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Syncing between Lightroom Classic 10

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alanhills50

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Joined
May 10, 2020
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7
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classic 10
Operating System
  1. macOS 11 Big Sur
I am running Big Sur on 2 macs. One in Spain the other in the UK. The UK mac has the bulk of my images on. The Spain end is a MacBook. I want to take the Spanish images and work on them in Lightroom classic 10 and transfer them only to the UK iMac including all data from the Spain catalogue. Reason. To avoid keep taking copies on usb drives home with me. Both mac are using Lightroom Classic 10. As a sideline, how can I also have a copy of these images on my iPad. I don't use apple photos beyond my iPhone 11. thanks
 
I think it was Victoria who said something like "Lightroom-Classic is the Second Cousin when it comes to Syncing"
Basically they don't. You cannot (easily) sync Classic Catalogs.
See this article-
Lightroom on multiple computers?
 
As a sideline, how can I also have a copy of these images on my iPad. I don't use apple photos beyond my iPhone 11. thanks
You enable cloud syncing in one of the two Classic catalogs (presumably the UK version), then choose which of your images you want to see on the iPad. Put them into a set of collections, then set the collections syncing (clicking on the checkmark box in front of the collection names, which appears once the catalog is sync-enabled). That will upload smart previews of the images to the cloud , which do not count against your 20GB cloud allowance (smart previews are 2560 pixels on the long edge, usually more than good enough for viewing on an iPad or phone). On the iPad you install the LrMobile app, sign in with the same Adobe ID as you are using on the Mac, and all the synced images will appear on the iPad.
 
I think it was Victoria who said something like "Lightroom-Classic is the Second Cousin when it comes to Syncing"
Basically they don't. You cannot (easily) sync Classic Catalogs.
See this article-
Lightroom on multiple computers?
If I take an SD card of images say (8gb) and import them into Lightroom Classic on the MacBook and select 50% and make a collection. I then edit these 50% in the develop module. Can I then sync these 'developed' images to the lightroom cloud and download them into Lightroom classic on the iMac? Will they each come with their own history of edits and metadata and 'land' as a collection on the iMac and in a folder with the same name as the original please? If this is so, how would I do it please? Thanks
 
If I take an SD card of images say (8gb) and import them into Lightroom Classic on the MacBook and select 50% and make a collection. I then edit these 50% in the develop module. Can I then sync these 'developed' images to the lightroom cloud and download them into Lightroom classic on the iMac? Will they each come with their own history of edits and metadata and 'land' as a collection on the iMac and in a folder with the same name as the original please? If this is so, how would I do it please? Thanks
Some of that, but not all, is possible. Having edited the images in Spain, you'd need to do a couple of things:

1. Assuming the images are in raw format, you'd need to convert them to DNG and do Cmd+S to write all metadata to XMP when you have finished editing them. In the normal course of events, keyword and location metadata does not sync between Classic and the cloud, however by converting to DNG and having the metadata stored inside the DNG, will allow your Spain-added metadata to appear in the UK (because Classic will extract it from the embedded XMP within the DNG when the images are eventually downloaded from the cloud).
2. Start Lightroom (cloud version) on the Spain system, then import those edited images (do not attempt to sync the Spain Classic catalog to the cloud). That will upload the full resolution DNG images to the cloud. Once in Lightroom you can optionally organise them into albums. Ensure they all upload before closing down and get on the plane back to the UK.
3. One thing you have lost is the original folder name that you had in Spain Classic. Although the cloud system has the concept of folders, they are a different concept to the typical folders on desktop systems, they are cloud-speak for what we know as Collection sets in Classic. When images download from the cloud into Classic they are stored by default into a "Mobile Downloads.lrdata" package on the system drive, however there is the option to specify a different download location (e.g. an external drive), and also the option to specify one of the standard Classic date-based folder schemes. Suggest you do that before starting this process. (Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab).
4. Note that only one Classic catalog can be the active cloud-sync catalog, which for this exercise needs to be the UK Classic catalog.
5. Start Lightroom Classic in the UK, and all the images that you added to the cloud via Lightroom will automatically download into the location specified. Because they are DNGs, Classic will extract all the metadata added in Spain, except for the various items which are not stored in XMP. The main thing from your perspective is likely to be the loss of the edit history (although of course all edits are preserved). Flags and stacks and VCs are other things you should avoid using in Spain, as they are not included in XMP either.
6. If you put the images into albums in Lightroom, they will appear as collections in Classic, in the Collections panel you'll find them in a "From Lightroom" collection set.

When the images have been downloaded into Classic, if you no longer want them in the cloud you can remove them from there by removing them from the All Synced Photographs special collection in the Catalog panel, that will remove them from the cloud but keep them in Classic. Note, if you want to retain the albums/collections which those images were in, you need to "Unsync" them first before removing the imags from All Synced Photographs (if you don't Classic will remove them from the synced collection when you remove them from the ASP....because a non-synced image cannot exist in a synced collection). Unsyncing the collection first allows the unsynced images to remain in the collection.
 
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