Reconciling Lightroom Classic to Lightroom (cloud) - Part 2

[Jim Lancaster]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic version: 11.2

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I'm continuing to work on reconciling my LrC catalog to my Lr catalog and with the help I received in my last post, I've gotten remarkably close. I've now got the two 42K image catalogs reconciled to within 200 images of each other. As I've gotten closer, I've uncovered some new things I don't understand.

First, LrC shows two different numbers for "All Photographs". Under Catalog in the left sidebar, it shows 41,975. At the bottom of the screen just below the grid view is a drop down that shows 41,818. I can't figure out anyway to select any more than the 41,818 images. I've been able to trace the discrepancy down to specific days, but I can't figure out why LrC indicates a folder has one number of images but shows a lesser number in grid view. (And there is no filter enabled.) Where are these other images? I'm more concerned about what I did to cause the discrepancy than I am about the actual number. I want to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Second, there is something weird about the way LrC and Lr sync virtual copies. I have 435 virtual copies in All Photographs. 328 in All Synced Photographs, and 116 in my Quick Collection of unsynced photographs. (Note that 328+116=444 total virtual copies. Why not 435?) I've read that Lr doesn't support VCs, but it must be doing something with them, because I can see at least some of them in Lr. What happens when you use "Duplicate 1 Photo" in Lr? Does it create an additional image file? I can only guess that over the years I've done both (created VCs and used Duplicate 1 Photo) with absolutely no consistency and created some kind of mess. Again, I'm seeking to better understand what is going on so that I can avoid creating problems for myself in the future.

Finally, I'm also trying to reconcile my LrC catalog to the photos and videos stored locally. I'm getting closer, but I'm not there yet. I migrated my photos over the years from a simple folder structure-->Picasa --> Picasa Web --> Google Photos v1 --> Google Photos v2 --> Lightroom, and in the process managed to create multiple copies of hundreds (if not thousands) of photos and videos. Cleaning it all up has been a massive, time-consuming task, but I can now see light at the end of the tunnel. I've been slogging through the directories one by one and comparing them to the date folders in LrC. Is there an easier way of doing this?

Many thanks to those who've provided guidance and suggestions so far.

Jim

 

[Jim Wilde]

The first issue is likely caused by stacks. Expand All Stacks, then check again.

 

[Jim Lancaster]

Thanks! Expanding stacks cleared up a lot, including the count of virtual copies. But why do some VCs sync and others don't?

 

[Jim Wilde]

I would think it depends on whether or not the source image (from which you are making a VC) is itself synced or not. If it is, the VC should automatically be sync enabled, it it's not then it won't be automatically synced.

 

[Jim Lancaster]

I no longer have any unsynced originals. For those that existed I exported them, deleted them from my LrC catalog, and imported them into Lr. I let the syncing process between Lr and LrC put them back in the LrC catalog.

The unsynced VCs don't appear to be related to the ones I exported and deleted. Interestingly, when I checked to see if the original photo for one of the VCs was still in my catalog, I found that it was and that there were actually 2 VCs created from the original. Copy 2 synced to the cloud. Copy1 did not. Very strange.

Is there a way to force a sync of the unsynced VCs? I think you've already told me how to do this. I filtered for the unsynced VCs in my Quick Collection of unsynced items, selected them all and dragged them onto All Synced Photographs. They are now uploading to the cloud.

Whew! Another mystery cleared up. Thanks!

 

[Jim Lancaster]

Hmmm... I'm still struggling with virtual copies. When I synced the unsynced virtual copies to the cloud, Lrc uploaded smart previews of the virtual copies. In hindsight, I should have expected this. I know that LrC only uploads smart previews.

The rest of my virtual copies don't show up in Lr as smart previews for some reason. I guess I must have exported the other virtual copies to disk and uploaded them to Lr at some point. Whatever I did, the total photos (including virtual copies) in LrC is the same as what shows up in Lr.

 

[Jim Lancaster]

First, I cleared the flags on all flagged files, then I flagged all virtual copies in LrC and waited for that to sync with the cloud. Next, I filtered for the flagged files in Lr, then deleted them all. Once that had synced back down to LrC, I selected all virtual copies to All Synced Photographs and let LrC sync smart previews of all virtual copies up to Lr. Now everything is in sync between LrC and Lr.

 

[BobT]

You are brave attempting to do that. I have Lr Cloudy on a laptop, the Lr app on a phone and LrC on a desktop. I've resigned myself to letting Cloudy and the app play among themselves in their cloudy sandbox and throw around images into random albums as they do. However, I don't want any of their not-so-smart-previews infiltrating over into my grown up, serious and highly controlled LrC catalogue. Maybe one day when things get simpler I'll give it a go but not now. The LrC catalogue is too precious to risk.