TUTORIAL ARTICLEBeginner4 min

Sync Lightroom Classic with Lightroom Ecosystem

Learn how to sync collections in Adobe Lightroom Classic on the desktop to the Lightroom ecosystem on mobile and on the web.

Sync your photos to access them anywhere

Syncing Lightroom Classic on your computer to the Lightroom Ecosystem lets you share important collections of photos to Lightroom for mobile, Lightroom on the web, as well as the cloud-based Lightroom program for the desktop. It's a great way to:

Take special photos with you to show off to family and friends
Enjoy editing and organizing photos whenever you have time
Share photos from your mobile device to Instagram and other social media
Use these photos in your Adobe Portfolio

Note: You need a Creative Cloud membership or trial to sync photos across all your devices.

Enable syncing on your computer

Make sure you have an Internet connection and launch Lightroom Classic on your desktop computer. If prompted, enter your Adobe ID and password on the Sign in screen and click Sign In.

Click the cloud Sync icon at the top right of Lightroom Classic and then click Start Syncing.

Note: You can sync only one Lightroom Classic catalog at a time to the Lightroom Ecosystem. If you are already syncing another Lightroom Classic catalog and you switch the syncing to a different catalog, the previously synced Lightroom Classic photos will be added to the new catalog you are syncing.

Sync existing photo collections

You control which photos are synced from Lightroom Classic on your desktop by marking existing or new collections of photos for syncing. Images that you want to sync must be part of a collection.

To sync an existing collection, open the Collections panel and click the checkbox to the left of a collection to add a double-pointed sync icon. Once photos are synced, the thumbnails will display a sync icon in the upper right.

Note: A collection is like a playlist of photos; just like a song can be in multiple playlists, a photo can also be in more than one collection.

Create new synced collections

To create and sync a new collection, click the + icon on the Collections panel and choose Create Collection... In the Create Collection window, enable the Sync with Lightroom checkbox and click Create. Add photos to the collection by dragging them onto the collection name in the Collections panel.

(A collection is like a playlist of photos. To learn more about collections, seeSave your favorites into a collection .)

Access your synced collections on mobile

Open Lightroom on a mobile device. If you're not already signed in, tap Sign in and enter the same Adobe ID you used to sign in on your computer.

The collections synced from Lightroom Classic on your desktop appear as albums in the Lightroom app on your mobile device. This may take a few minutes, depending on the speed of your connection and the number of photos being synced.

Sync photos from mobile to your computer

Photos and albums you add to the Lightroom Ecosystem on any of your mobile devices, or via Lightroom on the web, will automatically sync to Lightroom Classic on your computer. Any images imported into the desktop version of Lightroom will also sync to Lightroom Classic.

You can view these albums in the From Lightroom collection set in Lightroom Classic on your desktop. Synced photos also appear in the All Synced Photographs collection in the Catalog panel, as well as in the Folders panel in Lightroom Classic on your desktop under the name of your device or in a folder you designate in Preferences > Lightroom Sync > Location.

Sync edits across the Lightroom Ecosystem

Edits you apply to photos synced from Lightroom Classic on your computer automatically sync across the Lightroom Ecosystem on all your devices and Lightroom on the web.