P: Import fails when it encounters a corrupt video file

[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

[dieter_2742]

After I upgraded Lightroom Classic to 14.0.1 , I encountered the problem that I can no longer import any video to LightRoom Classic.

I got the problem down to the following test scenario:

- I have one folder with just one video file. The video has been recorded with a Google Pixel 6. It has an mp4 file extension and MediaInfo shows 

  - 1 video stream: HEVC - 20.7Mbps, 1920*1080 (16:9) at 30.000 fps, HEVC

  - 1 audio stream: AAC English, 192 Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 2 channels, AAC (LC)

- I successfully imported the same video file prior to the upgrade from a different folder

- when I use the import dialog I can see the file (it has a "selected" checkmark) and can specify into which collection to import to - however when I click on import just an empty progress bar is displayed in the upper left corner (it reads in german "Dateien am aktuellen Speicherort importieren" english translation might be something like "import to current location") of the screen but there is no progress at all ...

- The progress bar is not moving at all - when I click on the "x" to close the import I get a message box with an error message "no photos or videos found to import" ...

I upgraded camera raw to 17.0.1 (and rebooted) but this didn't change anything.

More details of my system:

Windows 10 Pro 22H2 with latest updates installed - installed in German

[moved from bugs to discussions according to the community rules - Mod.]

[GoldingD]

I upgraded camera raw to 17.0.1 (and rebooted) but this didn't change anything.

Why?

[GoldingD]

Their appears to be an issue with LrC v14.0.1 and Video files. Many members are having issues in Import if a video file exists in the source. Solution for that is to move the video file to a different source, then import the stills. But as to solving importing a video, apparently all fouled up.

Solution???

[mothra9999]

It is a plugin to sync metadata (needed at one point to resolve a catalog probelm I had): https://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/jbeardsworth/syncomatic/

I have removed it and the issue remains the same.

[mikec85665078]

I have found that lightroom doesn't like gif's.  It seems to get hung on them and stops.  I have painstakenly converted all of them to .jpg or .png's and have had some luck on not freezing up after that.

[Jack_Lee2659]

My folder does not contain GIF's.

[Jack_Lee2659]

I turned out import does not like MOV files.  If there's one in the folder, it hangs the import process.

[dieter_2742]

No special reason - as Camera Raw is used by Lightroom Classic and there was no update for LRC 14.0.1 itself, I  just upgraded Camera Raw to check whether it would make any difference ...

[F. McLion]

Lightroom does not use CameraRaw. It has its own version integrated.

[Bill Sprague]

It is a plugin to sync metadata (needed at one point to resolve a catalog probelm I had): https://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/jbeardsworth/syncomatic/

I have removed it and the issue remains the same.

By @mothra9999

Go to this link and type in "Agent".   Be patient.  Sometimes it is fast and sometimes they are busy.

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen

[burkhardh]

Yes indeed that solved my problem as well. Moving all mp4 files to a different folder and than the import works.

It's a workaround yes, but it's a pity that this takes so long to get fixed. Because it's significant extra work to get all the mp4 back into the correct folders afterwards.... Hoping Adobe can fix this soon. Thank you all for your help with this.!!

[innovative_Rocket15A8]

With 14.0.1. I now cannot Import (move) pictures and videos as before. Many hours later....Removing the MOV and MP4 files from the source folder seems to be a workaround and pictures (jpg, heic) import as before. 

Symptoms:

When attempting an import it will count the number of files to import. On the Import preview screen it will show the first few thumbnails untill it encounters the first video, thereafter just gray placehoplder boxes with file names. In bottom left corner messge shows "Loading dates...". At this point is is effectively hung, but for fact you can Cancel to get out. Even after a few hours there is no progress, and it never displays to which folder it will import the files to.

[KR Seals]

Take a look at this thread in this forum. It may be the same issue.

And this one, too.

[bpmurray]

Since I returned from a break with some 600 pics that I wanted to process, I found major issues with importing them. Typically I use Nikon's tools to import them to disk in folders by date, and then use LrC to import them in situ into the catalog. However, I found that the import process was hanging, so I tried importing them from each individual date folder. Some went well but some just wouldn't play ball. I have finally identified the issue: if there's an MP4 file in the folder, LrC just stops when it gets to it. I verified this by moving the MP4 files out of the problematic folders and the import just breezed through.

• The OS is Windows 10 Pro 22H2, build 19045.5131
• LrC version 14.0.1, build 202410161356-30922cfg
• The camera model is a Nikon D3300, recording both JPEG and NEF

[bpmurray]

Just to clarify, by "import" I mean using the import function with move or copy or add, as well as using synchronise.

[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]

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.