How to access the grayed out images on Lightroom Classic

Old post but when this happens to me I simply rename the photo I want to import and it is no longer greyed out.

I have the same issue, although I know why I have it.  I was using two different external hard drives (drive 1 & drive 2) but want to move all photos to one hard drive (drive 2).  I used the same catalog for both, so the catalog is regonizing that I've loaded them before.  So how do I get Lr to load the photos that were on drive 1 but now are on drive 2?

I had the same problem. The solution was to uncheck the tick box next to "Dont Import Suspected Duplicates" in the import section. Once I did that the images I was trying to access were selectable.  

Finally found a solution. I hope you did too, because this reply is coming 3 years after your post.

In the Import dialogue, go to the "File Handling" tab on the right.

Uncheck "Don't Import Suspected Previews."

My issue was not exactly the same as yours, but since my search brought me here I'll go ahead and post the solution I found.  I've been creating collections after watching Scott Kelby's video ("Organizing in Lightroom with Scott Kelby", posted by B&H) and also experimenting with rating and rejecting.  Without realizing it, I selected a whole collection and pressed x to mark them as rejected.  When I went back to All Photographs, that collection was always greyed out, and I could not figure out why or get those pictures back to normal.

Fortunately I eventually discovered they had been marked as rejected.  The solution was to select all the photos in that collection again and press u to remove the rejected classification.  All better now!

To edit images that are grayed out in the import dialog, all that is necessary is to locate them in the library module (NOT the import dialog) by searching for them by file name or other means and locating them in the catalog. Once you have located the image and highlighted it, all that is necessary is to  edit it.

The grayed-out image means that the file has already been imported into Lightroom Classic. In the Library Module, do a search for the file name, and once found, right-click on the image and choose Show in Folder and/or Show in Finder to locate the file.

warmly/j

You don't want to import photos that have previously been imported. Do not launch the Import dialog box. Do not try to synchronize folders. Go straight to the Library module.

Perform a search in Lightroom Classic's Library Module for one of these photos, following all 4 steps in order:

1. In the Lightroom Library Module, on the left, under Catalog, click on All Photographs
2. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
3. Turn off all stacking (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
4. Search for at least one of these photos by file name using the Lightroom Filter Bar

Greyed-out in the Import dialog - does mean: Already Imported.

Only one instance of a file can exist in the Catalog library. (unless you allow duplicates!)

Importing from the Hard-drive using the 'Copy' option creates a second copy of the files that the Catalog now references. So the images you "see" in Bridge or Photoshop may not be the same files that are indexed in the Catalog.

This is a mistake often reported when greyed-out images cannot be Imported.

Do a search in the Lightroom-Classic Library for the Filename of one of the files you see in Bridge. There is every chance that LrC is referencing the same file elsewhere, possibly on another of your several drives, or in a different Folder.