Skip to main content
dw24154351
dw24154351
Known Participant
August 29, 2026
Question

When importing from a catalog the available check boxes are not selectable

  • August 29, 2026
  • 7 replies
  • 57 views

Attempting to import a LRC catalog that was exported from a folder on another machine.  The scenario is you have your main catalog on a desktop Mac and you have captured photos whilst mobile. You export a specific folder of folders as a catalog on a mobile MacBook. You want to incorporate what you have captured in the field back into the desktop catalog.

When attempting to import, it seems only part of the content can be imported. Strange that select all folders is not working. So far I can only import 724 of the 2206 images in the folder

  1. Have several photo folders within another folder
  2. Select the folder
  3. File > Export as Catalog, save on to an external disk
  4. Note that the folder contains the four original folders of exported RAW images
  5. Switch to a different machine with LRC
  6. File > Import from Another Catalog
  7. Navigate to the lrcat that in on the external disk
  8. Choose
  9. Now see the Import from Catalog window
  10. Attempt to select All Folders - it isn’t selectable
  11. Try each other folder, it is not selectable

There is no error message explaining why the action is not possible. There is an inconsistent behaviour for the copy missing files check box as well.

You will see in the video that checkboxes are now not selectable. You will see in the screen shot that only one of the 4 folders is importing.

LRC 15.5.1 macOS 26.6.2

7 replies

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
August 29, 2026

So another possibility is that on the computer that does the export, these folders are missing in the LrC Folder panel, and they have a question mark icon next to the folder name. Please visually check the catalog on the computer that does the export and see if those folders have question mark icons.

dw24154351
dw24154351Author
Known Participant
August 30, 2026

The folders of photos definitely exist - there are no question marks. 4 days of shooting, one folder per day. All visible and usable on the mobile computer. The folder that is exported contains all matching folders with raw images in each - 4 folders with 10s of GB and the whole folder has 127GB of images. There is nothing to suggest that the export failed or is incomplete. 

The bug seems to be that the import process if failing to read the meta data correctly to interpret that there is more than one folder in the export. It only imports one folder and ignores the rest. The fact that it lists all the folders but only allows the first to be checked is also another clue. The folder names are extractable from the lrcat but something on the import side refuses to make the other folders selectable. 

This seems to be a real bug.

Anshul_Saini
Community Manager
Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
Community Manager
September 15, 2026

Hi @dw24154351,

Thank you for the detailed follow-up and video. Could you run a few targeted tests to help us determine whether a specific folder or file is causing this behavior?

  • On the MacBook, open the original catalog and choose File > Optimize Catalog. Once complete, export the same parent folder as a catalog again and test the new export on the desktop Mac.

  • If the behavior remains, please try exporting each of the four-day folders as a separate catalog and importing them individually. Let us know whether all four work independently or whether one or more still show the disabled-selection behavior.

  • Also, do any of these folders contain video files in addition to the RAW images? If so, please let us know which folders contain them. For one test, you could export a problematic folder without the video files and see whether that changes the result.

  • Finally, is it always the same one of the four folders that remains selectable when you repeat the full export?


If you can isolate this to one of the four folders, the next step would be to create a much smaller reproduction from that folder. If you’re able to reproduce the disabled checkboxes with only a handful of images, we’d be interested in getting that small exported catalog and sample files so we can reproduce the behavior on our side.


You’re also right that having folders displayed but unavailable for selection without an explanation makes the failure difficult to diagnose. The results of these tests should give us a much cleaner reproduction case to investigate.


Best,

Anshul Saini

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
August 29, 2026

Try resetting preferences https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

dw24154351
dw24154351Author
Known Participant
August 29, 2026

Thanks for the suggestion. Produces no change to the outcome.

The Import from Catalog window does reveal the Copy missing files checkbox (which has come up before, but doesn’t always show). However, no combination of selection enables the Import button.

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
August 29, 2026

Please confirm by looking at your operating system (Windows Explorer or Mac Finder) that these folders actually exist in the expected location, and that the name matches the name inside LrC exactly.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices