Unable to import photos

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 6, 2023
3 replies
411 views

Yesterday I imported photos to Lightroom without any problems, and today I see this message and I can't do anything anymore, I can't inport the photos, please help:

"the file cannot be moved to the destination folder because it is not writable"

I read about it in previous posts, but no one literally explained what to do to make these photos importable again. None of the imports work for me.

Windows

This topic has been closed for replies.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

When you import an image with 'Copy' or 'Move' selected at the top of the import dialog, then Lightroom will copy/move the image to a folder that is defined in the Destination panel on the right side of the import dialog. That is your destination folder. It's possible that the usual destination folder got deselected, and instead you now have selected a folder that Lightroom has no permission to write to. That is why you were asked twice already to post a screenshot of your import dialog. A screenshot often says more than a thousand words.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Keith Reeder

Participating Frequently

Is the destination folder writable?

M

monika5DE521173795Author

Participant

I need for windows , not for Mac. And now please explain to me what a destination folder is and how to find it, I don't need such help - I am not legend.

cmgap

Community Expert

A screen shot of your library module showing the left column will be most helpful in trouble shooting this issue. Within Lightroom Classic open the Catalog panel in the left most column in Library module and click on Previous Import. Select an image in the grid and right-click on it and select Show in Finder. This will open another window that will show you where those photos are. Another helpful screen shot would be your import window.

cmgap

Community Expert

Can you post a screen shot of your Library module showing the whole screen especially your folder structure? If you look at any of the images you imported yesterday and right-click one one of them and select Show in Finder it will confirm the location they were imported to. If you were importing the images and storing them on an external drive, is the drive mounted?

M

monika5DE521173795Author

Participant

It's a permanent drive, the photos are visible when I search, but when I press the import button in Lightroom Classic on the bottom left, I get this message. On the left, I can easily search for these photos, but I can't import them.

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