Thumbs - Setup & Usage Guide

1. Before you start

What Thumbs does

Thumbs moves culling from your desk to your phone. You send a shoot from Lightroom Classic, it appears on your iPhone as a deck of cards, and you swipe: right to keep, left to reject, tap a star on the way past. When you're back at the computer, one command pulls every decision into your catalog - reject flags, picks, and star ratings, on exactly the photos you judged.

Your original files never move. The plugin sends small preview copies to the phone, and only your decisions come back.

What you need

• Adobe Lightroom Classic 6 or newer on macOS. The cloud-based "Lightroom" (previously Lightroom CC) is not supported - it has its own sync. Windows hasn't been tested yet; tell us if you need it.
• An iPhone on iOS 17 or newer, with the free Thumbs app from the App Store.
• The Thumbs plugin - a free download from lightroom-tools.com/thumbs - installed in Lightroom (next section).
• Wifi for sending and receiving. Swiping itself needs no connection at all.

Install the plugin

1. Unzip your download. You'll get a folder ending in .lrplugin.
2. Move it somewhere permanent - your Documents folder is perfect. (If you move it later, Lightroom will ask you to point at it again.)
3. In Lightroom Classic, open File > Plug-in Manager, click Add, and pick that folder.
4. You'll see Thumbs appear in the plugin list with a green light. Done.

Updating to a new version? Unzip it and put the new folder in place of the old one - same name, same place - then quit and reopen Lightroom Classic.

The plugin's commands live under Library > Plug-in Extras. You'll mostly use two of them.

Try the app before anything else

The app works with zero setup, so start there and get a feel for the swipe:

• Try a demo cull - a built-in shoot of 43 frames, right on the opening screen. Nothing to install, nothing to pair.
• Or use your camera roll - pick 20-30 photos from your own phone and swipe those. They never leave the phone.

Two minutes of that and the gestures are in your thumb. Then pair it for real.

2. Easy start - your first 10 minutes

If you only read one section of this guide, read this one. Follow it end-to-end and your first shoot goes phone-and-back.

Step 1 - Pair your phone (once)

1. In Lightroom, go to Library > Plug-in Extras > Connect a Phone...
2. Lightroom shows a 6-character code. The code works once and expires in 10 minutes.
3. Open the Thumbs app on your phone and type the code on the opening screen.

That's the whole account system. No email, no password, no sign-up. You do this once per phone.

Step 2 - Send a small shoot

1. In the Library grid, select 20-50 photos. A real shoot, but a small one - save the 2,000-frame wedding for when you trust it.
2. Go to Library > Plug-in Extras > Send Photos for Culling...
3. The dialog suggests a name (your folder's name). Change it if you like, click OK.
4. Keep Lightroom open until the send finishes. It renders and uploads in the background - you can keep working, or start swiping while it's still sending.

Step 3 - Swipe it

1. Open the app. If the shoot isn't showing yet, tap Refresh - the list doesn't update itself while you stare at it.
2. Tap the shoot. Cards appear, one photo at a time.
3. Swipe right to keep. Swipe left to reject. Tap a star to rate as you go.
4. Nothing to mark? Tap Next and move on. Most photos in a real shoot get no mark at all, and that's fine - a photo you've been past is a finished photo. Wrong call? Tap Back.

Step 4 - Fetch the results

1. Back in Lightroom: Library > Plug-in Extras > Get Culling Results...
2. Pick your shoot from the list, click OK.
3. Watch the grid: rejects flagged, picks picked, stars set - on exactly the photos you judged. Photos you didn't judge are never touched.

That's the whole loop. From here on it's the same three moves with bigger shoots.

3. The full workflow - Send, Swipe, Fetch, Sync

Thumbs is a round trip: Send → Swipe → Fetch - and with a licence, Sync to go round again. Each leg has a few details worth knowing once you're past the first run.

3.1 Send

Select the photos, run Send Photos for Culling..., name the shoot. The plugin renders small previews and uploads them in batches, with a progress bar in Lightroom's usual corner.

• Your Lightroom flags and stars go with it. A photo you already rejected or starred at the desk shows up on the phone that way, so you only judge what's left.
• You can start swiping before the send finishes. Frames appear on the phone as they arrive - about a minute for the first batch.
• Keep Lightroom open until the progress bar completes. If the send is interrupted, run the same command again - it picks up where it left off instead of starting over.
• On the free version, one shoot at a time can be waiting on the phone, up to 100 photos. With a licence: up to 5,000 photos per shoot, as many shoots as you like. If a previous shoot is in the way, the plugin tells you by name and offers to remove it.

3.2 Swipe

Everything about the phone side is in section 5. The short version: right keeps, left rejects, stars rate, hold for a magnifier, go back and change anything. You don't have to mark every photo. Download the shoot first and you can cull with no signal at all.

3.3 Fetch

Run Get Culling Results... and pick the shoot. Before writing anything, the plugin asks one question and then tells you exactly what's about to happen:

• Existing ratings: choose "Replace all ratings (the phone's stars win)" or "Only apply to photos that aren't rated yet". If you rated nothing at the desk, the choice doesn't matter.
• If any judged photo already has stars, or was flagged as a pick and got rejected on the phone, the plugin names the overwrite and asks first. Nothing is replaced silently.
• Tick "Show the results in a collection when done" and the fetched shoot lands in its own collection for review.
• Photos you never judged on the phone are never changed. You can fetch a half-finished shoot, keep swiping, and fetch again.

Fetching a shoot marks it done. It stays on the phone's list, marked "results fetched", until you delete it. On the free version, fetching is also what frees the slot for the next shoot.

3.4 Sync - back and forth as often as you like

Culling rarely ends in one pass. Fetched, kept working at the desk, and want to carry on from the phone? Run Sync Shoot with Phone... instead of sending again. The phone gets your latest flags, stars and edits. Lightroom gets whatever you swiped since. A shoot you already fetched never left the phone - Sync just brings it current. This needs a licence - details in section 4.

You can start it from the phone too. On the shoot list, swipe the shoot's row right and tap Sync. Lightroom on your Mac does the sync by itself, as long as it's open - section 5 has the details.

4. Every menu item, explained

All of them live under Library > Plug-in Extras.

Send Photos for Culling...

Pushes the current selection to your phone. Suggests the folder name as the shoot name. Renders and uploads in the background; interrupted sends resume when you run it again. You can swipe while it sends.

Get Culling Results...

The way back. Lists your shoots, lets you choose how existing star ratings are treated, warns you by count before overwriting anything, and then writes reject flags, picks and stars onto the exact photos you judged. Never touches a photo you didn't judge, never touches your edits or originals.

One guard worth knowing: if you send a shoot from one catalog and try to fetch it into a different one, the plugin warns you - the photos almost certainly aren't there.

Sync Shoot with Phone...

Brings a shoot that's already on your phone up to date with your catalog, in both directions. Pick the shoot, click Sync. Needs a licence. (Before plugin 0.3.3 this was called Update Shoot on Phone....)

• Lightroom to phone: flags and stars you set at the desk since the last send, sync or fetch. Photos you edited get fresh previews. Only those are redone, not the whole shoot. A shoot sent before plugin 0.2.0 redoes all its previews once, on its first sync - the plugin tells you first.
• Phone to Lightroom: everything you swiped since then lands in your catalog - including a flag or star you took off on the phone, which a fetch leaves alone.
• Changed the same photo in both places? The newer change wins. The plugin tells you how many photos that affects before anything happens, and Keep Lightroom's lets Lightroom win this time instead. It also asks first if the phone would replace a flag or star you set in Lightroom.
• Adding photos: select the shoot's photos plus the new ones and run Sync. The shoot that shares the most photos with your selection is already picked, and the Also add the N new photos box puts them on the phone.
• The whole shoot is always brought up to date. What you select only decides which new photos get added, so running it with nothing selected is fine.
• Selecting never removes a photo from a shoot. A photo leaves it only when it's gone from your catalog - after you delete your rejects, for example.
• From your phone: Sync with Lightroom in the app runs this same sync with nobody at the Mac. Lightroom has to be open, and you need plugin 0.3.0 or newer. Nothing asks you anything - the newer change wins. Photos you deleted from your catalog leave the phone too, with plugin 0.3.2 or newer (an older plugin leaves them, and the shoot's row tells you how many). Adding photos stays at the desk, where you choose them.

Delete a Shoot from the App...

For the shoot you ended up culling at the desk anyway. Removes it from the phone and its previews from the cloud without writing anything to your catalog. You can do the same from the phone: swipe the shoot's row left and tap Delete. If the shoot still holds decisions that aren't in Lightroom yet, both places tell you how many before anything is deleted.

Connect a Phone...

Shows the 6-character pairing code. One code, one phone, once - then you're paired for good. The same dialog can also disconnect all phones, which is the thing to do if a phone is lost or sold. Pair again afterwards with a fresh code.

Activate a Licence...

Paste the licence key from your purchase email and click Activate. This lifts the free-version limits (100 photos, one shoot at a time) to full size: 5,000 photos per shoot, unlimited shoots - and turns on Sync Shoot with Phone.... The free version keeps working without a key - this dialog is only for when you've bought one.

5. On the phone - every gesture

• Swipe right - keep. Swipe left - reject.
• Tap the stars - rate 1-5 while the card is up.
• Press and hold - a magnifier opens under your finger. Slide it across the faces in a group shot in one gesture to check eyes and focus.
• Tap the edges - step forward or back without judging, so you can compare neighbours before deciding.
• Next - move on without marking. Use it as often as you like: you don't have to flag or rate every photo.
• Back - return to the previous photo with its flag and stars showing, and change them there. Tap a lit button to clear it. The last call wins.
• Filter - show only the flagged, the rejected, a star rating, or the photos you haven't marked (Unmarked). They work like Lightroom's filters, and they combine.
• Every decision gives a small haptic tick; finishing the roll gives a burst. You'll know the shoot is done without looking.

Picking up where you stopped

Close the app halfway through a shoot and it reopens on the first photo you haven't been through yet. The shoot list shows how far you got - 300/620, or sorted once you've gone past the last photo. Marked or not makes no difference: a shoot where you kept 40 photos out of 600 is a finished shoot. The end screen counts the unmarked ones separately, with a button to go through them again if you want a second look.

On the shoot list - delete and sync

• Swipe a shoot left - Delete. The app asks first. If the shoot holds decisions that aren't in Lightroom yet, it tells you how many you'd lose.
• Swipe a shoot right - Sync with Lightroom (licence). Your flags and stars land in your catalog, and what changed in Lightroom comes to the phone - without walking to the Mac.
• Tap the three dots at the end of a row for the same two actions, if you'd rather not swipe.

Sync needs Lightroom Classic open on your Mac, with plugin 0.3.0 or newer. The shoot's row tells you how it's going: Waiting for Lightroom, then the progress, then what was synced. If Lightroom is closed or your Mac is asleep, the row says so right away instead of leaving you waiting. One shoot syncs at a time. You'll also find Sync with Lightroom on the screen at the end of a shoot - the moment you want your decisions in the catalog.

Culling offline

On the shoot list, download a shoot while you're on wifi - it shows a "Ready offline" badge with the frame count. From then on the whole shoot lives on the phone: airplane mode, the underground, a venue basement, all fine. Decisions you make offline sync back on their own the next time the phone has a connection.

Two things the list doesn't do by itself

• The shoot list doesn't refresh on its own - tap Refresh if a shoot you just sent isn't showing.
• A shoot appears in the list only once its first photos have arrived. If you paired mid-send, give it a minute and refresh.

Once you're inside a shoot it checks for new frames every few seconds, so frames still uploading appear at the end of the deck while you swipe.

6. Tips for the best results

• Do send the shoot before you leave the desk - it uploads while you pack up, and the couch session starts with everything ready.
• Do use stars for the second pass: reject the misses with swipes, then let 4-5 stars mark the portfolio shots. Both come home in one fetch.
• Do fetch before sending the next shoot on the free version - fetching is what frees the slot.
• Don't close Lightroom mid-send. The upload resumes if interrupted, but it can't run with Lightroom closed.
• Don't worry about half-finished shoots. Fetch what's judged, keep swiping, fetch again - unjudged photos are never touched.
• Do run Sync Shoot with Phone... when you want to carry on from the phone after working at the desk (licence). Sending the shoot again makes a second, separate copy of it on the phone.
• Do leave Lightroom open on your Mac if you plan to sync from the phone. It can sit in the background - it only has to be running.
• Don't re-send a shoot to fix one wrong swipe. Change the verdict on the phone (the last call wins) or just fix that one photo in Lightroom.

7. Frequently asked questions

Buying and licensing

Privacy and safety

Everyday use

Refunds and support

8. Real-world scenarios

The wedding photographer - 2,000 frames, Sunday evening

The reception ends, the cards are ingested, and the last thing you want is four more hours in the chair. Select the whole wedding, Send Photos for Culling..., and let it upload while you eat. On the couch, swipe the misses away and star the ceremony keepers - an hour of one-thumb work in front of the TV. Monday morning: Get Culling Results..., filter to rejects, delete, and the edit starts with only survivors. (2,000 frames needs the licence - the free version tops out at 100.)

The traveling photographer - culled at 30,000 feet

Shoot ends, flight home tomorrow. Send the shoot in the evening, and while you're still on hotel wifi, download it in the app - wait for Ready offline · 300 frames. On the plane: airplane mode, deck of cards, the whole cull done before landing. The verdicts sync back on their own when you're off the plane, and the fetch at home takes a minute. This exact flight happened - 300 frames pulled before takeoff, 150 swiped at altitude.

The family shooter - Sunday's 150 frames from the sofa

A birthday party, a hike, a weekend of kids. Send the weekend's photos before dinner, swipe them from the sofa while the kids sleep, fetch tomorrow. Send it in batches of a hundred and the free version covers this - one shoot at a time is exactly how weekends work anyway.

9. Troubleshooting

The shoot doesn't show up on the phone

Tap Refresh on the shoot list - it doesn't update itself. Still nothing? A shoot only appears once its first photos have arrived, which takes about a minute after the send starts. If you paired while a send was already running, refresh again after a minute.

"Couldn't reach the culling service"

Your Mac is offline, or something between it and the internet is blocking the connection. Check your connection and run the command again. Interrupted sends resume - nothing is lost.

The send stopped partway

Run Send Photos for Culling... again with the same selection. It continues from where it stopped rather than starting over. Keep Lightroom open until the progress bar completes.

"The free version holds one cull at a time"

A previous shoot is still waiting on the phone. Either fetch it (Get Culling Results...) or remove it (Delete a Shoot from the App...) - the dialog names the shoot in the way. Or activate a licence, and the limit goes away.

"Nothing judged yet" when fetching

The shoot reached the phone but nothing has been swiped in it. Swipe at least one photo, then fetch again.

"This cull came from a different catalog"

You sent the shoot from one Lightroom catalog and are fetching into another. Open the catalog you sent it from and fetch there.

"Lightroom isn't answering" when syncing from the phone

The phone asked, and Lightroom didn't pick it up. Check three things: Lightroom Classic is open on your Mac, the Mac is awake, and the plugin is version 0.3.0 or newer (File > Plug-in Manager shows the version). Just updated the plugin? Quit and reopen Lightroom once. Then sync again - nothing was lost.

I paired a new phone and my shoots are gone

Shoots belong to the pairing between your Lightroom and the service. If you ran Disconnect all phones and paired again, old unfetched shoots may no longer be visible - send them again. Shoots also expire on their own 90 days after their last activity.

Still stuck? Need help?

Email support@lightroom-tools.com - a real person reads every message and replies, usually within a day. No question is too small. Tell us what you clicked and what you saw, and we'll take it from there.