A couple of days ago, Adobe announced custom profile & presets syncing via the Lightroom CC cloud. Lightroom Classic does NOT sync these profiles/presets, but don’t worry, there is still a way to get your profiles and presets to the mobile apps – you just have to use the Lightroom CC desktop app as an upload tool. Here’s how:
- Install Lightroom CC on your desktop computer using the CC app. You’ll need Windows 10, or macOS 10.11 or later to run Lightroom CC.
- Open Lightroom CC and it’ll automatically start downloading any low resolution previews of photos that are in the cloud, just like installing on your phone or tablet. Do NOT run the catalog migration tool if you’re planning to continue using Lightroom Classic.
- Go to Edit menu (Windows) / Lightroom menu (Mac) > Preferences > Local Storage and set Use photo cache size to 0% of your remaining disk space. This minimizes the local storage space Lightroom CC uses on your hard drive, which is handy if you’re only using it to upload profiles and presets.
- Go to File menu > Import Profiles and Presets and navigate to any profiles and presets you want to import. You can simply select the parent folder and Lightroom will search inside, rather than having to select the individual presets and profiles. Locations may include:
- Windows:
- C: \ Users \ [your username] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Lightroom \ Develop Presets \ (ignore any presets that have a ~ at the beginning of the filename)
- C: \ Users \ [your username] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ CameraRaw \
- C:\ ProgramData \ Adobe \ CameraRaw \ Settings \
- next to your catalog, inside a Lightroom Settings folder
- Mac:
- Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Application Support / Adobe / Lightroom / Develop Presets / (ignore any presets that have a ~ at the beginning of the filename)
- Macintosh HD / Users / [your username] / Library / Application Support / Adobe / CameraRaw /
- Macintosh HD / Library / Application Support / Adobe/ CameraRaw /
- next to your catalog, inside a Lightroom Settings folder
- (Note that many of these folders are hidden by the operating system.)
- Windows:
- Leave Lightroom to finish syncing (check by clicking on the cloud icon), then quit. You don’t need to open Lightroom CC again until you want to upload more profiles/presets (unless you want to, of course!)
- Check your mobile apps are updated to the latest release, and allow them to sync. If the profiles/presets still don’t show up in the Profile/Presets panels, force quit and restart the app.
Why didn’t Adobe just add profile/preset sync to Lightroom Classic?
Last October, Adobe announced their plans for the future of Lightroom, with each Lightroom app focusing on its own strengths. The Lightroom CC ecosystem is designed for cloud sync, while Lightroom Classic focuses on its traditional desktop folder-based organizational system. They didn’t remove existing cloud functionality from Lightroom Classic, so you can continue to use Lightroom Classic with the mobile apps, but they’re not adding new sync functionality.
A word of warning
As the gap between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC widens, syncing Lightroom Classic with the mobile apps is becoming more complicated. Some metadata doesn’t sync (such as keywords), and you have to be careful where you make certain changes (such as deleting photos) to avoid creating a mess. The good news is I’ve covered all of these intricacies in the Cloud Sync chapter of my Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ book, so if you plan to continue syncing Lightroom Classic with CC, I’d recommend taking the time to learn about these details.
Dear Lightroom Queen
I’ve been struggling a few days already to figure out why I can’t import all my old presets from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom CC. Those presets work perfectly fine in Lightroom Classic but for unknown reason they cannot be imported to the Lightroom CC even though they are already converted from .lrdata to .xmp file.
I’m getting Import Error:
Some files could not be imported as presets or profiles
Legacy Process Version
Is this some kind of bug or what to do in this case?
I have the newest versions of Lightroom’s 2023 versions.
Thanks
Over Lightroom’s lifetime, there have been significant changes in Lightroom’s processing algorithms to improve the image quality that it can produce. I suspect those presets used the original PV1 (2003) and PV2 (2010), which had the old mix of sliders (Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, etc.)
The cloud-based Lightroom doesn’t have a UI for those sliders because they’re so old and the modern ones are so much better. If you have edited photos that used those old process versions, Lightroom renders them correctly but won’t let you edit the photo until you update. Presets that are that old aren’t imported at all because they wouldn’t be helpful… they’d just get you into a situation where you had to update the photo and edit it again anyway.
Thank you for this guide. Today, when I was looking at my old images on Lightroom Mobile I noticed that all Adobe Lightroom Color Profiles applied on my old Sony Alpha 55 images don´t sync to Lightroom Mobile and instead show this warning message. So i guess your guide might help me as well. But I only got a subscription for Adobes Photography 20 GB Plan that includes Lightroom Classic. Can I still install Lightroom (not Classic) and do the guide without signing in to another plan and without doing anything bad to my loved Lightroom Classic? Thank your so much!
Yes, you can, the Photography Plan 20GB includes all of the Lightroom cloud ecosystem apps so you can dabble your feet and see if you’d prefer to use those, so you can go ahead with the instructions above.
Do you know if it’s possible to get custom profiles from CC *back* into Lightroom Classic?
Possibly. It’s a good question. You could look in the Lightroom Libraries folders, it should be stored there as an XMP file, although they tend to have unintelligible file names.
It would be good to log as a Feature request: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/send-bug-report-feature-request-adobe/
As the others mentioned above, I was so happy to find this post.
I see it was posted in June 2018. Have there been any developments since then?
I have a Sony A7Riii and the colors NEED the ‘camera specific’ profiles.
The profiles transfer nicely to the iPad Lightroom CC, so that is great now. All is peachy as I do my mobile edits on the iPad (not the iPhone)
However, the Lightroom CC on my iPhone still doesn’t read the profiles.
This is very annoying as EVERY ONE of my Sony pics has the camera specific profile now.
I was just wondering if you know of any better way of getting around this than the method mentioned over a year ago?
Thanks – your content is AMAZING! Keep it up.
Keep the iPhone open a bit longer after you’ve accessed one of the files. It should download the profile but it’s a bit slow. If it doesn’t, report it as a bug because I still think there should be a button to download the profile on demand instead of waiting for it to figure out it’s needed. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/send-bug-report-feature-request-adobe/
Hello—I was so happy to find this thread, as the multiple “Lightroom’s” are so confusing (web, classic, CC, mobile). I downloaded CC (using MacBook Pro) and imported a set of develop presets I had bought awhile back. However, after following all the steps listed, I STILL cannot get them to LR on ipad. Quit the app, restarted the ipad, still nada. Any other tricks or should I just give up on the mobile app when doing landscapes (that’s the preset I’m trying to get over). Bought your book and finding it a great reference! Thank you!!
I’d check two things kwrushing:
1. Go to the web interface and see if you can access the preset from there. That’ll confirm that it actually uploaded ok.
2. Check it’s the right file type. Some presets are only for specific file types, so you might need to toggle the Show Partially Compatible Presets switch. That’s top right on page 162 of the May 2019 release of the Edit Like a Pro book.
Thanks so much for this post. However, I don’t see a screen as in #3. What am I missing? I’m clicking preferences from LR Classic desktop version on my MacBook.
I am trying to get some landscape presets that I purchased to show on my iPad.
Thank you.
Screenshots are from the Cloud Version on the Desktop, not Classic.
Thank you so much for this writeup. The profile upload seemed to work for me, but the profiles (VSCO) apparently don’t get applied in Adobe Portfolio to images that I synced to the cloud from a LR Classic collection. My current workaround is to export the images from LR Classic as jpegs in sRGB, reimport them into LR Classic, stick them into a collection, and sync that collection. This seems unnecessarily baroque. Any suggestions?
Are they updated on Lightroom’s web interface? And have you refreshed the portfolio connection? I wonder if it wouldn’t see those photos as needing refreshing is none of the settings have changed.
It’s very generous of you to keep this thread alive. To test things, I synced a collection with one raw photo developed with a VSCO preset and tagged with a VSCO profile – in this case Fuji Superia 400 F – from LR Classic to the cloud. In Lightroom’s web interface, the photo shows up looking wrong, apparently from the application of an Adobe default profile. When I then edit it in the web interface, the correct Fuji profile shows as selected in the little profile box, but that profile still isn’t applied. In order to have it actually applied, I first have to select a different profile, then reselect the Fuji profile, then save the edits. From then on, the photo looks right when imported into Portfolio. But as soon as I sync it again from LR Classic, I am back to square 1. So the Adobe ecosystem apparently knows which profile is the correct one, has access to that profile, but doesn’t apply it until forced in a roundabout way.
A long shot, but what happens if you make some other change through Classic (like even a tiny sharpening change) and let that sync to Classic?
No luck. As it turns out, any edit made online and saved activates the sleeping profile for online display; it needn’t be a profile switch. But any local (Classic) edit puts the profile for the online display of the photo back to sleep.
If they’re only synced from Classic, it might be easiest to remove them from sync, let the sync complete and then add them again. That should give you a clean slate with them applied properly.
Hi Victoria, I have presets I created on Lightroom CC that I am trying to export so friends can use them on Lightroom CC mobile, and I have no idea how to do that. I have tried exporting and emailing but that doesn’t work. I am extremely new to lightroom and any help would be greatly appreciated!
Exporting a preset is as simple as right-clicking on it (desktop only) and choosing export. They’d need Lightroom CC desktop to be able to sync their presets to their mobile devices though.
How do I make it so I can email or even text a preset I’ve made to a friend to import to their Lightroom so they can use the preset? I have bought presets from people in the past and they send .dng images with the preset imbedded or on it (not sure on the terminology) so I could then copy the settings. How do I do something like that to share?
They would have been using a DNG original in CC desktop or any format in Lightroom Classic on a desktop. They’re basically selling an image with some edits applied, and that’s not really a good way of selling a preset. A preset should only change the settings it needs to change to apply the effect, whereas copying all settings from an image would overwrite any other edits already applied to the photo.
I still have a problem syncing/transferring user presets from my desktop PC (LR Classic) to my Microsoft Surface (LR Classic). The desktop has the user presets as XMP files, but the Surface will only import lrtemplate files as presets. How do I get round this problem? Is there a conversion procedure? Hope you can help, it’s driving me nuts!
Have you checked you’re definitely on 7.5 on each? Go to Help menu > System Info to check.
I have both Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC. Neither have the option of Import Profiles and Presets under File. Not sure what to do here. Trying to get presents to lightroom app on my phone. Thanks
It would only be in Lightroom CC (the one with the turquoise border and curved corners on the icon, not the old square one with the light blue border).
So I only have Lightroom classic on my computer (not compatible for Classic) and I’ve updated the LR application. However I don’t see an option to import profiles and presets under the file tab. And I’m losing cloud space on the sync cause I don’t know how to stop syncing photos and just sync the presets. This is so frustrating and I feel dumb. My LR mobile on my phone and IPad aren’t showing my presets either. What am I doing wrong??
Bit of a typo there, but I’m guessing you only have Lightroom Classic, not Lightroom CC (cloudy one), is that right? In which case, there isn’t a way to get presets to the cloud right now, as that does require Lightroom CC.
Adobe has recently announced that they will release a full version of Photoshop for iPad in 2019. Hopefully this will lead to a full version of Lightroom for iPad and syncing between devices will be sorted out. We can only hope 🙂
Why should we ignore any presets that have ~~ at the beginning of the filename? That could be the reason none of my presets sync properly on Lightroom Mobile.
Because those are the old preset format for presets that have been converted to the newer XMP format, and copied into the Settings folder (as opposed to the Develop Presets folder, which contains the lrtemplate format). Essentially they’re orphan files, left there in case you go back to an older LR version.
Never mind I’ve figured out the issue. I was using presets that catered to specific camera profiles. I kept receiving an error. Once I used the presets without a camera profile, I stopped receiving the error message.
What was the error message? Have you imported the camera profiles too?
No which probably explains the error message about missing profiles. The presets I’m referring to are the VSCO presets but VSCO has presets specific to camera brands. I shoot Sony I’m used to choosing those specific presets which gave me an error. Once I tried using the standard version, I stopped seeing the error message which is exactly what I needed.
How do I download camera profile I have a Canon 5d and old 1d
Camera Profiles are installed with Lightroom. You don’t need to download them separately. They’ll only appear for raw files though.
Hi Victoria,
Indeed I have been waiting for months to have this sync capability for profiles (VSCO for me) between all my LR CC, including mobile ones. I followed your step by step procedure (Windows 10 in my case)., but it did not work.
All my .dcp profiles are located in C:\Users\[my user]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles.
Then I saw the white progress bar progressing on the top of my right menu bar, just above the profiles section. Then there was a pop-up saying 545 profiles were imported (though I had one warning pop-up at the very end saying preferences.xmp cannot be imported).
I quit my LR CC. Than move to my iPad LR CC. And the import profiles are not there.
Any idea?
Did you try force quitting the app on your iPad and then restarting? That’s done the trick for other people. Also double check you have a raw photo selected on your iPad, as they won’t show up for JPEGs.
I tried again today and it works great now 🙂 I do not know what has changed. The only thing is that when I want to access profiles on a picture in LR CC, I noticed that each of my vsco profile is duplicated (whether it is a color film or b&w film profile). One appears in a b&w version in “legacy” profiles folder and another in a color version in “Profiles” profiles folder. But it is not a big deal as long as LR cc can sync the exact profile I allocated from classic LR. Thanks Victoria for your valuable advices. I’d better buy your FAQ book to keep up syncing properly from LR classic to LR CC mobile.
Ah good, that’s as expected. That legacy folder of duplicate B&W’s is just there for legacy reasons, so that the UI has something to select for older photos where you’d used one of those color profiles and then converted to B&W. You could hide that Legacy folder.