LrC (Windows) synced collection to LrM (Android)

[becksnyc]

Lightroom Version

LrC 12.2

Operating System

1. Windows 10
2. Android

I have excellent internet speeds, but am finding that downloading collections set to "store locally" on my Android device is exquisitely slow! (I need to use the photos for field identification of species where internet is not available.) Before attempting to use the Lightroom cloud, I could export and copy over thousands of photos to my SD card in minutes. I'm wondering if this process is worth it, since I don't intend to edit on the go, just reference.
Do I need to do something on the LrC end to speed the process? For example, another forum post from 2014 suggested creating smart previews for all synced photos?

 

[Jim Wilde]

What are you downloading: originals or smart previews? Have they already been synced from LrC to the cloud, or is the upload part of the slowness that you are referring to?
Uploading to the cloud and downloading from the cloud to a separate device is never going to be anywhere close to the speed of direct copy from one device to the other, and only you can decide if the effort is worth the wait. Yes, it can be slow....but I've never found it to be TOO slow.

In terms of doing things in LrC, it depends on where the bottleneck is. Your post specifically mentions "downloading", the inference being that the images have already been uploaded to the cloud, in which there's nothing you can now do in LrC to speed up that process. If, however, you still have more stuff to upload from LrC then pre-building smart previews might give you a marginal benefit, but only marginal....the slowness is more likely the uploading part.

 

[becksnyc]

What are you downloading: originals or smart previews? Have they already been synced from LrC to the cloud, or is the upload part of the slowness that you are referring to?
Uploading to the cloud and downloading from the cloud to a separate device is never going to be anywhere close to the speed of direct copy from one device to the other, and only you can decide if the effort is worth the wait. Yes, it can be slow....but I've never found it to be TOO slow.

In terms of doing things in LrC, it depends on where the bottleneck is. Your post specifically mentions "downloading", the inference being that the images have already been uploaded to the cloud, in which there's nothing you can now do in LrC to speed up that process. If, however, you still have more stuff to upload from LrC then pre-building smart previews might give you a marginal benefit, but only marginal....the slowness is more likely the uploading part.

My phone has LrM set to download smart previews, not originals. All photos had already uploaded from LrC to Cloud & did so quickly. I did pre-build smart previews, but saw no difference in download speed after doing so.
I timed download (to store locally) at 8:36 mins to download 50 smart previews. My internet provider tested at 50 Mbps download speed just now (with LrM paused).
No other cloud service I've used downloads this slow, although I do agree, downloading is always slower than copying.
Thanks

 

[Jim Wilde]

I timed download (to store locally) at 8:36 mins to download 50 smart previews.

That does seem very slow. I just tested on a collection of 200 images, on an Android phone connected via WiFi to a similar download speed connection, and it took a little over 2 minutes (works out at about 33 seconds per 50 images), which is in line with my expectations. Was the connection speed-test run on the Android phone or on the desktop?

 

[becksnyc]

That does seem very slow. I just tested on a collection of 200 images, on an Android phone connected via WiFi to a similar download speed connection, and it took a little over 2 minutes (works out at about 33 seconds per 50 images), which is in line with my expectations. Was the connection speed-test run on the Android phone or on the desktop?

Tested on the device being used to download, the Android phone. I also tried another connection in the home, no improvement, so it's not being throttled by anything local, unless it's ethernet compatibility with Android that's the issue. If I can find the opportunity to try via WiFi, I can probably confirm or eliminate that possibility.
Maybe I should try LrM on an Android emulator on my PC!
Thank you for sharing your download data, very helpful in confirming there's a problem, at least.

 

[becksnyc]

Tested on the device being used to download, the Android phone. I also tried another connection in the home, no improvement, so it's not being throttled by anything local, unless it's ethernet compatibility with Android that's the issue. If I can find the opportunity to try via WiFi, I can probably confirm or eliminate that possibility.
Maybe I should try LrM on an Android emulator on my PC!
Thank you for sharing your download data, very helpful in confirming there's a problem, at least.

On the Android emulator, it takes about 25 seconds per 50 images.
Installed LrM on my Galaxy Tabe S6 Lite tablet. Took 20 seconds to download 50 smart previews to store locally.
Got the opportunity to try via Wi-Fi on Galaxy Note 8 phone. Speed test on device: 47.2 Mbps download. It took 8:20 mins to download 50 smart previews.
So, apparently, it's the phone. Which was going to be my main device for fieldwork. *sigh*
Time to query some Android forums.

 

[Jim Wilde]

What happens if you use the cellular connection instead of the ethernet/wifi connection?

 

[becksnyc]

What happens if you use the cellular connection instead of the ethernet/wifi connection?

Sorry, spotty to zero cellular in my rural location.
Do you think I should test this when next in town?

 

[Jim Wilde]

Sorry, spotty to zero cellular in my rural location.
Do you think I should test this when next in town?

It wouldn't hurt, I guess. Also maybe try a local WiFi hotspot when in town. Something isn't right....

 

[becksnyc]

It wouldn't hurt, I guess. Also maybe try a local WiFi hotspot when in town. Something isn't right....

I can't imagine that something isn't right with the internet service, since two other devices downloaded without issues using the same internet. I remembered a similar issue with THIS phone when I tried to download a collection I published to Dropbox.
Funny that, on this same phone, I can stream video or download documents en masse with no delays.

 

[becksnyc]

Jim, if I needed to troubleshoot the SD Card by trying a different card in the same phone, what's the best way to do that in LrC/LrM? Should I temporarily unsync all but one collection and then change cards? Or leave settings as is in both apps and just let 'er rip, pausing when I've determined if download speed changes?
I don't want to cause any unintended issues. But I do have an unused SD card & that seems like something I should eliminate.
Thanks

 

[Jim Wilde]

Becky, I can't really help on this question. I'm not familiar with the use of SD cards in Android devices (the Android phone I use for testing doesn't have an SD card inserted), so I really don't know how (or if) LrM would use such a card. Sorry.

 

[becksnyc]

Becky, I can't really help on this question. I'm not familiar with the use of SD cards in Android devices (the Android phone I use for testing doesn't have an SD card inserted), so I really don't know how (or if) LrM would use such a card. Sorry.

No problem, thanks for your reply. Will re-post as a separate question.