What syncs
Find quick answers to frequently asked questions about sync in Lightroom Classic.
To sync Lightroom Classic photos with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom apps, the photographs must be in synced collections or in All Synced Photographs collection. Photos within a synced collection are automatically available in Lightroom on your desktop, mobile, and web.
For more information, see Sync Lightroom Classic with Lightroom ecosystem.
Lightroom Classic versions 10.4 and later support syncing.
You may not be able to use the sync feature in Lightroom Classic if the Creative Cloud membership has been redeemed by Kivuto. For more information, see Lightroom desktop and mobile apps unavailable to Education memberships | Kivuto
What syncs |
What does not sync |
Smart previews |
Videos* |
Captions |
PSB files |
Flags |
Files greater than 200 MB |
Ratings |
History steps |
Develop settings |
Keywords |
|
Snapshots |
* Videos from Lightroom desktop and Lightroom for mobile are downloaded to Lightroom Classic. However, Lightroom Classic does not upload them to the cloud.
Lightroom Classic to Cloud: If you sync collections from Lightroom Classic, only smart previews are synced. Smart previews do not consume space on the cloud.
Cloud to Lightroom Classic: If you sync images from Lightroom desktop or Lightroom for mobile to Lightroom Classic, original files are downloaded.
Synced images from Lightroom desktop and Lightroom for mobile are available in From Lightroom collection.
When you sync images from Lightroom desktop or Lightroom for mobile, the device name gets listed under the Folders panel and the images appear below the device name.
If you have created an album then it appears as a collection under the From Lightroom collection in the Collections panel.
You need to turn on sync in Lightroom Classic to sync images edited with Lightroom desktop. For more information, see Set up Lightroom Classic for sync. Synced images and albums from Lightroom desktop appears in From Lightroom collection in Lightroom Classic.
You can migrate your images from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom desktop. For more information, see Migrate photos and videos from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom.
It is recommended not to use sync in both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom desktop.
To pause sync in Lightroom Classic, click the sync icon located in the upper-right corner, next to the module switcher, and click Pause Syncing in the pop-up.
You can sync a single photo or group of photos without adding them to any collection by adding them to the All synced photographs collection. But individual photos from a synced collection cannot be unsynced.
Syncing between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom for desktop isn’t recommended.
Lightroom Classic downloads original images from the cloud if sync is turned on. If you have a considerable number of images on the cloud, it may take space on your local hard disk.
MobileDownloads.lrdata contains all your synced and downloaded images from the cloud. It is not recommended to move or delete it. Lightroom Classic will not download the images that are already downloaded and all those images will be marked as unavailable. You can customize the location for Lightroom's synced images from Edit > Preferences > Lightroom Sync (Win) or Lightroom Classic > Preferences > Lightroom Sync (macOS). While customizing the location for Lightroom's synced images, you can choose to move the downloaded images to the new location.
All your synced images will be available for a year or so before they are deleted. You will receive a notice regarding the deletion in your registered email address before it takes place. For details, see Lightroom Cloud deletion.
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