Lightroom Classic - Sync Issues

Using Lightroom Classic Version 9.4 (latest version supported by Windows 7), a problem seems to have occured with the Sync function. In the past, as recently as May 2021, I was able to sync a Collection, and then make the collection viewable by the public via an Adobe website which looked like this: "https//lightroom.adobe.com/shares/xxxxxyyyyyyzzzz". By sending this link to family and friends, they were able to view the Collection. I am not a professional and don't sell any images.

 

Yesterday, I attempted to create a similar web page of photos from my Son's wedding, and what has previously worked for years on Lightroom does seem to work anymore. In the upper left corner of the Lightroom page, Sync appears to be enabled, but right clicking on the Collection does not provide the option to sync the collection. Also if you try to create a new collection, there is no option to "sync with Lightroom" as shown on Adobe's help page for this feature.

 

Is there a solution for this problem? Is there some feature I need to turn on to enable sync? Any help would be appreciated!

My solution in case anyone in the future has this issue: I became suspicious that since Creative Cloud app would not launch, that situation was negatively impacting the sync function of Lightroom . My inhouse tech support (son) stopped the Creative Cloud process tree and then was able to launch Creative Cloud, but there was a Windows Firewall error. Apparently a specific update to WIN 7 was required in order for Creative Cloud to connect with Adobe. Once the update was installed and the system restarted, Creative Cloud launched and connected to Adobe and then the Sync function returned to Lightroom.

This is a bit off topic, but this suggests that you don't have windows set to install updates, which leaves a lot of security holes. The last version of Windows 7 was released 10 years ago. Formal support was ended a year ago, but Microsoft has said it will release security updates for the final version of Windows 7 untl this October (2021). Or so I have read.

This is the required update:

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/unable-to-reach-adobe-servers.html

According to my tech support person, this TLS update has not been pushed through to WIN 7 users through the OS update function. I did install all recommended updates prior to this issue. I guess I will need to replace my 11 year old desktop sometime this year.