop, the only way is to export the images with smart previews to a temporary new catalog (Uncheck "Export negative files" during export). Open the catalog on your laptop to make your edits. Once you are done on your laptop, import that catalog back into your desktop, on the next screen of the import select "Replace: metadata and develop settings only". That's the way I have been able to keep my main catalog on my desktop, and edit what I need on my laptop when I am on the go. The key to this method is exporting smart previews, and not the full dng raw file, doing your edits on the smart preview and importing those edit settings back into your main catalog.

As far as the files on the phone, I have all of my images from my phone camera automatically uploaded to Dropbox. I have LR watch that Dropbox folder and it automatically imports them into LR as they are synced to my PC. I don't use the camera in my phone very often, but when I do it works fine. It even manages to deal with the 4K video that my phone will produce, although other than view it and export it somewhere else there is not much you can actually do with video in LR.

Alan

monty87 wrote in post #17534822
If you would like to "sync" your images from your desktop to laptop, the only way is to export the images with smart previews to a temporary new catalog (Uncheck "Export negative files" during export). Open the catalog on your laptop to make your edits. Once you are done on your laptop, import that catalog back into your desktop, on the next screen of the import select "Replace: metadata and develop settings only". That's the way I have been able to keep my main catalog on my desktop, and edit what I need on my laptop when I am on the go. The key to this method is exporting smart previews, and not the full dng raw file, doing your edits on the smart preview and importing those edit settings back into your main catalog.

What section in Lightroom is smart preview export under? The only export I've ever done is creating JPG files to send for printing or sharing, and I'm not familiar with exporting for catalog use on another PC. Also, how does this work with file locations? As I said before, my desktop stores all of the photo files on a network share drive, so they would not be on the same path when working on the laptop. Does that matter? Will the catalog expect to find the files on the same path?

Vice versa, how would that work if I import a bunch of photos off my CF card to my laptop and start editing them while away from home, then want to move them to my desktop catalog along with the corresponding edits I already made?

BigAl007 wrote in post #17534941
As far as the files on the phone, I have all of my images from my phone camera automatically uploaded to Dropbox. I have LR watch that Dropbox folder and it automatically imports them into LR as they are synced to my PC. I don't use the camera in my phone very often, but when I do it works fine. It even manages to deal with the 4K video that my phone will produce, although other than view it and export it somewhere else there is not much you can actually do with video in LR.

Alan

I just installed the Lightroom app on my android phone last night, and it allowed me to import the photos, via cloud, to my lightroom library on my desktop. It was pretty slick! Now I only have to move them from the new collection it created, to the dated folder layout that I keep the rest of my library in.

Our camera phones get lots of pics of my wife and I, as well as the baby, since the phones are always with us. Though I'm getting bit by the photo bug again, and I'm really wanting to use my DSLR much more!


Thanks for the tips so far... Looking forward to making full use of the CC!

talz13 wrote in post #17535519
I just installed the Lightroom app on my android phone last night, and it allowed me to import the photos, via cloud, to my lightroom library on my desktop. It was pretty slick! Now I only have to move them from the new collection it created, to the dated folder layout that I keep the rest of my library in.

Our camera phones get lots of pics of my wife and I, as well as the baby, since the phones are always with us. Though I'm getting bit by the photo bug again, and I'm really wanting to use my DSLR much more!

Thanks for the tips so far... Looking forward to making full use of the CC!

So they have an Andriod app too now do they? I have only ever seen mention of the "I" apps, which is why I have been using Dropbox/watched folder. I was also only on LR4.4 until starting the CC trial. I'll look at the Andriod app in a bit once I finish here.

Alan

talz13 wrote in post #17535519
What section in Lightroom is smart preview export under? The only export I've ever done is creating JPG files to send for printing or sharing, and I'm not familiar with exporting for catalog use on another PC. Also, how does this work with file locations? As I said before, my desktop stores all of the photo files on a network share drive, so they would not be on the same path when working on the laptop. Does that matter? Will the catalog expect to find the files on the same path?

Vice versa, how would that work if I import a bunch of photos off my CF card to my laptop and start editing them while away from home, then want to move them to my desktop catalog along with the corresponding edits I already made?

I just installed the Lightroom app on my android phone last night, and it allowed me to import the photos, via cloud, to my lightroom library on my desktop. It was pretty slick! Now I only have to move them from the new collection it created, to the dated folder layout that I keep the rest of my library in.

Our camera phones get lots of pics of my wife and I, as well as the baby, since the phones are always with us. Though I'm getting bit by the photo bug again, and I'm really wanting to use my DSLR much more!

Thanks for the tips so far... Looking forward to making full use of the CC!

Going from Desktop to Laptop:
On the lightroom library, select the folder that you want to export, (or select individual files from a folder), then go to File -> Export As Catalog.

Select a location like a external drive and give it file name. Check the boxes "Build / Include Smart Previews" and "Include available previews" Uncheck "Export digital negative files"
This will create a new catalog (with files and folders) in that location with the files and smart previews (copied over from your network share) that you can take with you.

Then you can open this new catalog directly in lightroom on your laptop by going to File -> Open Catalog.
You can do your edits just like you normally would on your laptop.

When you are done, you can bring that exported catalog back on your desktop.

Open your main catalog on your desktop and select the folder from where you did the export.

Go to File -> Import from Catalog. Select the exported catalog and on the next screen there's a drop down menu called "Changed Existing Photos"(Count of # of photos edited), Select "Metadata and develop settings only".

That should do it, for going from Desktop -> Laptop -> back to desktop.

Now I have never gone from Load new photos on Laptop -> Go to desktop, but it should be similar. You would export just the photos you loaded on your laptop into another temporary catalog, or you could copy over your entire catalog from your laptop to desktop. And import as stated above. Only thing different you would need to do is Check "Include digital negative" when exporting from your laptop and Select "Replace Metadata, develop settings, and negative files" when importing on your desktop.

Hope that helps.