Sync to Lightroom option missing from Lightroom Classic

[GadgetComa]

Lightroom Version

10.1.1

Operating System

1. macOS 11 Big Sur

I've been using Lightroom Classic for years and have created many collections that I've synced to the cloud. As recently as a few hours ago, I was able to create a new collection and check the Sync with Lightroom option. All of the photos synced fine. I closed Lightroom and came back to it a few hours later and now there is no option to Sync to Lightroom. It's missing from the create collection dialog, from the context menu for collections, and there is no sync icon next to collections that I should be able to sync. I've confirmed that syncing is enabled and I checked Lightroom Web for sync errors. No errors are seen. I'm running Lightroom Classic 10.1.1 on a Mac Mini (2020 M1), 8G RAM, 256G SSD running Big Sur 11.1. After reading threads here about similar issues, I also tried deleting the sync data and rebooting. I've attached screenshots of the create collection dialog and sync options for clarity. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

One trick you could possibly try is to create a new (temporary) catalog and enable sync in that catalog. Then when it's done, switch back to your normal catalog and switch sync back to that one, and throw away the temporary one. Just take a backup first.

 

[GadgetComa]

Thanks. I’ll give it a try. I‘m assuming I’ll need some photos in this temporary catalog, but don’t need to import all of my photos that are referenced in the original catalog, correct?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

It should work even without photos, it'll just try to download the cloud contents.

 

[GadgetComa]

I created a new catalog and enabled sync, but it's not syncing. While it shows that sync is on, there is no activity and the status still says Not Synced. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Click the sync icon and enable sync. It should ask to switch sync catalog.

 

[GadgetComa]

Just to confirm, by sync icon, you're referring to the cloud as shown in this screenshot? I click that and choose start syncing, but I don't get any prompt to switch catalogs.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Yes, that's the one. Does it start syncing stuff done when you've started sync in there. If it does, you could then try switching back to the other catalog.

 

[GadgetComa]

Nope. Nothing happens. It doesn't prompt, nothing syncs, and I don't see any messages in the Sync section of the Preferences dialog. I've tried going back and forth between the catalogs turning sync off and on, rebooting, and rebuilding the sync data. It's so odd since it was working earlier yesterday morning.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Do you have anything essential in the cloud like shared web galleries that can't have the link changed? If not, I might be tempted to wipe the cloud database from the web interface and see if that resets everything properly.

 

[GadgetComa]

I have two websites built on the Adobe Portfolio site, but I think they won't be impacted. Assuming I get sync working again, I should be able to republish the same Lightroom albums to the portfolio site. How do I wipe the cloud database?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

You'd go to Online photo editor | Photoshop Lightroom > click your avatar on the right > account info > Delete Lightroom Library

 

[GadgetComa]

Still no luck. Interestingly, even after deleting the Lightroom Library in the cloud, Lightroom Classic still shows all of the previously synced photos in the All Synced Photos collection.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

It bothers me that the cloud symbol is plain - usually I'd expect a symbol to show status. Forgive what is probably a silly question, but you are signed into a subscribed Adobe account?

 

[GadgetComa]

Thanks, Paul. I'm not concerned about silly questions. It's sometimes things that are obvious to some aren't to others. All suggestions and questions are welcomed. I am signed into an active Adobe account with a photography subscription.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Victoria, isn't it worth trying a Preferences reset?

 

[GadgetComa]

Actually, I'm currently working with Adobe. They just had me reset preferences and it didn't fix it.

 

[GadgetComa]

The Adobe support rep was able to fix it, but it's not clear what the problem was. He did multiple things before testing if it worked. I would prefer to try one thing at a time so I could know exactly what went wrong. I do understand that he's trying to balance my support request with being efficient, so it's not a huge deal. I've tracked everything he changed, so if it happens again, I can try each change separately.

The changes he made were:

1. Turned of the malware protection option of Malwarebytes
2. Disabled WiFi (I've got Ethernet connected too)
3. Removed *.local, 169.245/16 from the Network Proxies preferences
4. Turned off the macOS firewall (seriously?!)
5. Renamed ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe/Lightroom folder to Lightroom.old (this was after deleting just one Lightroom plist file from Preferences and testing showed it didn't fix it)

I suspect it was either 1 or 5 that was the culprit (most likely 5). I sure hope it wasn't the firewall.

Anyhow, I sincerely appreciate all of your help. Maybe my adventure will help someone else.

Regards,

- Leon

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Turned of the malware protection option of Malwarebytes

I would suspect this one, have seen odd things happen when AV decides to block something!

 

[GadgetComa]

I've been running Malwarebytes for quite a while without these sync issues before. Maybe a recent signature update got in the way.

 

[GadgetComa]

As I've slowly put things back to the way they were before the Adobe rep fixed the problem, I think I've figured out the cause. I'm using NextDNS for secure DNS and DNS-level ad blocking. It appears to be blocking a domain that Lightroom needs, but it's not obvious which one. I've removed all filters from NextDNS in a configuration only used by the Mac running Lightroom and it works fine. Next step is to slowly add filters until I can find all of the domains required. Worst case, I'll just turn off blocking completely when running Lightroom, but I'm sure I'll find the culprit(s) eventually.

I won't bore you all with the play-by-play after this, but if anyone else is using NextDNS, Pi-Hole, or any other DNS-based blocker and has trouble with Lightroom, feel free to reach out for details on my scavenger hunt.

EDIT: I found the details I need: Adobe Creative Cloud Network Endpoints. Yikes, that's a long list.

 

[GadgetComa]

Well, it doesn't look like the DNS-based ad-blocking was the issue. Even with that off, I'm still seeing the problem. Interestingly, a reboot seems to fix it, but I can't figure out what triggers it. After a reboot and everything is working, I can use Lightroom without issue and syncing stays working. I can quit Lightroom and come back a few minutes later and things are still fine. It seems like the problem occurs if I leave Lightroom closed and leave the Mac idle for a while, although I'm not certainly exactly how long it may take to trigger it. Note that this Mac is always on, so while the screen saver may start and the display may turn off, the Mac doesn't sleep or hibernate. (I do this on purpose due to a home automation app I'm running.)

I have some ideas on further isolating this, but I'm also open to suggestions.

(I wonder if this might be an Apple Silicon / Rosetta 2 issue?)

 

[RobOK]

Wow, you have a lot going on!! I was interested to hear about the DNS thing as I would like to implement similar. I would not run Wifi and Ethernet at same time, I have some programs that get confused. Doubt this was your problem though.

This confused me though:

One trick you could possibly try is to create a new (temporary) catalog and enable sync in that catalog. Then when it's done, switch back to your normal catalog and switch sync back to that one, and throw away the temporary one. Just take a backup first.

I thought only one Lightroom Classic catalog could sync to the cloud. I'm sure there is a nuance here I am missing. If he had done the temp, wouldn't that have deleted all LR Classic content from his cloud?

 

[GadgetComa]

I think Victoria's suggestion was to trigger Lightroom to switch syncing to the temporary catalog and then try to get it to switch back by syncing to the original catalog again. It's sounds sort of like a Lightroom version of 'turn it off and back on again.'

 

[Jim Wilde]

I thought only one Lightroom Classic catalog could sync to the cloud. I'm sure there is a nuance here I am missing. If he had done the temp, wouldn't that have deleted all LR Classic content from his cloud?

There can only be one Classic catalog which is sync enabled at any point in time, but there's nothing to prevent the user switching sync to a different catalog (there will be appropriate "are you sure" warnings). Yes, it used to be the case that switching sync to a different catalog would wipe out the existing Classic-synced assets in the Cloud, but that all changed back in Lightroom 6.8 (IIRC) when the "catalog recovery feature" was introduced (i.e. the ability to reconstitute a Classic catalog from the existing cloud content). The implication of this is that when you enable sync in a different catalog, ALL the existing cloud assets are downloaded into that new catalog.