Known Participant

P: import errors and crashing on iPad when important large volume of large files

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
March 31, 2023
12 replies
1754 views

I shoot large DNG raw files on a Leica Q2, usually on a 64gb SD card but sometimes 128gb. I shoot until the card is full, then I import the images to Lightroom on my iPad via an SD card reader USB-C adapter. A 64gb card holds around 800 images or so. Whenever I try to import, it takes a very long time, and approximately half the time, it just crashes and I have to re-start, usually four or five tries before it works. The import process just seems extremely buggy and unstable when processing large volumes of high resolution images. I am happy to use my M2 MacBook instead, but I was really hoping that the M1 iPad Pro could handle this sort of typical prosumer level workflow dependably. It works fine for importing fewer images that are smaller in size, but you think it should be able to handle an entire 64gb SD card's worth of photos, since that is a pretty typical (even low end) size photo shoot. Surely they must be working on this issue--strikes me as a deal killer if the import takes forever and sometimes doesn't work at all. It means I'd need a second backup source to carry with me when I am on the road, like a GNARBOX or some such. I was hoping to just work with the iPad and my SD cards while on the road, and that's it, and then copy the cards to my home raid setup when I get back after my trip as a double redundancy. The speed and clumsiness of the import really makes that hard to do.

iPadOS

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Mihi007-

Participant

After updating to iOS 26, this issue has appeared again. The photos won’t import either from the Files app or directly from the SD card. When importing more than 1000 photos, the iPad crashes. I’m using an iPad Pro 12.9 M1 512GB. It feels like the new iOS update has brought back an old bug.

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pavelm84672268

Participant

Still not fixed. Can adobe provide some feedback?

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allan_6822

Participant

Same problem here in July 2025. If I try to import a large number of images (JPG or RAW) into Lightroom from the "Add Photos -> Files" option, the import will fail. Doesn't matter if I have the files on the local ipad filesystem, SD card, or network storage. The odd thing is if I use "Connected camera/card" the import works, even with 2000+ images. I've taken to copying files to an SD card and importing that way. Bit of a ridiculous workaround in 2025 that the application can't copy files from a filesystem.

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wizard8081

Participant

Same problem. Looks like it's been over a year and Adobe still hasn't fixed this?

My first time importing and 8 have 9000 photos. They are sports photos and with new cameras having 40-120 fps, this is just one game's worth of photos. Hope they fix this soon.

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RGL59

Participant

Same problem. Found a workaround by importing from SD card into the iPad photos app, then importing from there into Lightroom. In my experience this was quicker than importing from SD into Lightroom (when this function previously worked)

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MichaelMoretti

Participating Frequently

Finally found my issue after hours of Googling! I've been experiencing this at least since March 2023 traveling in Bolivia and Argentina as I was importing my Nikon Z7 and D850 photos to LR on my iPad Pro (current iPadOS 16, USB-C) using a Sony reader. So frustrating to have failed import messages on multiple images on transfers of as few as 50 images; I even tried imported directly from the cameras. Finally, I resorted to transferring only 6-10 images at a time, waiting for the copy to confirm before starting the next set. When I would get an error, I'd try the failed image(s) again and they usually imported fine. Last month, I was back to the same problem (I hadn't done much photography since March) when I traveled to Namibia... same problem. Anyway, hope this gets resolved soon as I have travel plans again before end of year. I'm currently running iPadOS 17 and LR 8.5.1 BAA93F/108. Keeping my fingers crossed!

scot.hacker

Inspiring

Tip for anyone stuck in this situation while traveling - the issue is all about total number of images o n the card. To reduce the problem, import often! Try if possible to keep it Down to 100 images.

Import (keep trying unti all images are accounted for)
Wait until cloud sync is complete
Reformat card in camera

Yes reformatting is scary, but at least this process allows you to keep bringing in your dailies. If you don't, you'll be completely stuck once there are around 600 images on the card.

scot.hacker

Inspiring

I thought long and hard before embarking on a two week international vacation about whether to bring a laptop along with me. But after some small tests, I decided I could get by with just an iPad, USB-C card reader, and Lightroom mobile. Unfortunately, once I really started shooting, everything fell apart. The import process goes into loops, where it once it starts displaying the thumbnail grid it stops and says "I found a connected device" and tries to start over before I can even get to the selection phase. If it encounters a file it's seem before, instead of skipping it, it often crashes. Sometimes I can get things to work after trying five or six times, other times I can't make it work at all. The downsides are that I can't post most of my images while traveling, and I don't have the cloud backup I thought I was going to have. Very frustrating. Good to see that Adobe stuff are able to reproduce it and are working on it. Won't be quick enough to save this vacation, but looking forward to the next, because when it works, it's a really great workflow.

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defaultuyciz18otv16Author

Known Participant

Sweet!