P: Issues exporting photos to a Network Drive

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Since I upgraded to V8.3 of Lightroom Classic I can no longer export my files to our Synology Network System, I get the following error message "The specified folder in not writable"

After contacting support they were not able to resolve my issue, they maintained that it is a network issue on my side. I could not find any answers here or anywhere on the internet and decided to report this issue.

Because I share my processed photos with the rest of the office, my only solution was to un-install V8.3 and go back to V8.2.1, by doing that it resolved my problem.

So yes Adobe you have network issues in V8.3 as version 8.2.1 works perfectly when saving files to a network drive.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

A really long shot, but how are you selecting that folder path? For example, is that a preset? Or are you selecting it from the pop-up? Or are you clicking the Choose button?

[maryh19600613]

It isn’t a preset. It was the previous folder that I had exported to via the Choose button This method of exporting worked on all other versions of Lightroom until this version. I now follow the work around method to export after spending a lot of time thinking that my hard drives had suddenly become read only. I tried to export to multiple drives and my desktop using my normal method and got the failure notice.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

If you were to manual select that folder (rather than it being the previous folder), does that work? That could be just the clue we need.

[maryh19600613]

Nope, tried that. I have tried selecting a different file from the little down arrow.I tried reselecting the folder completely. I shut down Lightroom and my laptop completely. The Specific Folder option is what appears to be failing me.

[calyth]

My computer has a SSD as C:, an old fasioned HD as D:, and a network drive on Z:

I tried creating a new folder under Z:, and LR 8.3 still refuses to export.

It was able to export to a folder under D:

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Greetings all,

We are still struggling to reproduce this issue on our test machines and Victoria has graciously attempted to repro as well. We have an issue logged with engineering and are tracking this trying to find a repro case so we can get a fix in your hands quickly. 

One thing I've noticed here is that no one has mentioned resetting preferences. Normally preference issues are a one-off type of thing but in the absence of reproducible steps I am going to ask that you try a reset of your preference file and see if something shakes loose.  If it works - great, if not, we've checked a box on the troubleshooting chart and look elsewhere for the source of the issue. 

A Preference File will survive a Lightroom uninstall/reinstall. Sometimes weird behavior is corrected/cured by resetting the preferences. 

Reset Procedure:

1. Close Lightroom.
2. Hold down [Alt/Opt]+[Shift] while restarting Lightroom. 
3. Overwrite the Preferences when prompted by the dialog.
4. Close Lightroom.
5. Restart Lightroom.

Are you able to export normally after resetting the preferences?

[calyth]

I didn't do a full reset. I tried restoring the export settings to default, somewhere in the settings menu to no avail.

[askoldk38466403]

I did the reset - the problem the same

[OldGuy51]

Victoria, From further testing, the issue appears to be with folder permissions. The windows user account I use has full control over the target folder but 'Everyone' is limited to List, Read & Execute and Read. Changing 'Everyone' to 'Full control', then Lr 8.3.1 does not display the write protected error and successfully creates the image files. I do not recommend changing the folder access permissions for 'Everyone' as a solution to the writable issue. The way Lr is acting would lead me to look at the Lr code related to accessing folders to make sure the code is using the logged in user account and not a general account for the access. Running Lr as the administrator also encounters the writable error which should not happen. BTW, the writable error does not occur when I export to the pictures folder on the PC hard drive. The writable error occurs when using the NAS mapped drive.

[yvondaigle]

For me it does not work on both, PC and NAS. Work only on original directory files.

[GoldingD]

Did you follow the directions for a reset? Or did you just enter Preferences, and changed options to defaults? Not the same.

[GoldingD]

Asked members yesterday about resetting preference file over at: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/26219..., re-asked today, bring this Adobe REP posting up. Have not gotten feedback att the a Forum discussion as to reset yay or nay.

[FrancoisCKX]

My result is nay.

[calyth]

@victoria Sent you an email. I triggered a coredump, basically a snapshot of the program state. It should be useful for the engineering team on trying to figure out the problem.

[maryh19600613]

The only export option that does not work is the export to a specific folder option. All other options in the drop down menu work for me.

I completed a preference reset as suggested and that did not correct the issue.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Same issue here. The suggestion of "choose folder later" worked for me

[Laura Shoe]

@avpman, I don't have direct experience with resetting the default Pictures folder, but I found this article with instructions.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

same issue here! I can no longer export to my folder on the C drive and I have DEFINETLY not changed anything in the Windows system! It renders Lightroom USELESS!

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Thanks Benton, I've forwarded it on.

[bobw1952]

Not experiencing this issue with my Synology NAS on a Mac.

[GoldingD]

Inquiry. catalog location, for those with the problem, is your catalog located in the default path:

C:\Users\[user name]\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcat. ?

mine is not, I do not have the problem.

not Adobe staff.

[maryh19600613]

Mine is not and I have the problem.

[Laura Shoe]

I'm sorry to hear that you have the same issue, Daniel. While Adobe is working on this there is an easy workaround: Instead of choosing  "Export to: Specific folder", choose "Export to: Choose folder later (useful for presets)" - regardless of whether you are creating a preset - and Lightroom will prompt you to choose a location after you click on Export. 

[owlhuang]

Just for the record. While this workaround works for Export, it doesn't for existing Publish Service.  And that impacts the workflow a lot. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I have a similar issue, but not just limited to export. Instead, I am using the Negative Lab Pro plugin and get this same error message whenever I try to use the plugin. The behavior is the same whether the image file is on my local C: drive or on an external hard drive. I also see this message when attempting to use an export preset that has the folder specified. No issues before the recent update.

I'm using Windows 10. I tried adding "Everyone" with Full Control to all folders within C:\Users\...\Pictures, but nothing changed.