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Lightroom 8.4 Cloud Sync Algorithm

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John Forgan

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Premium Classic Member
Premium Cloud Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2022
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102
Lightroom Version Number
8.4
Cloud vs. Local
Cloud Sync
Operating System
  1. macOS 15 Sequoia
It looks like Desktop 8.4 has changed the algorithm used for determining the order in which files are synced to the cloud.

Prior to 8.4, starred images were synced first followed by images in order of increasing Capture Date.

8.4 seems to do it in a more "random" way but I wonder if the new algorithm is perhaps optimising network bandwidth for example.

Any ideas?
 
It looks like Desktop 8.4 has changed the algorithm used for determining the order in which files are synced to the cloud.

Prior to 8.4, starred images were synced first followed by images in order of increasing Capture Date.

8.4 seems to do it in a more "random" way but I wonder if the new algorithm is perhaps optimising network bandwidth for example.

Any ideas?

I have not had a chance to look at 8.4 yet, but I think before it might have been a serial sync (i.e.one at a time) where as now it may be multi threaded similar to how Lightroom and LrC import from a camera card


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It looks like Desktop 8.4 has changed the algorithm used for determining the order in which files are synced to the cloud.

Prior to 8.4, starred images were synced first followed by images in order of increasing Capture Date.
5 stars for your keen observation, John. I'm on the Lr desktop team. We did make a slight change to sync order - introducing some randomness - in an attempt to avoid stuck syncs. We do still prioritize by importance (starred/flagged/shared), then by import date, but within that date there is now some randomness. We'll be monitoring to see if it improves robustness.
 
5 stars for your keen observation, John. I'm on the Lr desktop team. We did make a slight change to sync order - introducing some randomness - in an attempt to avoid stuck syncs. We do still prioritize by importance (starred/flagged/shared), then by import date, but within that date there is now some randomness. We'll be monitoring to see if it improves robustness.
Interesting, thanks for posting Julie. I hadn't spotted that!
 
5 stars for your keen observation, John. I'm on the Lr desktop team. We did make a slight change to sync order - introducing some randomness - in an attempt to avoid stuck syncs. We do still prioritize by importance (starred/flagged/shared), then by import date, but within that date there is now some randomness. We'll be monitoring to see if it improves robustness.
Thanks Julie, I'm currently uploading 17,000 images, so I've had plenty of time to spot what was happening. ( particularly at 1.1 MB/s)

While you're around, have you considered implementing the ability to throttle the max upload speed? Lightroom is very efficient, and it locks out all the other computers in the house! A lot of the UK is still on slow ADSL lines where upload speed is only about maybe a quarter of Download speeds.

On my Mac I have a utility that can throttle the upload bandwidth, but it would be nice to have that option in Lightroom itself.
 
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