Catalogs Synch folders

[joedo98]

Lightroom Version Number

8.2

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

How often should one synchronize Lightroom Clasic c c folders in the normal course of action? For example, If I want to make a total backup of the catalog it seems if I dont sync I might leave some changes "hanging".

 

[clee01l]

Syncing folders is used to pick up any image files in the folder that are not in the catalog inventory. Normally, this number should be zero. Syncing is unnecessary. Removing photos but not deleting them from disk will result in a LR discrepancy between the number of catalog images and the number of images in the folder on disk. This kind of "remove but not delete" is usually a mistake because I can think of no good reason to have images that are not managed by LR. The message to take away here is that you should never need to sync folders if you use the Import function to put the images in the folders.

The other type of Sync is the sync to the cloud. This can be automatic and any images added to the cloud will flow into the appropriate Lightroom Classic folder upon syncing. Syncing up to the cloud will sync any image in the designated as a sync collection.

These are the only two instances of LR Sync. Most often when set up these happen behind the scenes and usually need no attention.

 

[joedo98]

Syncing folders is used to pick up any image files in the folder that are not in the catalog inventory. Normally, this number should be zero. Syncing is unnecessary. Removing photos but not deleting them from disk will result in a LR discrepancy between the number of catalog images and the number of images in the folder on disk. This kind of "remove but not delete" is usually a mistake because I can think of no good reason to have images that are not managed by LR. The message to take away here is that you should never need to sync folders if you use the Import function to put the images in the folders.

The other type of Sync is the sync to the cloud. This can be automatic and any images added to the cloud will flow into the appropriate Lightroom Classic folder upon syncing. Syncing up to the cloud will sync any image in the designated as a sync collection.

These are the only two instances of LR Sync. Most often when set up these happen behind the scenes and usually need no attention.

Thanks for the clear and concise explanation. Clears up some confusion on my part.
One last question
If I choose to do photo maintenance outside of lightroom (deleting old picasa files or changing my file structure for some reason) then I assume that is also the time to selectively sync folders? My data base is accessable on a different computer with files in a Dropbox environment.

 

[Hal P Anderson]

If I choose to do photo maintenance outside of lightroom (deleting old picasa files or changing my file structure for some reason) then I assume that is also the time to selectively sync folders?

No. Don't do that.

Sync isn't a good solution. Neither is doing photo maintenance outside of Lightroom. Sync is a second way to invoke Import, and you NEVER want to import images a second time. That loses all the work you did on those images. Delete, rename, and move images within Lightroom. That way, Lightroom continues to know where your images are.

If you do move images outside of LR, there are ways to re-connect them non-destructively:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/