Last week, we looked at how to share a web gallery using the Lightroom cloud ecosystem. However, although it’s a cloud feature, Lightroom Classic can do it too!
There’s just one main difference to be aware of: Lightroom Classic uploads smaller 2560px smart previews to the cloud rather than full size originals, so visitors wouldn’t be able to download full size JPEGs, even if you allow them to download a copy of the files. On the upside, those smart previews don’t count toward your cloud quota, so you won’t fill up your 20GB of space.
There are 5 posts in this series:
- How do I share a web gallery from the Lightroom cloud ecosystem?
- How do I share a web gallery from Lightroom Classic?
- How do I set the web gallery permissions and settings?
- How do visitors navigate around my shared web gallery?
- How do I see the likes and comments visitors have left on my shared web gallery?
How do I sync a collection up to the cloud?
First, if you haven’t already enabled sync, click on the cloud icon to show the Sync Activity, then click Start Syncing. (Note that you can only sync one catalog.)
To sync existing collections, toggle the checkboxes on the left in the Collections panel. (Note that you can’t sync smart collections or collection sets, only standard collections.)

Or, when you’re creating a new collection, check the Sync with Lightroom checkbox in the Create Collection dialog.

How do I share collections as web galleries from Lightroom Classic?
If you right-click on a synced collection in the Collections panel and choose Lightroom Links, you can select Make Collection Public. This makes the collection accessible to other people, but only if they have the secret link.
The link is displayed at the top of the Grid view, or you can select Copy Public Link in the same right-click menu to copy it to the clipboard.

When someone visits on the secret link, they can view the photos in Grid or Loupe view. If they sign in using an Adobe ID or social login (Google, Facebook or Apple), they can also leave Likes and Comments on the photos.
If you visit the web interface at https://lightroom.adobe.com (or using the Private Link: View on Web option in the right-click menu), there are additional sharing options for each collection/album, for example, you can allow your viewers to download photos, view additional metadata, or even turn the gallery into a personalized web page including additional text describing the photos. We’ll look at these options in the next post How do I set the web gallery permissions and settings?
For extensive information on Lightroom Classic, see Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ.
If you have the Photography Plan, then as well as Classic you have access to the Lightroom cloud ecosystem including the mobile apps and web interface. For more information on these apps, see Adobe Lightroom – Edit on the Go.
Note: purchase of these books includes the first year’s Classic or cloud-based Premium Membership (depending on the book purchased), giving access to download the latest eBook (each time Adobe updates the software), email assistance for the applicable Lightroom version if you hit a problem, and other bonuses.
We also have a special bundle offer for the two books. This includes Premium Membership for the first year as described above for the whole Lightroom family!
I see that if I’m signed into LR looking at my albums. URL looks like this: https://lightroom.adobe.com/libraries/…
I don’t see it if I use the Public link to look at the same collection and photos viewed with Public Link aren’t in the same order as how I see them if I view using https://lightroom.adobe.com/libraries/…
I’ll wait and see if next week’s post helps.
I see the sort order option if I’m using LR in a browser (https://lightroom.adobe.com/libraries/…) but not when I’m using the Public Link ). I’ve scrolled to the bottom and the only thing between the last photos and the end of the page is “471 photos”. No controls for sorting or anything else.
Do you have a test URL you’d be willing to share so that I can see what you’re seeing?
Thanks.
Go to LR in a browser and it’s down the bottom of the grid. This is a screenshot that will be in next week’s post: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/share-settings-display.jpg
You won’t be able to see the button in the Public link, but you will see the effect of the sort order change.
If I make a Classic collection public and use the Public Link to appears that the order of the gallery isn’t what I want, by date/ascending, and I don’t see how to change the sorting.
The first test I made appears that it could be by date modified, descending, which is arbitrary and not of any use to me.
I’ve used LR on the web for years and I’m familiar with how to sort those albums.
Is there a way to control the sort order that I haven’t found yet?
Yep, down at the bottom of the Grid in the web interface, there’s a sort order option. We’ll go into more detail about that in next week’s post.