Synchronizing between computers

[cunim]

I have about 6000 images in a single database.  I work at home and at the office every day, making image edits here and there.  I would like to synchronize the two copies of the database each day.

I have looked up previous threads but the process is not clear (at last to my limited comprehension of LR).  Something about using external synchronization software but I know nothing about that.  

What I have been doing is exporting little catalogs when new files have been processed on one machine, but this means I have to keep track of which images I have worked on.  

About once a week I clean up the image files on the home machine to create a definitive set and export a catalog to a portable drive.  Fine, one machine is done and backed up.  Then I remove the photo folder at the office (so I don't end up with two copies of everything).  That cleans the database there.  I then import from the catalog I just made selecting, settings, metadata, etc.  

This is all very tedious and takes hours.  If I mess it up at any stage (not unlikely) I have two copies, or have lost my develop history.  I am sure there is a simple method for doing this.  Anyone have a link or a summary?

[PeterAit]

I have about 6000 images in a single database.  I work at home and at the office every day, making image edits here and there.  I would like to synchronize the two copies of the database each day.

I have looked up previous threads but the process is not clear (at last to my limited comprehension of LR).  Something about using external synchronization software but I know nothing about that.  

What I have been doing is exporting little catalogs when new files have been processed on one machine, but this means I have to keep track of which images I have worked on.  

About once a week I clean up the image files on the home machine to create a definitive set and export a catalog to a portable drive.  Fine, one machine is done and backed up.  Then I remove the photo folder at the office (so I don't end up with two copies of everything).  That cleans the database there.  I then import from the catalog I just made selecting, settings, metadata, etc.  

This is all very tedious and takes hours.  If I mess it up at any stage (not unlikely) I have two copies, or have lost my develop history.  I am sure there is a simple method for doing this.  Anyone have a link or a summary?

One approach is to keep your LR catalogs and image files on a portable hard disk and carry it back and forth. Another is to keep the catalog and images on the local hard disk of each computer and use a portable hard disk and a program like SyncToy or SyncBackPro to synchronize them.

[pflower]

One approach is to keep your LR catalogs and image files on a portable hard disk and carry it back and forth. Another is to keep the catalog and images on the local hard disk of each computer and use a portable hard disk and a program like SyncToy or SyncBackPro to synchronize them.

I also have the same problem and am beginning to think that a portable 1TB (or two) drive is probably the easiest answer.  One thing that helps me is to create a smart collection with the filter "Has Adjustments is True/False" - that way you can at least export a catalog of images that have been worked on.

[cunim]

Just a quick report as to how I have ended up doing this.  Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried Synctoy, but could not figure out how to get that to propagate deletions.  I am trying to keep two machines identical, not simply add files between them.

Allway Sync, on the other hand, seems to do fine.  First I created a status quo backup on the NAS array (15 TB of RAID 5!).  I make this type of backup anew every month or so as an ultimate store for old images.  I will keep these for a while.

Next I optimized my main workstation, cleaning up the file structure and contents.  This involved a fair amount of garbage delection (using ACDSee Photo Manager).  File pruning is just so hard in LR and I do have the NAS should I err.  

Then I synced files, catalog, previews, and settings (all located in one main directory) to a fresh directory on a portable drive.

Moving to the laptop at the studio, I ran a sync operation from the portable drive, targeting both the laptop drive and a 1TB USB drive.  Allway Sync can do multiple targets simultaneously.  It propagated deletions as well as changes from the main system, so this gave me two identical copies at the studio.

Now it is relatively easy.  Every time I make images at the studio (I am usually tethered to the laptop), I sync to the portable drive.  When I get to the main station to do post, I sync from the portable, do the post and then sync back to the portable.  This happens most every day and takes little attention.

[duxup]

Just a quick report as to how I have ended up doing this.  Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried Synctoy, but could not figure out how to get that to propagate deletions.  I am trying to keep two machines identical, not simply add files between them.

Allway Sync, on the other hand, seems to do fine.  First I created a status quo backup on the NAS array (15 TB of RAID 5!).  I make this type of backup anew every month or so as an ultimate store for old images.  I will keep these for a while.

Next I optimized my main workstation, cleaning up the file structure and contents.  This involved a fair amount of garbage delection (using ACDSee Photo Manager).  File pruning is just so hard in LR and I do have the NAS should I err.  

Then I synced files, catalog, previews, and settings (all located in one main directory) to a fresh directory on a portable drive.

Moving to the laptop at the studio, I ran a sync operation from the portable drive, targeting both the laptop drive and a 1TB USB drive.  Allway Sync can do multiple targets simultaneously.  It propagated deletions as well as changes from the main system, so this gave me two identical copies at the studio.

Now it is relatively easy.  Every time I make images at the studio (I am usually tethered to the laptop), I sync to the portable drive.  When I get to the main station to do post, I sync from the portable, do the post and then sync back to the portable.  This happens most every day and takes little attention.

Thanks for the report cunim.  I'm considering something similar but I'm wondering if you ran into any pathing issues when moving?  

I keep my primary lightroom photos and database files on one computer and copy them to a portable drive on occasion for another person to use and export photos from.  This doesn't allow any sharing but suits my needs for the most part at the moment.  I have thought about sharing the photos and Lightroom database on a NAS.  However, Lightroom's database seems to identify the location of the folders containing the photos via absolute paths.  

Example: When I hand my copy version of Lightroom over to someone else the drive must be "E:" in order to avoid errors about photos not being found.  Not a big deal to arrange but I would think when moving to the NAS you'd have to tell Lightroom the location of all the photos again.  Was that the case for you?

[cunim]

Thanks for the report cunim.  I'm considering something similar but I'm wondering if you ran into any pathing issues when moving?  

I keep my primary lightroom photos and database files on one computer and copy them to a portable drive on occasion for another person to use and export photos from.  This doesn't allow any sharing but suits my needs for the most part at the moment.  I have thought about sharing the photos and Lightroom database on a NAS.  However, Lightroom's database seems to identify the location of the folders containing the photos via absolute paths.  

Example: When I hand my copy version of Lightroom over to someone else the drive must be "E:" in order to avoid errors about photos not being found.  Not a big deal to arrange but I would think when moving to the NAS you'd have to tell Lightroom the location of all the photos again.  Was that the case for you?

Good point.  I make sure my two working machines use the same logical drive for the LR directory.  Saves the lost path issue - a minor annoyance but easy enough to avoid.  As to the NAS, that is purely a backup.  I have not considered hosting the image database on the NAS.  I seem to remember Jeff Schewe pointing out that LR is not designed as a client-server app.  Even if LR were good for that sort of thing you would want to keep images on the server drives.  The NAS is slower.  

I guess that we are doomed to creating identical copies of the catalog and files on multiple machines.  For small numbers of images, the method I am using seems to be tolerable. This would be a great enhancement for LR3.  Provide a synchro function that allows us to keep identical content across machines - with one simple command.  Sure, we can do it with synchro software but it isn't elegant.  

[duxup]

Good point.  I make sure my two working machines use the same logical drive for the LR directory.  Saves the lost path issue - a minor annoyance but easy enough to avoid.  As to the NAS, that is purely a backup.  I have not considered hosting the image database on the NAS.  I seem to remember Jeff Schewe pointing out that LR is not designed as a client-server app.  Even if LR were good for that sort of thing you would want to keep images on the server drives.  The NAS is slower.  

I guess that we are doomed to creating identical copies of the catalog and files on multiple machines.  For small numbers of images, the method I am using seems to be tolerable. This would be a great enhancement for LR3.  Provide a synchro function that allows us to keep identical content across machines - with one simple command.  Sure, we can do it with synchro software but it isn't elegant.

Ah I see thanks for the response cunim.  I also use a NAS (actually a windows home server) photo for backups and other things.   I agree that it seems that we are doomed to keep copying files to external drives and so forth.

It is a bit surprising that in this day an age that such software is so ...  sharing unfriendly.   Long gone are the days where the house has just one computer with all the data in one place and certainly Lighroom is handy and user friendly enough for most anyone to use.  

Just for speed's sake I keep my LR catalog and photos locally on one computer, and then sync it to a external drive that I hand off to my wife to use on her computer when she wants the photos.  The copy on the HDD gets re-synced every once in a while so she can't make any changes that she expects to stay in Lightroom that will last, but she can do what she needs and export the photos.   It is a clunky method.  


Granted a sharing solution would involve quite a bit of work for Adobe considering multiple changes could conflict but it is 2010 already....


Also I gave Allway Sync a spin after reading about it in this thread.  I like it much better than synctoy, great tip.

[adam_j]

I've tried a couple of solutions to this problem myself and always ended up back with an external HD that I took between the two.  I was always afraid that one sync would overwrite work on the other and vise versa.  I also tried to use cloud based services to do this for me and that worked it was just too slow.  If you have a fast internet connection (10Mbps Upload or more) you should look into drop box or other solutions of that type but my internet was just too slow on the upload side for that to be effective.  You also end up running out of space on their current plans.
Adam

[viahorizon]

As adviced by Adam_j you could use some form of online syncing. I use spideroak (for both backup and sync). If you don't generate a lot of data and have fast internet connection it should be swift (after initial backup which takes time only changes are synchronized). You could try it here (free 2gb for start, upto terabytes in paid plans) or here (with my referral: free 3gb, +1gb for me). The application is pretty smart and you can include your NAS in the workflow.

[bobtowery]

I've tried a couple of solutions to this problem myself and always ended up back with an external HD that I took between the two.  I was always afraid that one sync would overwrite work on the other and vise versa.  I also tried to use cloud based services to do this for me and that worked it was just too slow.  If you have a fast internet connection (10Mbps Upload or more) you should look into drop box or other solutions of that type but my internet was just too slow on the upload side for that to be effective.  You also end up running out of space on their current plans.
Adam

I just did something very similar for a friend of mine. She needed to have access to her LR catalog from both her desktop and a laptop while in the field.  We:

1. Bought an acomdata 1TB eSata drive (I have used about 10 of these, very good luck thus far).
2. Put an eSata pc card in her laptop.
3. Put an eSata card in her desktop.
4. Configured both desktop/laptop to always recognize the external drive as P:.
5. Located all her images and her LR catalogs on P:
6. Added a 1TB drive to the desktop, named it IntBackup.
7. Set up SyncBack and a profile to backup P: to IntBackup whenever she wants.

This works great.  We also set up another external drive for a remote off site backup.  eSata is just about as fast as an internal disk. This also has the benefit of going to a new computer a piece of cake, at least as far as LR is concerned.

Bob.