P: Export & Import failing/crashing when Video is present

[Immaculens]

Hello, since Lrc 14/14.01 I have not been able to import images from a favourite Win 10 folder.

Its where I keep all my misc stuff I download from the net, etc. 

Its called "Downloads & Software".

I try to import a jpeg and the progress bar on the top left just hangs there doing nothing.

I can import images from other folders.

I just created a new folder called 'New Folder' - and cut everything from with "Downloads and Software" and pasted it inside "New Folder".

I tried to import a jpeg and the progress bar on the top left just hangs there doing nothing.

So there is an issue that it does not want to import from the root folder - yet it imports images from subfolders.

Conversely - if I go to the root of New Folder - select an image and right-click and choose "Open With - Lightroom Classic" - it again shows the import progress bar but it just hangs.

I just put "New Folder"  into another folder - and tried to import from the root of New Folder - and I cannot.

No matter what I name that folder - or - if I cut all contents and paste into another folder - I cannot import from the root folder.

EDIT: see reply below about video files

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography: Please merge with this thread about importing video on Windows 10:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-import-fails-when-it-encounters-a-corrupt-vi...

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography: Please merge with this thread about importing video on Windows 10:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-import-fails-when-it-encounters-a-corrupt-vi...

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography: Please merge with this thread about importing video on Windows 10:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-import-fails-when-it-encounters-a-corrupt-vi...

[John R Ellis]

There's a bug in LR 14 / Windows 10 that prevents it from importing video and importing photos from folders containing video. The only workaround is the one you discovered: Move the videos out of the folders containing the photos you want to import.  There is no known workaround for importing videos directly, though you could use the Any File plugin if you want to continue managing videos in your LR catalog.

Adobe has not yet acknowledged this issue.

[John R Ellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography: Please merge with this thread about importing video on Windows 10:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-import-fails-when-it-encounters-a-corrupt-vi...

[John R Ellis]

@Rikk Flohr: Photography: Please consider moving to Bugs. As you can see from all the threads I've identified, there are many reports about LR 14 / Windows 10 hanging when it tries to import from a folder containing video. Some of the people have confirmed they have Windows 10 22H2 as specified in the system requirements. 

[dieter_2742]

@John R Ellisyou wrote "Adobe has not yet acknoledged the issue" ... I am wondering how to cope with this situation ... with your understanding of the problems encountered by many people and your history with Adobe products, what is your gut feeling on this topic:

• is it certain that the problem (with importing video files) only occurs on win 10 systems but everything works fine on win 11?
• in similar sitatuions in the past - has Adobe ever acknoledged such a kind of bug or will we just have to wait and see for their next update (14.0.2)? And what was the cadence of Adobe making such updates available, i.e. what is a likely date range for such an update?

My reasons for asking for your assessment might be shared by quite some others in this channel:

• I want to include video files, the current situation breaks my workflow, this is extremely inconvenient
• With Adobe neither providing a fix nor an ETA for a fix I have to evaluate other options but none of them seem great for me:
  • downgrading to 14.0 (is this possible at all, how?)
  • switch to a different tool (I like lightroom classic and have lots of meta data in LRC, this would be a major impact - depending on the migration options of the new tooling alternative)
  • upgrade to Windows 11 (although my current HW is more than adequate for my tasks (5TB SSD, 32 GB main memory, good graphic card) the system cannot be upgraded to Win 11 without hassles (e.g. no TPM) - so I would have to acquire new HW just to cope with Adobe not fixing a regression they have introduced with 14.0.1 ... . But when I would go that path, I would probably want to use Black Friday offerings which means I would have to do this decision fast ...

[John R Ellis]

@dieter_2742,

With problems like this, in which some people experience an issue and most don't, it can be hard to file a bug report that is easy for the Adobe developers to reproduce. So usually there's a delay until enough people post about it that Adobe prioritizes an investigation. I noticed yesterday that there at least four separate threads about the issue, so getting them merged is the first step in helping Adobe recognize the actual scale of the problem.

"is it certain that the problem (with importing video files) only occurs on win 10 systems but everything works fine on win 11?"

It's not certain, but it seems like it. When scanning all the relevant threads, it seems like nearly everyone was mentioning Windows 10. There are a couple of "I have the same issue" posts mixed in, where in fact they likely don't have the same issue.

I tried reproducing the problem on my Windows 11 test machine but couldn't. Unfortunately, I no longer have a workable Windows 10 virtual machine, since Apple and Microsoft decided not to support Windows 10 VMs on Apple Silicon Macs.

There is some evidence that the root cause might be with older CPUs that don't support Intel's Advanced Vector Extensions 2(AVX2), which the most recent version of the "dynamiclinkediaserver.exe" component might require. Such older computers are more likely to be running Windows 10. But this is far from conclusive.

"in similar situations in the past - has Adobe ever acknowledged such a kind of bug or will we just have to wait and see for their next update (14.0.2)? And what was the cadence of Adobe making such updates available, i.e. what is a likely date range for such an update?"

How Adobe has addressed "similar" such problems in the past is highly variable -- it depends on the number of people they judge affected, whether large enterprise licensees are complaining, the engineering cost of addressing it, any public-relations costs -- all the number of factors a product manager and engineering manager would take into consideration in prioritizing their limited resources.

The first step is for Adobe to acknowledge the issue, move this thread into the Bugs section, and mark it as "Investigating".

Factors that might affect this issue:

- The problem might be in the component "dynamiclinkmediaserver.exe", which is shared among several Adobe apps and most likely maintained within a different group within Adobe. That group has its own priorities that it likely perceives differently than the LR Classic team. It's often common in large companies that problems that cross team boundaries are difficult to get prioritized in a way that makes the most sense for all the teams and the company as a whole.

- Windows 10 dies October 14, 2025, less than a year from now, at which point Microsoft stops officially supporting it. So that will influence Adobe's prioritization. I think it's likely that the Creative Cloud apps will stop officially supporting Windows 10 next October when LR 15 comes out.

- If the issue is indeed with older CPUs or with Windows 10 and "dynamiclinkmediaserver.exe", I wouldn't be surprised if it takes many weeks or months for Adobe to acknowledge the problem, as the problem works its way through inefficient inter-team processes.

- Video has always been LR's stepchild. It was introduced with very limited features in LR 3 as part of LR's evolution towards being a general-purpose digital asset manager. It was enhanced and robustified a bit in LR 4, but since then it has received very little attention. When the LR Cloud was introduced with LR Classic 7, Adobe publicly stated that they would focus most of their LR Classic efforts on Develop and image quality, and since then they've been true to their word.

"downgrading to 14.0 (is this possible at all, how?)"

That's easy -- see here for how to roll back to earlier versions:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/roll-back-update-previous/ 

Another workaround is to use my Any File plugin for cataloging your videos. That would let you apply metadata and search for them, but you couldn't apply LR's limited editing.  You would play the videos by using Any File's Open command to open them in the Windows default video player. On my Mac, I have it assigned to Ctrl O.  Over the years, video playback within LR has always been problematic, even on newer computers, so I've always played them with the default Mac and Windows players.

But as a plugin, Any File will never be as convenient as having a well-functioning built-in feature.

[KSNelson]

It also occurs on WIndows 11 ARM64 machines as far as I am concerned!

[KSNelson]

It is also a bug for WIndows 11 devices!

[paull25390019]

I've managed to fix my import issue by creating a new catalog and importing all my images and video into it. The option to play video in loupe mode is back and I can import videos again. The only problen is I lost most of my keyword tags! The keywords are there but not linked to the images, very frustrating and I hope there is an easy fix.

[John R Ellis]

"I've managed to fix my import issue by creating a new catalog and importing all my images and video into it. ... I lost most of my keyword tags! The keywords are there but not linked to the images"

By default, the assignment of keywords to photos and videos is stored in the catalog proper only.  So when you imported them into a new catalog, they wouldn't come along with the import. But you can go back to the original catalog, select all photos, and do Metadata > Save Metadata To File, which writes all your keywords (and other metadata, including Develop settings) to the photo files (if they're non-raw) or to .xmp sidecars (if they're raw). Then go back to the new catalog, select all photos, and do Metadata > Read Metadata From File. This will read in all of the saved metadata into the new catalog for photos (but not videos, which Adobe never implemented). 

Alternatively, you might try going back to the original catalog, selecting all photos and videos, and doing File > Export As Catalog and then opening the exported catalog. That sometimes is effective at fixing catalog issues.  And as a third alternative, create a new empty catalog and do File > Import From Another Catalog and select everything from the original catalog. That too can fix sometimes fix catalog issues and sometimes gives different results than Export As Catalog.

[joebelfiore86]

Issue:  I have a set of images (and a few videos) that I shot with a Canon R6 in RAW.    I can't get them to import to Lightroom Classic,

Lightroom Classic version: 14.0.1 [ 202410161356-30922cfc ]

Windows PC:  brand new "Copilot PC" running Snapdragon ARM chip

Operating system: Windows 11 - Enterprise Edition

(FULL SYSTEM INFO in attached file)

Scenario 1 - SD Card -- Steps to reproduce

- shot photos on camera

- attached to laptop with USB dongle

RESULT: import hung trying to copy images to the PC.   

Notes 

- I tried two different USB dongles, same issue

- had no problem copying the files using File Exporer

Scenario 2 - Import from Hard drive - Steps to reproduce

- after copying the images from SD using file exporer...

- in LR Classic Import dialog, choose the folder where these are stored and select import, with "Show IMport dialog"

- in Import dialog... select a subset of the photos, hit import

RESULT: import hung trying to copy images to the PC.   

[joebelfiore86]

UPDATE -- I think it may be related to the video files.

In attempts above, I UNSELECTED the video files in the import dialog and tried to import without them... got the same failure.

I just MOVED the video files to a different folder and tried again -- and now import is working successfully for the RAW image files.

Possibly the same issue as this - P: Import fails when it encounters a corrupt video... - Adobe Community - 14966131

[Eliz5C6D]

I'm having the same issue with no end of frustration figured out it is videos. my search led me here so I wanted you to know at one other person is having this issue (and I did not before). opening any .mov or .mp4 in Lightroom 13 or 14 crashes.

[AlekRB]

Hi @Eliz5C6D,

I understand how frustrating this is. How long has this issue been happening? Did it start after an update? If you haven't done so yet, next time it happens I suggest sending a Crash Report so we can look at the issue closer.

In the meantime, here are some standard troubleshooting steps for Lightroom Classic crashes: https://adobe.ly/3VDy87B. Please try these and let me know if any of them help. Thanks a lot!

Alek

[Graig27230921dbmx]

It started the day I upgraded to LR14.

I've been over all this several times with supports, and yes, I have sent
in Crash Reports.

Your colleague's response was "we can't replicate this, so it must be your
system", but lo and behold plenty of other people are reporting the same
thing and in some cases the same lousy response.

Instead, Adobe's engineers need to be looking at any changes to video file
handling and especially/specifically previewing between LR13 and LR14,
because that's the logical place to look when everything is fine in LR13
and everything is totally borked in LR14.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

@Graig27230921dbmx 

Have you updated to 14.1 or 14.1.1 yet? 
I see no crash reports under either version. 

I would recommend updating to 14.1.1
Recreate your Crash
Fill out the Adobe Crash Report
Screenshot it
Submit the report
Post the screenshot in your reply.

Thanks

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

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