P: Can't import videos

Report · Dec 15, 2019

Hey guys,

I know that this has been written about 1000 times (most of them years old) in this and in other forums, but I cannot import video files into the catalog.
Windows 10-64bit, LR 9.1 Build 201911291132

I tried: uninstall, purge video cache (both from the settings an in lightroom), switched off all kinds of acceleration, setup a new catalog, uninstalled quicktime, reinstalled quicktime, uninstalled VLC, and everything else I found on the web - with zero impact.

Any further ideas? Thanks for any helpful tips...

Cheers,
B.

Report · Jan 18, 2020

Decoded URI: hI have hit this issue a number of times. Today I took a more systematic approach to trying to isolate the trigger, and I seem to have made some small progress ...

If the set of videos to import includes some that are super-short (well under 1s) then dynamiclinkserver can't make sense of them - it just spins forever on them using 99% cpu (can verify with lsof that it sticks on these same files each time). If I move such source files aside them the import runs smoothly. The offending videos seem to have been produced on assorted iPad apps (kids playing) and (speculating) I think may also include Apple live photos (which is why the problem is worse in recent times; I removed all videos from catalog and started importing year by year or month by month - got to 2015 to find this issue, have not tried later years yet but based on inability to import from iPhones lately I am guessing live photos or mistaken video clips that are also short are the trigger).

I can supply some sample videos, but they are not difficult to find! From MediaInfo (Mac system) one of them shows the following (133ms duration):

$ cat MediaInfo.txt 
General
Complete name                            : /Users/pics/2015/2015/2015-01/2015-01-24/IMG_0255.MOV
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : QuickTime
Codec ID                                 : qt   0000.00 (qt  )
File size                                : 363 KiB
Duration                                 : 133ms
Overall bit rate                         : 22.3 Mbps
Recorded date                            : 2015-01-24T12:33:45+1100
Encoded date                             : UTC 2015-01-24 01:33:48
Tagged date                              : UTC 2015-01-24 01:33:48
Writing application                      : 8.1
Writing library                          : Apple QuickTime
Model                                    : iPad
xyz                                      : -37.8332+145.0890+075.884/
Make                                     : Apple
com.apple.quicktime.location.ISO6709     : -37.8332+145.0890+075.884/
com.apple.quicktime.make                 : Apple
com.apple.quicktime.software             : 8.1
com.apple.quicktime.model                : iPad
com.apple.quicktime.creationdate         : 2015-01-24T12:33:45+1100
Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 133ms
... (rest cut)

Report · Feb 14, 2020

Hi, just tried the update - didn‘t fix the problem...

Report · Feb 17, 2020

Hi,

any idea about the timeline to resolution?

Cheers,
sbv.

Report · Feb 28, 2020

On my Sony RX100v7 I took some video of my 87 year old father telling family tales. They were not imported by Lightroom along with photos from the same card and same time. I forgot about them and reformatted the SD card later. I ran the latest version of SanDisk RescuePro but to no avail.

I just rerecorded some example video and it goes into the directory \PRIVATE\M4ROOT\CLIP as MP4 files.

There is nothing like emotional trauma for changing behavior, so I will definitely change what I do with SD cards. I will probably write a Python script to check that everything interesting has been uploaded via LR.

It would be nice if LR popped up a message after the import to say which files on the SD card it ignored.

Report · Mar 01, 2020

Exactly same behavior here, running LR Classic 9.2 on a Mac.

Report · Mar 01, 2020

This problem reappeared when upgrading (!) to LR Classic 9.2. Import process hangs, no way to play videos afterwards.

Apparently there are some videos that cause the process dynamicmediaserver to take up 99% of the CPU and the whole import process hangs.

Probably the trouble are very short videos, such as iPhone Live Photos (.mov), as mentioned by Megan Bromley three posts above. Somehow some iPhone live videos cause the import process to hang.

Once that happens, no other video in the catalog will play, and of course the import process fails.

If I force quit dynamicmediaserver and restart LR all catalogued videos will play again normally. But trying to import or synchronize any folder containing these "damaged" videos will cause the behavior described above again.

The same happens in Adobe Bridge.

Thanks to Megan's comment I was able to zero in the video to blame, in my case. It was one of the shortest videos in the folder. What make me suspicious was that QuickLook was not able to show movement when playing it (the image froze but the audio plays. So it is indeed "damaged" somehow. But neither QuickLook or QuickTime or any other DAM programs hang or fail to reproduce them. Lightroom does.

After I deleted the video from the folder, I was able to import the folder normally.

Please fix this. I can provide you with the video which causes the problem, as I am afraid that several other iPhone Live Photos will cause the same effect - and it was a nightmare for me to figure it out and to work around it.

Please, if there is a video that dynamicmediaserver cannot process, ignore it and continue importing the remaining videos instead of hanging the whole thing, and issue a message mentioning which video causes the trouble and why. I almost cancelled my subscription because of it (it drove me crazy), and generated several hours of wasted time. And, if not fixed, I am sure it will happen again.

Thanks a lot.

Report · Mar 01, 2020

My mistake. I think I imported from \DCIM instead of the root. MP4 files show up if I use the SD card root. Live and learn.

I wrote a Python script to check that everything imports to the right place, but I had to use file creation date rather than EXIF data as raw files don't have EXIF. So it's not ideal.

Report · Jun 16, 2020

Version 9.3, an update to Lightroom Classic, went live on June 15, 2020 and contains a fix for this issue. Please install the update and respond back if it does not cure the issue for you. Thank you for your patience!

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

Report · Jun 16, 2020

This is great. I just tried the new version and imported two videos which previously drove LR crazy, and they were imported perfectly well. GREAT JOB! Thanks a lot.

Report · Sep 09, 2020

When importing, I uncheck the videos, however, when syncing the folder there is no way to exclude videos. Since the folders change as the mobile device takes new photos, I have to sync the folders, instead of importing.
The sync hangs, when cancelled this is the error message window. However it is an unknown error. It would be good to display some errors to be able to track down the source of the problem...

The videos are mostly taken by Samsung Galaxy J5, so a kind of standard format...

Report · Sep 26, 2020

Check if you have any third-party plugins installed in the MediaCore library (don't know where to look for them on Windows, on my Mac it is in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore. I had the GoPro Reframe and Insta360Importer plugins installed and was seeing the same symptoms. Removing them resolved all issues for me.

Report · Nov 17, 2020

Ahh!!! Thank you Stephan! This solved my video importing problem!

Report · Apr 12, 2021

Thank you Stephen@BanfieldAgency_mantler - that's been doing my head in! Worked a treat.