Lightroom Plugin Sync Photos Seems Broken

DBR

I think that the new Lightroom plugin is not correctly accessing the metadata for images currently on Smugmug. Here's why.

When I first tried to publish to the new SM from Lightroom (version 5.2RC, with SmugMug plugin 2.0.1.6), the publish failed. Eventually, I got it to work, but in the meantime, I ran into the following issue.

I have a hierarchy of galleries containing about 40,000 images published from LR. While trying to get publish to work again, I used the plugin to sync the hierarchy, and that worked fine. (I think that was what enabled publishing to work.) However, I tried to sync photos, too, and that was less successful. Out of about 40,000 images, the plugin told me that about 25,000 had conflicts. It brought up a dialog box to allow me to specify for each of these which local image, if any, matched with the image published on LR.

This is a problem for the following reasons:

1) I published those images using the LR plugin. It should already know what images it published. I only really expect to need to re-sync if I change something on SM. If I made any changes, they were slight, and certainly did not affect 25,000 images.

2) The plugin is supposed to be able to use capture time as one field on which to match images. When showing me the dialog box, it did not display capture time for the images on SM. For local images, it displayed Filename, (Camera) Model, Dimensions, Taken, and left Caption blank. For the image on SmugMug, it only displayed Filename, Dimensions, and Caption, leaving the other fields blank. I think it may not be picking up those other fields.

3) Even it it only takes about 5 seconds each to identify the correct local images, straightening this out would take 5*25,000 seconds, or about 34 hours. I really don't think that's reasonable.

Thanks!

David

jasonscottphoto

I had this issue too, finally gave up on syncing until the bugs are worked out in the new plugin. It was showing me bizarre photos as choices. Pretty much anything that had the same file name was a choice. (The right one was always there, but lots of other incorrect options too with completely different dates, sizes, etc.)

PS - regarding #1... I had to resync everything. Nothing I had already published was remembered by Lightroom/the smugmug plugin. Very frustrating. I tried going back to a backup and using an older version of the plugin, and it seemed better temporarily, but then all of a suddent every gallery said "zero" again.

Also having this problem:

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1887429#post1887429

bbeck4x4

trying to type this but here goes.
lightroom folder = Smugmug folder
Springville = Other
Other (empty) = Other full of photo galleries

In Smug the folder Springvile has been deleted - which is correct, trying to get lightroom updated to show what is correct in Smug.

DBR

bbeck4x4 wrote: »

trying to type this but here goes.
lightroom folder = Smugmug folder
Springville = Other
Other (empty) = Other full of photo galleries

In Smug the folder Springvile has been deleted - which is correct, trying to get lightroom updated to show what is correct in Smug.

I'm sorry - I don't understand what you are saying.

bbeck4x4

basically the folders between the two don't match.
Last night I deleted the directories in the lightroom folder under smug, left the photos on smugmug ( don't delete from smugmug if you try this. ) then re-synced lighroom with smugmug, that fixed most of the issues, but left some photos showing in Lightroom that have no folder on Smugmug, but at least the "springville" folder is gone and the correct photo and file structure is in place in LR now for all of my other galleries now.

Hope this helps.

DBR

bbeck4x4 wrote: »

basically the folders between the two don't match.
[...]
Hope this helps.

Yes - thanks! That's much clearer.

aschendel

I may be the only person doing this, but I'm trying to use Event Favorites and then syncing down the gallery so I can republish selected Favorites with higher resolutions for purchase / printing. I'm on the new SM and the new plugin (2.0.1.3). The new hierarchy (folder / gallery) sync'd down fine but the photos don't. When I chose Edit Gallery | Sync Photos | Edit it thinks for awhile then Processes Photos for a couple of minutes but ends up with 0 images in LR.

-- OK, so I downloaded the "new" plugin a couple of days ago and see now they are already up to 2.0.1.11! I downloaded that but unfortunately it appears to work the same (i.e. not work).

Help?

Andy

devbobo

aschendel wrote: »

I may be the only person doing this, but I'm trying to use Event Favorites and then syncing down the gallery so I can republish selected Favorites with higher resolutions for purchase / printing. I'm on the new SM and the new plugin (2.0.1.3). The new hierarchy (folder / gallery) sync'd down fine but the photos don't. When I chose Edit Gallery | Sync Photos | Edit it thinks for awhile then Processes Photos for a couple of minutes but ends up with 0 images in LR.

-- OK, so I downloaded the "new" plugin a couple of days ago and see now they are already up to 2.0.1.11! I downloaded that but unfortunately it appears to work the same (i.e. not work).

Help?

Andy

Hey Andy,

Whenever I distribute the plugin to anyone outside my local development environment for testing, debugging, etc...I always increment the version number so that I have a handle on what is in that version.

With version 2.x.x.x, we migrated to a new API with which has been a few teething issues. I'm aware that there might be some issues with regard to syncing images, but up until now my primary focus has been on get the basic functionality working again for those people affected.

Would you be able to get your catalog to me to take a look at ? Can you please zip it and upload here..
https://www.hightail.com/dropbox?dropbox=SmugMug
If you could also include a link back to this post...it might be useful for tracking purposes.

Thanks,

David

shahineo

devbobo wrote: »

Hey Andy,

Whenever I distribute the plugin to anyone outside my local development environment for testing, debugging, etc...I always increment the version number so that I have a handle on what is in that version.

With version 2.x.x.x, we migrated to a new API with which has been a few teething issues. I'm aware that there might be some issues with regard to syncing images, but up until now my primary focus has been on get the basic functionality working again for those people affected.

Would you be able to get your catalog to me to take a look at ? Can you please zip it and upload here..
https://www.hightail.com/dropbox?dropbox=SmugMug
If you could also include a link back to this post...it might be useful for tracking purposes.

Thanks,

David

FWIW I'm having the same problem. Sync of hierarchy not working (albums repeated) and sync of photos not working

aschendel

I appreciate that you are turning out new versions so quickly! I can get you my catalog when I'm done with the export that is in process now, hopefully it will still be tonight.

Thanks,

Andy

aschendel

I uploaded my catalog, thanks!

Andy

devbobo

shahineo wrote: »

FWIW I'm having the same problem. Sync of hierarchy not working (albums repeated) and sync of photos not working

shahineo,

Can you please send a zipped copy of you .lrcat file for me to take a look at ?
https://www.hightail.com/dropbox?dropbox=SmugMug

Please provide details on which gallery you are trying to publish and please include a link back to this thread so I'm aware which ticket i'm looking at.


Thanks,

David

devbobo

aschendel wrote: »

I appreciate that you are turning out new versions so quickly! I can get you my catalog when I'm done with the export that is in process now, hopefully it will still be tonight.

Thanks,

Andy

Thanks Andy.

I've made some progress with the image syncing. Hoping I might have a version to test sometime tomorrow.

DBR

devbobo wrote: »

Thanks Andy.

I've made some progress with the image syncing. Hoping I might have a version to test sometime tomorrow.

Any chance that the new version will access the metadata from images currently on SmugMug - the problem that really started this thread?

Thanks!

devbobo

DBR wrote: »

Any chance that the new version will access the metadata from images currently on SmugMug - the problem that really started this thread?

Thanks!

Hey DBR,

Can you give 2.0.1.12 a go ?

I found that I had a bug with my implementation of our new API, it should be better...but I can probably improve it even more when I get a chance.

Cheers,

David

DBR

devbobo wrote: »

Hey DBR,

Can you give 2.0.1.12 a go ?

I found that I had a bug with my implementation of our new API, it should be better...but I can probably improve it even more when I get a chance.

Cheers,

David

Thanks, David! I'll give it a try, and let you know how it works.

DBR

devbobo wrote: »

Hey DBR,

Can you give 2.0.1.12 a go ?

I found that I had a bug with my implementation of our new API, it should be better...but I can probably improve it even more when I get a chance.

Cheers,

David

Nope. Seems a little better - there are only 17,913 images that it didn't sync - but it's still not displaying all the metadata. I presume it's not seeing or using it, either. For example in the Conflict Resolution dialog box for this picture, it only displays Filename, Dimensions, and Caption, leaving Model and Taken blank. Interestingly, the image that it actually matches with does not have a Caption, and the Caption listed is the basename of the image's filename.

Here's the image in question: http://davidritch.smugmug.com/2009/August/Aug-26/i-QP9j6b3.

Thanks!

David

devbobo

DBR wrote: »

Nope. Seems a little better - there are only 17,913 images that it didn't sync - but it's still not displaying all the metadata. I presume it's not seeing or using it, either. For example in the Conflict Resolution dialog box for this picture, it only displays Filename, Dimensions, and Caption, leaving Model and Taken blank. Interestingly, the image that it actually matches with does not have a Caption, and the Caption listed is the basename of the image's filename.

Here's the image in question: http://davidritch.smugmug.com/2009/August/Aug-26/i-QP9j6b3.

Thanks!

David

DBR,

yeah, I found a few more issues today...give this version a try.

DBR

devbobo wrote: »

DBR,

yeah, I found a few more issues today...give this version a try.

OK - will do. Thanks.

ablichter

devbobo wrote: »

DBR,

yeah, I found a few more issues today...give this version a try.

Just FYI: They link was broken.
They put up V. 2.0.1.15 already and corrected the download link.

DBR

DBR wrote: »

OK - will do. Thanks.

Tried the new version - still broken. This time, it didn't get to the point of asking me to resolve conflicts. Instead, while processing photos, it popped up a new dialog box, saying: "An internal error has occurred: ?:0: attempt to concatenate a nil value". I clicked OK (the only button on that dialog box), and it aborted the sync attempt.

dbr

devbobo

DBR wrote: »

Tried the new version - still broken. This time, it didn't get to the point of asking me to resolve conflicts. Instead, while processing photos, it popped up a new dialog box, saying: "An internal error has occurred: ?:0: attempt to concatenate a nil value". I clicked OK (the only button on that dialog box), and it aborted the sync attempt.

dbr

sorry, that was a dumb bug...fixed

DBR

devbobo wrote: »

sorry, that was a dumb bug...fixed

No problem. Each time, this is improving. Now I only have about 3000 images that don't automatically match.

In each case, the time displayed by the match dialog box did not any timestamp I could find in the metadata. I would have expected it to match Date Time Original or Date Time Digitized. I'm not sure what's causing this.

David

devbobo

DBR, do I have a catalog from you...if not, it might be the quickest way to track this down. Otherwise, if you can point me at a few images that specifically aren't sync back. I can take a look.

Also, just to set expectations, this may not be resolved before I leave for a week's vacation in Fiji on Sunday, i'll try my best but can't make any guarantees.

Cheers,

David

DBR

I think that the further problems I'm seeing may be my own, and not SmugMug's. Thank you for all your work on this!

I still see about 3000 images that do not match, because their timestamps don't match. However, after a bit more of a review, it appears that (at least in most cases) the time reported by the plugin for the images at SmugMug does match the metadata on images I download. The timestamp reflected for the local images is a bit more difficult to check. Most of the images I've examined are imported JPGs and the timestamps don't match anything in their metadata; however, when looking in LR I found that I had corrected their timestamps in the database. Apparently, I must have updated the timestamps, and did not push them up after that. Apparently I need to check through those again.

DBR

devbobo wrote: »

DBR, do I have a catalog from you...if not, it might be the quickest way to track this down. Otherwise, if you can point me at a few images that specifically aren't sync back. I can take a look.

Also, just to set expectations, this may not be resolved before I leave for a week's vacation in Fiji on Sunday, i'll try my best but can't make any guarantees.

Cheers,

David

Woohoo!!! Looks like version 2.0.1.20 took care of it! I just sync'ed, and there were no images that didn't match. :-)

Thanks for all your work on this! Enjoy your trip to Fiji!

David

devbobo

DBR wrote: »

Woohoo!!! Looks like version 2.0.1.20 took care of it! I just sync'ed, and there were no images that didn't match. :-)

Thanks for all your work on this! Enjoy your trip to Fiji!

David

ok, awesome...glad it's working for you now.

You might want to auto-update to 2.0.2.1, it's got a minor bug fix.

DBR

devbobo wrote: »

ok, awesome...glad it's working for you now.

You might want to auto-update to 2.0.2.1, it's got a minor bug fix.

Uh-oh. I updated to 2.0.2.1, and ran into a new issue.

I'm back to having about 3000 images that did not auto-match. In looking through a couple dozen, I see that they all have a common issue. The match dialog box displays the metadata correctly, but it does not indicate a match on Camera Model, although it displays the same string for both the local and remote images.

In each of these cases, the timestamp also does not match. I think that this is because the images on SmugMug have the original, and the images in LR have an updated one (synchronizing clocks between cameras after the fact).

It would be a useful enhancement to the matching to allow some variance in timestamp if the other metadata matches. It would also be useful if I could identify all the images whose timestamps I've modified, and republish them. I'm not sure how to find them with the standard LR library searches.

Thanks,

David

DBR

Because of the apparent success of 2.0.1.20 and the problem with 2.0.2.1, I backed out to 2.0.1.20. Unfortunately, it's now showing the same issues as 2.0.2.1. That is, it is not matching the camera model, and if the time doesn't match, the images don't mach.
:-(

David

mscgp

LR5 won't unzip or install Smugmug Plugin

DBR wrote: »

I think that the new Lightroom plugin is not correctly accessing the metadata for images currently on Smugmug. Here's why.

When I first tried to publish to the new SM from Lightroom (version 5.2RC, with SmugMug plugin 2.0.1.6), the publish failed. Eventually, I got it to work, but in the meantime, I ran into the following issue.

I have a hierarchy of galleries containing about 40,000 images published from LR. While trying to get publish to work again, I used the plugin to sync the hierarchy, and that worked fine. (I think that was what enabled publishing to work.) However, I tried to sync photos, too, and that was less successful. Out of about 40,000 images, the plugin told me that about 25,000 had conflicts. It brought up a dialog box to allow me to specify for each of these which local image, if any, matched with the image published on LR.

This is a problem for the following reasons:

1) I published those images using the LR plugin. It should already know what images it published. I only really expect to need to re-sync if I change something on SM. If I made any changes, they were slight, and certainly did not affect 25,000 images.

2) The plugin is supposed to be able to use capture time as one field on which to match images. When showing me the dialog box, it did not display capture time for the images on SM. For local images, it displayed Filename, (Camera) Model, Dimensions, Taken, and left Caption blank. For the image on SmugMug, it only displayed Filename, Dimensions, and Caption, leaving the other fields blank. I think it may not be picking up those other fields.

3) Even it it only takes about 5 seconds each to identify the correct local images, straightening this out would take 5*25,000 seconds, or about 34 hours. I really don't think that's reasonable.

Thanks!

David

do you have any idea why the plugin manager should tell me it cannot unzip the new plugin or place it for use in LR5? I have been trying for 2 days to upload to smugmug and have been chastened for my anxiety by a Hero. I tried to click unzip.exe and that doesn't work either. I used the plugin manager to download the latest version. I actually lost the version I had when I clidked "synch",

DBR

mscgp,

Sounds like you're on Windows, right?

Double click on the file you downloaded. That will open a file browser, with a view into the zipped file. Drag the folder you see there somewhere on your computer. The location is not critical, but it should be somewhere you won't accidentally delete it in a few months (when you forget what it is). Then, open lightroom. Click on File-> Plugin Manager. On the bottom left, click Add. Point it to wherever you dragged that file.

That should do it.