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Dropbox sync error with Flickr publishing

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Kish Woolmore

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Jun 13, 2016
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Hi,
I use LR on several different computers in different locations and always stored photos and catalogs on an external HD so that I can use from the different locations. I recently tried follow the configuration for syncing settings and plugins using Dropbox. Generally I found it works well but I do have a problem:
I found that I need to re-install several plugins after moving and creating symbolic links to dropbox. However I find the Flickr publishing service only works with the computer which I treated as the master and used for transferring the settings to Dropbox. On other computers if I try to use the Flickr publisher I get an error something about unencryptor failed... even if I try to authorise flicker it fails... Is this an expected problem or should I be doing something else to enable the Flckr publisher to work using Dropbox Sync.

I look forward to your help and assistance in resolving this issue...

Kishwphotos
 
Welcome to the forum. My guess is that this is a Flikr API issue. Flickr needs to authorize each machine to use your account with the app used for uploading. To do so it embeds a token somewhere in the bowels of the computer perhaps in your LR preferences file. Each token is likely unique to the computer/account/app pairing. There is a good chance this is also stored in the LR preferences file as an encrypted value.
Open up the LR preferences file for each computer with a text editor and look for a Flickr plugin section. You might find an encrypted password there. The encryption might be unique for each computer.
You could try to copy the preferences file to all computers or try reregistering the plugin on each instance of LR to set a unique value (in preferences?).
 
I tried copying text from original working preferences file the text/settings associated with Flickr to the dropbox (symbolic linked) version of the preferences files but this then makes LR look like first time it is being run and presets etc that were available are no longer visible... This appears to be an issue with the Facebook plugin as well, my guess it is only the plugins that are integral to LR and stored in the adob program folder and not the usual place for plugins.
The error message I get is Something wrong in Cryptunprotect Data. I think although plenty of websites/users suggest using symbolic Linking to share presets and preferences they do not actually work with the integral plugins for Facebook and Flickr publishing.
 
It seems to be a Flickr API issue. Aliased Dropbox files may never work with Flickr or you may try various combinations of aliased files and files specific to your computer that might get Flickr to work. That "CryptUnprotectData" function is a Windows API function used to decrypt passwords. A password encrypted on on computer probably can not be unencrypted on another. I think that Flickr password is stored in the LR Preferences file. So, separate Preferences files for each computer may be your solution.
 
So what you are really saying, despite all the the online articles suggesting LR can be used on different computers with the Preferences/Settings/Plugins/Presets etc. can be kept in sync between each of them, by using a cloud storage service such as dropbox to store the relevant files and symbolic link them to the default location within the OS, will not work for the LR integrated plugins Flickr and Facebook publishing. I would assume also that if as you suggest this is due to the Flickr API encrypting access using a machine dependant password then even third party plugins (such as those by J.Friedl) for same function would also have issues and therefore can only sync LR between multiple machines if one is not using the publishing features ...

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Kish Woolmore
KishWphotos
 
So what you are really saying, despite all the the online articles suggesting LR can be used on different computers with the Preferences/Settings/Plugins/Presets etc. can be kept in sync between each of them... this is due to the Flickr API encrypting access using a machine dependant password then even third party plugins (such as those by J.Friedl) for same function would also have issues and therefore can only sync LR between multiple machines if one is not using the publishing features ...
That is what I am surmising. I have no proof and have not tested the process, but based upon my investigations of the LR Preferences file and jfFlickr Plugin, this appears to be true.
You realize of course that Adobe does not endorse any method of sync'ing LR catalogs via a cloud intermediary and none of the online articles come from Adobe. I think you can share catalogs and previews and even Lightroom Settings folders between computers, but things like preferences may contain information unique to the individual machine.
 
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