Adobe Lighroom Classic Catalogue - Network Drives . . .

[PCope]

Hi,

 

Just reaching out for help / thoughts please. We have the latest Adobe K12 Cloud Subscription package and through product design, Adobe have made it very difficult for us to use the Lightroom products. I'll break it down into key points...

 

-We can not use Adobe CC as we get an "Access Denied" and the reason for this is that we don't have Adobe Cloud storage in our subscription so Adobe tells us to use Lightroom Classic.

-Lightroom Classic prompts for end users to create or select a catalogue file before they can use it however, through software design, Catalogue files can not be accessed or created on network drives which is where students store their data.

-For security reasons we don't permit access to C: drive and whilst student's could use USB sticks, we'd have to buy a load of them in and it creates a poor and undesired workflow + storage of data (even if we ask them to sideways copy the file to their network home folder).

-Adobe support confirms that the issue of not being able to save catalogue files to network drives has been reported several times by different customers of which has been passed onto their R&D dept but no ETA for it being changed (if at all).

 

Please may I ask, What are people doing to combat this?

 

Any thoughts or help much appreciated,

 

Many Thanks,

Adrian Richards

[PCope]

Hi,

 

Just wanted to follow up on this to see if anybody had any thoughts or were even in the same boat? It would not be so bad if we could buy the Adobe Cloud Storage meaning that Adobe Lightroom CC would work however our K12 Educational License does not allow for us to buy this option.

 

Many Thanks,

Adrian Richards

[colly72]

Here's a similar thread from a few years ago, when I was looking into it. Never did find an acceptable workaround, so we never implemented it:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educational-software/204790-lightroom-classic-cc-catalogue-network-volume-new-thread.html

[Koldov]

How many computers are we talking about?

 

It's probably a logistical nightmare and I don't really know much about Adobe, so I'm probably talking out of my hat... but how about another local drive (similar to the USB option), either a separate partition, physical drive or internal USB that they can access?

Edited March 23, 2022 by Koldov

[PCope]

Thanks Colly72,

 

I did see another tread on Edugeek which may have been the predecessor to your one along with alot of other stuff on the internet. Your thread mirrors our situation and I can completely relate to your frustrations. It's so disappointing that Adobe offer two Lightroom products in their K12 education bundle which do the exact same thing and yet both sustain problems so severe that one of them does not work at all and the other can operate but needs a nasty workflow. The cost, workflow, potential for problems and weakened security of using memory sticks or even setting up local partitions is just a huge step backwards. I've had the exact same situation with our photography using the statement of we need this - it's "industry standard" as you mentioned in your thread. I completely appreciate their requirement so that they can do the course. At this moment in time the only solutions I have to offer is Class based USB sticks (in which they copy a catalogue too and from their network drive) or a completely different Lightroom alternative (surely Industry Standard is about achieving the objective with a tool to do the job rather than a specific brand?).

 

I'm sure I'm repeating a few things that you've already said but thanks for your reference to your thread. When you say you never implemented Lightroom, do you mean that you choose a completely different product?

 

Many Thanks,

Adrian

[PCope]

Thanks Koldov,

 

The immediate affect is mainly 31 Windows Computers in total for using lightroom (although we do have others with this Adobe software on but those are not critical for Lightroom - mostly photoshop). I think the only way that Lightroom Classic could work is with class based memory sticks that gets handed out and collected in (I.E. student plugs in memory stick, creates or copies a catalogue across from their network drive, does the work and then copies it back off of the USB when finished). My worry with all of this is that even though we have our security protection, there is so much potential for data to get lost of deleted and these open writable spaces in the instances of a partition would create problems.

 

Adobe do some amazing products but in this instance and whilst they acknowledge the problem which has been reported by a number of educational establishments, they are unable to help (apart from saying give them access to C: or memory sticks) and can not give a timeframe for resolution. The knock on effect of these design problems this is that it leaves me unable to provide an acceptable solution.

 

Thanks,

Adrian