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Ricebucket
Participating Frequently
Oct 20, 2023 7:54 AM UTC
Question

unable to "import from another catalog"

I'm on 13.0.1 and I no longer seem to be able to import photos from another catalog.

When I select a catalog to import, a dialog pops up saying:

 

"Lightroom cannot import from this catalog. 

The catalog does not appear to be a valid Lightroom catalog."

 

This happens with basically every catalog I've tried, even a catalog with a single image.

 

I searched around and it seems that many people have had similar problems in the past with this feature, but this is the first time I've encountered it. I have used it successfully in the past, although not on version 13.0.1.

    12 replies

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    Oct 20, 2023 11:28 AM UTC

    Are the catalogs you are trying to open actually a ZIP file containing the catalog?

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    RicebucketAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    Oct 21, 2023 1:59 AM UTC

    no, why would they be in a zip file?

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      Geoff the kiwi
      Community Expert
      Geoff the kiwiCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      Oct 21, 2023 10:04 AM UTC

      Back up catalogs may be zipped automatically due to size.

      can you upload your test catalog to Dropbox or a file sharer so we can try it also please. No images needed.

      please use the landscape icon to insert photos rather than drag n drop as a lot cannot open attachments - my iPhone uses Acrobat 😳😳

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      Geoff the kiwi
      Community Expert
      Geoff the kiwiCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      Oct 20, 2023 8:12 AM UTC

      I'm going to guess here as I am on my phone at the moment and can't test.

      can you try opening one of the catalogs you want to import from in 13 as they may need upgrading first. See if that works.

      When importing from older catalogs upgrading ought to happen so there may be a bug in that area.

      Again, try and open the catalog to import from in Lr13 and see if it upgrades then import the upgraded catalog 

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        RicebucketAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        Oct 20, 2023 10:04 AM UTC

        nope. i did all of the obvious debugging checks. For example, I tried multiple catalogs.

        Both export and import LRs are the same version. (And in fact I tried 13.0.0 as well. Also didn't work).

        This is clearly a regression since it used to work for me.

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        Geoff the kiwi
        Community Expert
        Geoff the kiwiCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        Oct 20, 2023 12:21 PM UTC

        Can you post a screen shot of the contents of a catalog folder you are trying to import from please 

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