Can not view or import video in Lightroom

Report · Aug 03, 2013

Hi

I have a problem with my PC. I cannot view or import video in Lightroom.

I have tried both Lightroom 4.4 and 5, with same results.

I have video in these formats: mts, mov and mp4, and they all have the same problem.

I properly have done some "adjustments" of my PC, but cannot find out what has caused the problem.

(It worked before I left for holidays, but not any more...)

Do you have any suggestion what I should do?

Description:

In the Import window, I see this message "Preview is unavailable for this file".

After I press Import, I get this message: "Video support is disable"

For those movies already importer, I can move the cursor over the movie, and view "fast replay" of the movie. However, the play button do not show.

Pressing spacebar only zoom. As do double-click.

I can view the videos using QucikTime or Media Player.

I am using Windows 8 64 bit.

bjarne

Report · Aug 21, 2013

I'm using LR5 on Windows 7 64 bit SP1, and I can no longer import MP4 and MOV videos. "An unknown error has occurred while reading the video file. Connecting to Dynamic Link server failed. (4)"

Video files previously imported in Lightroom 4.3 display commands to play the video, but they're dysfunctional. An error message shows at the top of the screen, "There was an error working with the video."

Thank you.

Lena

Report · Aug 21, 2013

After reading other posts, I realized I'd not rebooted my computer after upgrading to LR5. In the process of closing down and rebooting a message popped up to the effect that LR5 need to run in compatibility mode, and that Windows would fix the issue.

Now everything is working!

Lena

Report · Aug 22, 2013

The problem is back. After closing LR last night I reopened it today and attempted to import more videos. Again the "Connecting toi Dynamic Link server failed" message and every single video rejected.

Error message today:

An unknown error has occurred while reading the video file. Connecting to Dynamic Link server failed. (42)

Formats: MOV, MPG, and 3GP (cellphone)

Could start working again if I reboot, but this is very clearly a bug.

Thanks.

Report · Oct 03, 2013

Just chiming in: I'm having the same problem with LR 5.2 on my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.8.5). Restarting LR has no effect; rebooting the computer results in the ability to import video files, but not to play them back -- and after a failed playback attempt, new video files can no longer be imported until the machine is restarted again.

I strongly suspect that something has been broken in 5.2.

Report · Oct 03, 2013

Since upgrading to v5.2 I also can't import video files anymore (MOV, MP4) on my Win 7 64bits.

What's more, a folder containing movies that I once imported in LR now shows as empty (0 files)!

What is going on? I might uninstall LR and reinstall v5.1 but I have made use of the new Noise Reduction in some pictures...

Report · Dec 16, 2013

I have started having the same problems with both .MOV and .AVI files. Mac Pro, OX X 10.9, Lightroom 5.2. This has to resolve soon - I have a large video project to prepare for a client and suddenly I am having to develop a work-around to even look at the files prior to editing in Final Cut. Grrrrrr. Telling the client, 'sorry, the Adobe product that I relied on to do initial prep is no longer reliable' just doesn't cut it - they don't care, they want their product!

Report · Dec 17, 2013

Just completed the update to LR 5.3 and that solved all the problems. Back to work.

Report · Jan 06, 2014

I too am having trouble trying to import *.Mov video files into my LightRoom 5.3 catalog. It can find the files when I select them on the first press of 'Import' and it displays thumbnails with just an icon of a Cine camera on them. If I now press 'Import' again LightRoom displays a Message "Copy and Import Photos" above a progress bar at the top left of the screen. The progress bar moves about half way along then stops and if I wait quite a while a Message Window appears in the middle of the screen with the message "An unknown error has occurred while reading the video file. Connecting to Dynamic Link server failed. (3)". No matter what I try I cannot get beyond this point.

Report · Jan 06, 2014

Until someone comes up with a better answer all I can advise is to uninstall LR, restart your computer and reinstall. Note: it may very well be necessary to repest this several times!

Report · Feb 12, 2014

Has anyone at Adobe acknowledged this problem yet?

I am having the same issue in LR 5.3 on mac os x (10.9.1), when trying to import video files from my iphone 5 (os 7.0.4). The strange thing is that all of the videos up to a particular capture date import fine, but then after that date, none of the video files will import.

I can import the videos fine into iPhoto '11 (9.5.1), but then when I copy the .mov files out of my iphoto library and try to import them to my LR catalog using the move or copy command, I get the same 'Dynamic Link server" error.

Has anyone confirmed that this is a Quicktime conflict? Apparently, some Windows users have found success uninstalling and reinstalling Quicktime, but that's not a simple process for mac.

Frustrating. I'm curious what all of you who have been reporting this problem for several months are doing now? Did you give up, find a work around, or is there some fix I'm missing?

Thanks.

Report · Feb 13, 2014

Hi kevinnak. I had the same problem (see my earlier post) I cracked it when I studied the error message ' Dynamic Link server error'. I realised LightRoom was trying to access some software and was being prevented. I thought that the only thing that was causing the prevention was my ZoneAlarm Firewall. I then went into ZonelAlarm and looked for "Dynamic Link" and lo and behold it was set to prevent external access so I changed its settings to Allow external access. When I returned to LightRoom and tried to import video files it performed the operation with no trouble. Hope this helps. If you are useing some other Firewall you will have to look for such settings and make the changes.

Report · Feb 13, 2014

@dennisp28: thanks for your reply. I'm having the problem on my Mac, so I don't have any add-on firewall or security programs, and the only new software I've installed recently is Gopro Studio. The weird thing, though, is that the problem arose during an iphone import session where I imported nearly a thousand photos and videos, and most of the videos imported fine; only the last 20-30 or so failed, and attempts to individually import these particular videos also fails.

I'm wondering if maybe something on my iphone changed, on the date where the first video failed? An OS upgrade or something? I'll have to look into that. The videos behave normally on my iphone, and like I said before, I can import them into iPhoto, just not LR.

Maybe I'll try uninstalling Gopro Studio. Not sure if that accesses dynamic link server? I don't even know what dynamic link server is!

Anyway, thanks again for the suggestion. Maybe it will help some windows users.

Report · Feb 13, 2014

I was having the same problem of not being able to import .mov files to Lightroom 5 on Mac OS x 10.9.1. I was getting the same 'dynamic link server failed' message. I read all the comments here and then in frustration shutdown and restarted my Mac. Magic! It works for me now. I know this is not a real 'technical' solution but thought I would pass it on because I have been able to import six .mov files just fine since shuting down and restarting.

My Mac acts more like my old Windows computer with every passing day.......

Report · Jan 18, 2016

HarrieB schrieb:

Until someone comes up with a better answer all I can advise is to uninstall LR, restart your computer and reinstall. Note: it may very well be necessary to repest this several times!

yeah of course.... rotfl....

Report · May 31, 2014

To all those having issues with importing Video to Lightroom... I was having the same issue UNTIL I tried this. When importing, do it through the camera you shot the video on. keep the memory card in the camera, switch it to Video and import. This worked for me!

Report · Dec 25, 2015

25Dec15

After having this same problem with Lr 5.7, and reading all this and other google answers I found something that worked for me.

Lr 5.7 running on macbookpro OS 10.7.5 (I know, way out of date operating system). I can't recall at what point Lr stopped importing my videos. Maybe with v5.7. I don't import a lot of videos.

I opened System Preferences, went to Security and Privacy, unlocked it and added Lr 5 to the list allowing communication through the firewall.

I'm not sure if rebooting was necessary, but I did.

Voilà, now importing my iphone mov files goes without a hitch.

I'm not sure what one would need to do on a Windows system, but having a go at firewall permissions seems logical.

Report · Jan 18, 2016

i have the same problem with LR CC.

and i don´t expect that adobe will ever fix these issues.

they can add VIDEO SUPPORT to their feature list that is all they care about.

if it actually works.. who cares .. sure nobody at adobe.

since adobe as "support" for videos i have issues with it.

common formats won´t be recognized.

LR CC is just stalling when importing videos.... it´s a sad joke.

there is no error message or anything.. it´s just stalling.

Report · Mar 01, 2016

I have the same problem. I've been digging back into the forums and ADOBE has no answers for a continuing problem.

Report · Mar 01, 2016

LR does work for video. It may not work on some computers with all types of video files, but it is not completely broken! I use it regularly for AVCHD/mts/m2ts and 4K/MP4 footage from Panasonic and Sony cameras. I use Lightroom CC 2015.4 and import from SD cards in a card slot.

I had a problem during 2015.3 that was fixed by replacing some .dll files. The udate to 2014.4 had the correct .dll files.

There are a lot of video formats and sources. Even with software that is primarily for video, there can be trouble with the variety of sources.

Report · Jul 19, 2020

It won't import mp4 files and videos shot on an iphone. Pretty standard stuff and I don't see an answer here in the forum other than Adobe hasn't fixed this. I tried changing the firewall settings as someone suggested, but still get the error.

Report · Mar 25, 2016

I am on a Mac, LR is not importing videos, it seems it cannot even see them to import

Report · Mar 25, 2016

10greenmen wrote:

I am on a Mac, LR is not importing videos, it seems it cannot even see them to import

Have a look here....

Report · Mar 26, 2016

26March2016

I'd forgotten the fix to this, as I rarely do videos. Had to do it with Lr5.7 importing videos from my iphone and today ran into the dynamic link server failure notice when importing a video from my fuji xt1.

Went to my mac's Sys Prefs and turned off firewall.

Went back and the video from my camera imported just fine. Then back to Sys Prefs and turned my firewall protection back on.

Report · Mar 29, 2016

Thanks, johng44721896, will test