p.1 #1 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
My wife prefers her phone (a Google Pixel) over a camera these days, but does not like the Google Photos editing interface. She has a pretty extensive LR catalog and would like to continue to use that. So we're looking for an easy, seamless, hassle-free way to shoot with her phone and import the images into LR Classic for DAM and editing and exporting. She certainly doesn't need to use Google Photos, and any LR edits or exports do not need to sync back to Photos. There's no need to worry about backups (once the images make it to the HDD) as we handle those separately. We're open to any and all possible solutions as long as (1) it's free or no more than a few bucks a month and (2) it's automatic or takes no more than a command or two to get images from phone to PC. I've read about doing this using Google Drive, but it seems like more trouble than it's worth. We're trying not to include a third app/service (like Dropbox) but will if necessary.
Are there any good solutions? Is LR mobile a possibility?
p.1 #2 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
I have a similar need to get phone photos (Samsung) copied and into my desktop LR classic catalog more automatically.
I found this article by Scot Kelby which I have not tried yet. He describes a work flow to copy/sync full res photo from the phone to Adobe cloud using LR mobile which then later copy/sync them to the desktop hardrive and adds them to the desktop LR classic catalog.
He also describes how to manage/delete photos to stay under the 20GB cloud storage limit while keeping the desktop full res photos and catalog. It seems you would need to sync to your desktop and delete from cloud often to avoid going over 20GB cloud limit depending on how many photos you take.
I don't know when the article was written but hopefully it still applies.
p.1 #3 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
Thanks for the response and the link. That's an interesting approach, and the instructions seem very thorough. One of the screenshots shows an import date of August 2018, so it's no older than five years and hopefully is reasonably up to date. I'm going to try it on my installation and see if it's something that would work for my wife. I'm wondering how reliable the automation is and how much troubleshooting might be required over time.
Another option I'm seriously considering is just going old school and have her connect and import via USB (PTP). It's a similar workflow to what she's done in the past with her cameras, so the learning curve is minimal. I think I may have mistitled this thread because she really doesn't need sync, just an easy way to get phone images onto her PC and into the LR catalog. Automation and sync would be nice, but aren't necessary (especially at the expense of reliability and simplicity).
p.1 #4 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
I think the main author is Rob Sylvan. One thing I don't like about the workflow is that he suggests syncing all NEW photos from 'camera roll'.
I take many cell phone photos of random things which I don't want in LR classic so I would have to delete the unwanted synced photos from LR classic on the desktop. It wouldn't be hard to do using 'pick' and filter out the rest but I would prefer to manually choose which photos to copy/sync from the phone side.
I've been doing the old school way of connecting my phone to PC but since all of the many thousands of photos are in one folder, it takes over a minute for the PC to show the simple 'detail list' of files. Takes even longer to show thumbnails. Then copying and manually importing. Using LR mobile seems easier with importing being automatic.
Another article by Rob Sylvan talks about how to select or add which photos to auto sync. https://lightroomkillertips.com/controlling-auto-add-in-lightroom-for-mobile/
p.1 #6 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
tomrock wrote:
On an iPhone, Lightroom Mobile has a camera that will shoot DNG files that automatically sync with Lightroom Classic. Does Android have that?
I don't know. I haven't tried LR Mobile yet, but if it does, that would work. I'm assuming cloud storage (interface) is required, is that right? Do you use this approach?
p.1 #9 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
I've played with LR mobile app a little over the last couple days. You do have to log in to your Adobe account which is what sets up the app to Adobe cloud storage connection.
After you open the app, you can use it to either open the 'Camera' and take a photo or use the 'Add' and select one of the existing photos in camera roll and have it synced (uploaded and imported) into the Cloud. I'll most like use the 'Add' option as I take photos with a couple different camera apps.
Assuming you have LR classic 'sync' turned on, then that full res photo will be synced (downloaded from cloud) on to the PC storage and added to your LR catalog. Default 'Collection' is the 'From Lightroom' which is referring to the Cloud version of Lightroom. You can also find in under Catalog 'All synced photographs'. From that 'From Lightroom' Collection, you can move it to any other collection to organize it.
The actual full res photo file is now on your hard drive as well as in the Cloud and on your phone. I set it up to save it on my PC 'D' drive directory and named it 'Lightroom_cloud_synced_images'. You can change were the full res synced image is downloaded to on your PC by going to: Edit > Preference > 'Lightroom sync' tab > Check box for 'Specify location for lightroom synced images' and type in where you want to store them.
You could also use Lightroom 'Folders' to move/drag the photos to other directories/folder on the PC if that's how you organize things.
It seems like a good way to transfer select photos from the phone to PC and into Lightroom. You would only want to sync to cloud only while phone is on wifi to save phone data unless you have unlimited data. The earlier article did mention how to delete or unsync those phone photos from the Cloud and not from the PC to save on limit Cloud storage.
p.1 #11 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
mike650 wrote:
I've played with LR mobile app a little over the last couple days. You do have to log in to your Adobe account which is what sets up the app to Adobe cloud storage connection.
After you open the app, you can use it to either open the 'Camera' and take a photo or use the 'Add' and select one of the existing photos in camera roll and have it synced (uploaded and imported) into the Cloud. I'll most like use the 'Add' option as I take photos with a couple different camera apps.
Assuming you have LR classic 'sync' turned on, then that full res photo will be synced (downloaded from cloud) on to the PC storage and added to your LR catalog. Default 'Collection' is the 'From Lightroom' which is referring to the Cloud version of Lightroom. You can also find in under Catalog 'All synced photographs'. From that 'From Lightroom' Collection, you can move it to any other collection to organize it.
The actual full res photo file is now on your hard drive as well as in the Cloud and on your phone. I set it up to save it on my PC 'D' drive directory and named it 'Lightroom_cloud_synced_images'. You can change were the full res synced image is downloaded to on your PC by going to: Edit > Preference > 'Lightroom sync' tab > Check box for 'Specify location for lightroom synced images' and type in where you want to store them.
You could also use Lightroom 'Folders' to move/drag the photos to other directories/folder on the PC if that's how you organize things.
It seems like a good way to transfer select photos from the phone to PC and into Lightroom. You would only want to sync to cloud only while phone is on wifi to save phone data unless you have unlimited data. The earlier article did mention how to delete or unsync those phone photos from the Cloud and not from the PC to save on limit Cloud storage. ...Show more →
Thanks. I may end up trying this approach but first I'm having a go at auto import. I think I'd prefer one-way travel on this if that 's possible.
p.1 #12 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
tomrock wrote:
It just happened automatically. You can look in the preferences and see which folder it's going to use to download.
This is the direction I'm trying at the moment. So far, phone camera photos are making it to Creative Cloud without issue. But that's where it ends. The import to LR didn't occur automatically, so I'm trying to set up auto import. However, it won't let me select Creative Cloud as my watched folder ("The auto import folder must be empty when first set up ..."). I deleted everything from there, but that didn't help. I created a new Cloud folder, which allowed me to get past that error message, but I can't figure out how to get the phone photos to upload into the new folder. Any ideas?
p.1 #13 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
mmm55 wrote:
Thanks. I may end up trying this approach but first I'm having a go at auto import. I think I'd prefer one-way travel on this if that 's possible.
I don't understand why you would do a kluge of using half of LR sync feature to get photos from phone to cloud but then try to use auto import to get photos from cloud to LR classic when LR sync is also intended to sync from cloud to LR classic.
You do have to enable or turn on this second half of the sync feature in LR classic (not 'automatic' or on by default) by clicking on the 'cloud' symbol/icon in the upper right corner of LR classic window.
p.1 #14 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
mmm55 wrote:
This is the direction I'm trying at the moment. So far, phone camera photos are making it to Creative Cloud without issue. But that's where it ends. The import to LR didn't occur automatically, so I'm trying to set up auto import. However, it won't let me select Creative Cloud as my watched folder ("The auto import folder must be empty when first set up ..."). I deleted everything from there, but that didn't help. I created a new Cloud folder, which allowed me to get past that error message, but I can't figure out how to get the phone photos to upload into the new folder. Any ideas?
I don't do this at all -- I shoot with the camera that's built in to LR Mobile and the DNG files show up in LR Classic automatically. You may have to look in the preferences panel to see which folder they end up in.
p.1 #15 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
tomrock wrote:
I don't do this at all -- I shoot with the camera that's built in to LR Mobile and the DNG files show up in LR Classic automatically. You may have to look in the preferences panel to see which folder they end up in.
Was it truly 'automatic' by just using the LR Mobile app or did you have to also manually turn on syncing in the LR Classic window? (click on cloud symbol in upper right).
I wonder if the OP has not manually turned on syncing in LR Classic thinking it should be 'automatic' after configuring LR Mobile?
p.1 #16 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
I use syncing mainly to show pictures on my phone and iPad so I have it turned on. Then when I used the LR camera one time I noticed the DNG showed up in LR Classic.
p.1 #17 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
Update ...
LR sync is no problem to set up, and it works fine. It's just not something my wife really needs or wants. Neither LR mobile nor Creative Cloud would serve any purpose other than as the transfer mechanism. So we'll sync if we have to, but the objective still remains - get image files from Google Photos imported into LR Classic.
Btw, I changed the title of this thread since the word "sync" might have been misleading.
p.1 #18 · Import Google Photos into Lightroom Classic
LR sync using LR mobile app works for me in transferring any phone photo files to PC hard disc and into LR classic catalog automatically in the background using wifi. Once in LR catalog, I can reorganize those files.
You say LR sync is working for you but your wife doesn't need or want it as a solution.
I guess I don't understand the reluctance in using a simple phone app (LR mobile) as a way to only transfer existing photo files. You don't have to use the app to take pictures with.
I don't have any other suggestions except using a usb cable. Good luck finding a solution.
