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.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

yep same here been exporting to a folder on my Windows 10 laptop's desktop for over a year now. And 8.3 has just killed that.  In fact it will not export at all.  "major fail!" Adobe needs to start testing their updates better before rolling them out to the masses.  

[Samoreen]

Same problem here with nuances...

I tried to export an image to a folder of my Synology NAS and I got the "not writable" error. However, I tried again with the "Export with previous" command and this time the export succeeded (as well as subsequent exports to the same NAS folder be they triggered with or without the "Export with previous" command).

Then I tried to export to another NAS folder and this time, I got the "not writable" error when selecting the folder, not when actually exporting. I repeated the test under control of Process Monitor and I observed that when trying to open the NAS folder specified in the "Choose folder" dialog, LR immediately tried to open C:\Windows\CSC\v2.0.6\namespace\MYNAS (MYNAS being... my NAS). The CSC folder contains all the files that have been made available offline. However, this feature is disabled on my system. By default, the CSC folder can't be opened in File Explorer. You must take ownership to do that. I did this just to verify whether the MYNAS subfolder existed there. It didn't.

I could see that LR stubbornly tried and tried again to access this non existing offline NAS folder until it decided to issue the error message.

Well, obviously, something has been broken in 8.3 (not only that since I can no longer run LR unless as an administrator). No doubt that the development team has a source archiving tool allowing to easily compare the source code for 2 different versions. Finding what has been changed in this area shouldn't take that much time.

Yet another well tested release...

[Samoreen]

Additional information : I'm accessing my NAS using UNC names. It is not mapped to a drive letter.

Should I add that my synchronization utility (SyncBack) writes data on a daily basis, using UNC names, to the NAS folders to which I'm trying to export from LR ? No problem. So the problem is with LR, not with our systems.

[Samoreen]

Rikk,

> If it works - great

No, it's not great. This would not help fixing the bug. I encourage everyone to read this thread :

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/reset-your-preferences-moving-from-the-magic-...

[Smit K]

Hi All,

Please share the Screenshot of the Securities tab from the Folder Properties using the File Explorer for the folder where you are facing this issue. Please select your user for the same.

See below for a sample


Thanks,
Smit

[Samoreen]

> We are still struggling to reproduce this issue on our test machines and Victoria has graciously attempted to repro as well.

I'm wondering why similar situations occur that often. Many users have an obvious problem that they can reproduce at will and that problem can't be reproduced at Adobe. Maybe it would be interesting to obtain information about Adobe's test systems configuration ? Hardware, software, preference file, etc. This way, we could try to find a difference between our systems and yours. Adobe tend to explain this by suggesting that the affected users have special configurations, unhealthy systems or corrupted files. I can't believe this, especially when the problems are only related to Adobe products.

There's something very strange, indeed. Each time a new bug appears, most of the time a part of the users are hit and another part is unaffected. And most often, Adobe testers belong to the first category. Having information about how and on which systems tests are made at Adobe could help determine what's different.

Giving access to the bug tracking system could also help, I guess. We should have access to a list of currently acknowledged bugs and have the possibility to me-too them, to add information about our configuration, etc. This would also give a more accurate idea about what Adobe are actually doing regarding reported bugs (especially when bugs have been reporting since years and are still not fixed). Transparency about this is in order, I think. Especially because the code quality is obviously decreasing since a while.

[Smit K]

Hi All,

Please share the Screenshot of the Securities tab from the Folder Properties using the File Explorer for the folder where you are facing this issue. Please select your user for the same.

See below for a sample


Also, meanwhile, could you try a potential workaround for the issue mentioned in this help doc: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/error_export_folder.html

Thanks,
Smit

[Smit K]

Hi All,

Please share the Screenshot of the Securities tab from the Folder Properties using the File Explorer for the folder where you are facing this issue. Please select your user for the same.

See below for a sample


Thanks,
Smit

[Smit K]

Hi All,

Please share the Screenshot of the Securities tab from the Folder Properties using the File Explorer for the folder where you are facing this issue. Please select your user for the same.

See below for a sample


Also, meanwhile, could you try a potential workaround for the issue mentioned in this help doc: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/error_export_folder.html

Thanks,
Smit

[Samoreen]

Smit,

This property dialog is irrelevant when the folder is located on a NAS accessed using UNC names, which seems to be the case for many affected users. In that case, the listed permissions are related to NAS users, not to Windows users. When accessing NAS resources from Windows, a user must logon with the NAS credentials, at least the first time. Then the permissions specified on the NAS apply. It seems that there's a problem with this when LR tries to access these resources.

[Samoreen]

Well, the problem is new with version 8.3. It doesn't occur with version 8.2.1. Just compare the source files, spot the changes related to network management and that's it. There are not that much changes in 8.3. This shouldn't take too much time to find the differences.

[hendeltom]

Why? It used to work in the previous version. And almost nobody, who reports that problem here, has changed anything on the side of the NAS or anything else regarding image folders. Me included. Sorry for the german directness :-), but it should not be that hard to figure out the code changes in the context of accessing the export folder. You can safely assume that the other end (the target folder) was not changed at all.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Adobe have identified this as a "bug" so I dont understand why we are being asked for so much more information. It does not work. Once again a new release has broken the software for many people. Perhaps its related to W10 Pro and W10 Home as well as there are differences. Has anyone thought it may be related to UAC which people can have set differently. Either way this cant be too hard to figure out as Patrick has said, just look at the source differences. I am assuming that Adobe has a source repository and staging system to ensure you can go back and see the changes. I hope so. One would wonder with the number of bugs that get released. Amazing how much quicker other software runs without bugs aye....

[Samoreen]

> I am assuming that Adobe has a source repository and staging system to ensure you can go back and see the changes.

Sometimes, I'm really wondering.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

It's not just Adobe's test system specs that you'd need, but the machines of a whole load of beta testers too. 

When Adobe says they're struggling to reproduce it, they're not blaming user's systems, but trying to figure out what is different. 

27 reports (so far) is a tiny percentage of the installed users, even if only 1 in 100 actually reported their problem, which means Adobe's looking for a needle in a haystack. It's faster to look for similarities across 27 systems than to compare all the things it might not be.

[Samoreen]

Agreed. But having information about Adobe's test machines would allow this tiny percentage of users to compare their systems with systems where Adobe claim to not have any problem. Each affected user could do that.

As of beta testing, I don't see Lightroom on this page. Did I miss something ?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm having the same issue.  However, importing to my Synology NAS is not a problem.  I will try the workaround when I get back home.  My suspicion is that it has to do with the upgrade, combined with Synology and Windows 10.  It's a very particular issue, it would seem to me, which may explain why Adobe can't replicate it.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Victoria Bampton - Lightroom Queen, this bug has been reported on another forum as well:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2622582

Adobe must have acknowledged this as a bug as they have posted a work around under their help section?

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/error_export_folder.html

[Samoreen]

Following this with Process Monitor demonstrates that for the very same operation (selecting a destination folder) there are 2 different paths in the code. When specifying the folder before exporting, LR tries to directly access the folder (\\MYNAS\Images in my case). When using the "Choose folder later" option, LR opens \\MYNAS\PIPE\srvsvc ??

2 different routines for executing the very same simple operation : not good. Beside uselessly duplicating code, if you have to fix something in one routine you'll usually forget to do the same in the other.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I've received and added the link to our internal tracking issue. Please leave it in place for a week to ensure that our engineers have downloaded.

Thanks

[jamesw23922726]

Rikk,
I am running W10 and use a Synology NAS and became aware of the issue only accidentally while reading Victoria's newsletter.  I was about to update from 8.1 to the latest version, but am now holding off for resolution of this issue.

Why has Adobe not notified we users of the issue directly?  It concerns me that I have to search around various newsletters and websites to find out that there is a problem with the software.  As software is created by humans we know there will be errors.  It is what we humans do.  That there are errors is unfortunate, that we are not told of them -- well, see how Boeing is doing with it's 737 MAX issues or review Richard Nixon's experiences of coverups being worse than the crime.  Sure we will complain about what you could have/should have done, but Adobe not telling us will enrage us.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

@James Wall

At this point, we are tracking this as an internal issue but not as a bug as it has not be reproduced by development, quality engineering or our Lightroom Champions on this forum.

This forum is the official place to get information and will be updated if and when we can reproduce and identify the source of the issue. 

Note that it is not affecting all users. 

[Jason_NZ]

Just to help clarify, I'm trying to export to a Synology NAS drive.  It worked perfectly before V8.3, but will not work at all now.  I can export to my desktop and cut and paste to the NAS so I do not believe its a security issue on my system, rather than a bug in Lightroom.

Thanks

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Hey James. As Rikk says, it's not affecting everyone. I still can't reproduce it. I only flagged it up as a possible issue so anyone affected would know where to come for information - and a workaround has since been found and posted in this thread. You may not be affected, and if you are, both the workaround and/or rolling back to a previous version are both very easy.

[jamesw23922726]

...and the Boeing 737 MAX issue only affected two flights.  It's not the frequency, it's the impact on those affected.

The reported issue does have a material adverse impact on anyone upgrading to 8.3 using W10 and a NAS who would like to export a file.  At a minimum (you do better than the minimum at Adobe, right?) during the upgrade process you should be flagging it as a potential issue for those who use a NAS.  No NAS, no problem. 

We are waiting for you to decide what the reported issue really is and a fix before we make a terrible muddle of our work.  Meanwhile, we are missing out on the new 8.3 features.  This is very powerful software, and with that power comes complexity.  While we love the software, some of us are just hanging on by our teeth.

Thanks for letting me know this is the official source on such issues.  I did not know about it before, but not sure I could find it again for a new issue that I don't know exists (an unknown unknown).  I think you need greater proactivity.