Today’s Question: I back up to Carbonite and two external hard drives. What is the value of syncing in Lightroom Classic?
Tim’s Quick Answer: In my view the primary reason to synchronize photos to the cloud from Lightroom Classic is not to back them up but rather to enable you to access selected images from virtually anywhere on just about any device.
More Detail: While synchronizing photos to the cloud from Lightroom Classic does provide an offsite backup by virtue of having copies of those photos stored on remote servers, to me the real reason to synchronize is to enable a more flexible workflow where you can access your photos from just about anywhere.
Once you’ve enabled synchronization for one or more collections in Lightroom Classic, the photos in those collections will be available throughout the Lightroom ecosystem. That includes accessing the images from a smartphone or tablet using the Lightroom mobile app, from just about any internet-connected device using Lightroom in a web browser (https://lightroom.adobe.com), or from another computer using the Lightroom desktop application.
For example, you might synchronize photos from Lightroom Classic to the cloud so you can review those images on your mobile device while traveling. You could also use a synchronized collection to share photos with a client on a tablet or smartphone.
With this workflow, you can choose specific photos you want to synchronize to the cloud, whether for reviewing and updating, sharing with others, providing a backup of selected images, or any other reason you may find it helpful to be able to access photos from virtually anywhere.
