Can't Import Photos - at all!

[Spiketrain]

Hi,

My Lightroom Classic has been behaving reasonably well until today. 

Now I can't import photos - at all.

When I select File/Import Photos and Video it just does nothing at all. No splash screen, no dialogue box... nothing. Here's what I've tried before I came to you guys:

1. I restarted the computer

2. I created a new Catalog with no photos from scratch... I did at least get this error when I did this:

So at least there was that.

I then went into the library folder and checked all permissions for all operators on this machine... IE me! - and I checked they were all set to read/write.

I restarted again and - just nothing.

I can't drag images into the thumbnail grid view from Finder.... and I can't.... well do anything else!

Everything else currently seems to work ok.

No new photos in my catalog... or any catalog for me!

[TheDigitalDog]

Try resetting your Lightroom preferences:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html

Also see: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/important-steps-for-manually-resetting-...

Quit Lightroom Classic.

macOS: Press and hold the Shift + Option keys.

Windows: Press and hold the Shift + Alt keys.

While holding down the keys, launch Lightroom Classic. 

When asked, select "Yes".  

[Spiketrain]

Thank you so much for replying. I have done this and it achieved nothing.

I can not import a single photo anywhere - the option is completely greyed out.

[John R Ellis]

Ensure LR is granted Full Disk Access (not Files And Folders) permission, as detailed here:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access...

Without Full Disk Access, LR can do all sorts of screwy things. Let us know whether that fixes the problem.

[Spiketrain]

Hi team... and thanks John. Here's an update today:

I ensured that LRC has full disk access. It does. It always has.

So here's what I did today:

I shut everything down and I opened the LRC catalog on my laptop instead of desktop (my entire catalog file architecture is saved to a SanDisk 4TB Extreme which I connected to the laptop first). Everything came up fine - and I can import images in this catalog on my laptop... yay! - So we're getting somewhere.

Back to my iMac and I unistalled LRC completely then reinstalled it. I checked disk access and all preferences were re-set. I then unplugged all my external drives (I have 8 or 9) and rebooted. Then I created a competely new catalog with no images in it. And I'm still unable to import. You can see it greyed out in this screenshot

So this is definately a tricky one! - There's something going on that I haven't considered... it looks like it's hardware related... but I can't be sure... what would it be, do you think, that would prevent this basic and intrinsic part of the app from activating at all? - I'm scuppered!

[DdeGannes]

From the screen capture the option "Import Photos and Video" is  available. What happens when you click on the option?

You should get the import dialog.

See the clip from your Screen capture.

[Spiketrain]

Hi @DdeGannes 

Thanks for taking the time to look into this for me... but if you look closely you'll see it's greyed out as I said. Nothing happens when I click it at all. 

[Spiketrain]

Oh... actually it isn't actually greyed out... (sorry thought it was!) - In any case.... nothing happens! - The option to import is completely turned off! - Never seen it before anywhere... and there don't appear to be any threads around with other people complaining about this... so it looks like I'm the only one in the world! 

[DdeGannes]

In the screenshot the window at the back shows you have selected All synced photographs. Could you move from there and select a folder in the Folders section.

I do not think it should matter but it looks strange to me.

[Spiketrain]

Hi @DdeGannes - I just tried this and a bunch of other things. It just doesn't do anything. There's no dialogue box opening, no change in the screen at all.... meanwhile, the rest of the app continues to work fine.

[Spiketrain]

If it's useful - here's a screencast video I recorded to demonstrate this phenomena in action.

https://capture.dropbox.com/QSaBDqoWBX7Ld4dx

[John R Ellis]

The screen recording does make it explicit what you were describing.  The original error:

"An internal error has occurred. AgPathUtils.getStandardFilePath: can't create directory at: /Users spiketrain/ Movies. Error message = %@"

continues to point the finger at some kind of permissions issue on that computer.  Here are next steps I can think of:

1. Do the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running.

2. Download and run this Adobe script to restore permissions:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-basic-troubleshooting-fix-most-issues.html#Us... 

That script won't change /Users/spiketrain/Movies, so you might edit the script to add it to the list of folders repaired, changing this line:

declare -a arr=( "Documents/Adobe/" "Library/Preferences/Adobe/" "Library/Caches/Adobe/" "Library/Application Support/Adobe/"  "Movies")

3. Create and log into a new admin-enabled account via System Settings > Users & Groups. Make a new test catalog and try to import photos. This will test if there is some other issue with your current account.

4. Do a clean uninstall and reinstall of all Creative Cloud apps, including the removal of LR preferences:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html 

[Spiketrain]

Thanks so much for these tips. I've tried some of them so far... a little hesitiant to wipe my entire Creative Cloud stuff off my machine since I have so many personal preferences and plugins etc. - So it'll be a horrible event to have to go through that.

Everything I've tried so far has been no help....

It really is an unusual one. Can't find anyone, anywhere else with this same issue. I have been able to import images by either using the same catalog on my laptop or the auto-import feature which does still work.

I'm really hampered with this. Every other menu and action inside LRC seems to be working fine.

[Spiketrain]

Well.... it seems as though everyone has left me! - I could really do with someone with a bit more internal knowledge of weird system hiccups like this. 
I'm not overly excited about the kind of solutions that suggest things like 'wipe everything you've ever seen from your machine then start entering raw code into it using deep programming language! - I actually just need the import photos button to work! 

[Ian Lyons]

At present, I'm as stumped as others. That being said, @John R Ellis asked that you provide a copy of your System Info. Can you provide this as John described below?

1. Do the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running.

[Spiketrain]

Thanks so much. Sorry, forgot to add that earlier.

Herewith now:

Lightroom Classic version: 12.3 [ 202304101834-a085245c ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-GB
Operating system: Mac OS 13
Version: 13.4.0 [22F66]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 16
Processor speed: 3.8GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 2,108.3 MB (6.4%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 66,436.3 MB
Memory cache size: 2,379.6MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 15.3 [ 1451 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 2318MB / 16383MB (14%)
Camera Raw real memory: 2396MB / 32768MB (7%)
Standard Preview Size: 2880 pixels
Displays: 1) 5120x2880, 2) 2560x1440

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Volumes/KING GIZZAR/ALLIBONE GIZZAR/LIGHTROOM CATALOGUE/ALLIBONE_2021-v12.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/spiketrain/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr
4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

[Spiketrain]

Also - here's some additional info... I did create another user for my Mac. Then signed in and opened LRC and it worked! - So I can import photos / videos provided I'm logged in as someone else on my IMac!

I'm sure that'll help you guys to know.

Also, this trouble started to happen round about the time I installed the Beta version of Photoshop with AI etc. - Not sure there's a connection, but thought I'd mention.  

[Ian Lyons]

That suggests that the issue is probably related to permissions, but which is another matter. You could try the workaround in the pinned post be Smit K in below linked thread.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-can-t-launch-the-most-recent-update-of-light...

[Ian Lyons]

Another option that's worked in the past is to trash the entire highlighted Lightroom folder from the location shown in attached screenshot. LrC will rebuild the cache in the same way as it did when your created the new account. You images, presets, pluigins, etc are all stored in a different location. So, should not be impacted.

[Spiketrain]

Thanks again @Ian Lyons . I've just gone into Finder and put all permissions to read and write as instructed. I right clicked the folders and selected get info.... then chose read & write for all - then I wiped the LR folder above in Caches.

No dice!
Still unresponsive.

Must.... go..... deeper! (Except I don't really want to of course!)

Please don't give up on me!

[John R Ellis]

"I've just gone into Finder and put all permissions to read and write as instructed. I right clicked the folders and selected get info.... then chose read & write for all - then I wiped the LR folder above in Caches."

Did you run the permission-fixing script provided by Adobe?

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-basic-troubleshooting-fix-most-issues.html#Us...

It does significantly more than what you seem to have done in Finder.

[John R Ellis]

Did you try step 3:

3. Create and log into a new admin-enabled account via System Settings > Users & Groups. Make a new test catalog and try to import photos. This will test if there is some other issue with your current account.

That will identify whether there's an issue with any of the hidden files and folders that Creative Cloud apps create.

[Ian Lyons]

@John R Ellis 

The OP wrote the following this past Saturday. So, I think we can say that the issue is account specific.

Also - here's some additional info... I did create another user for my Mac. Then signed in and opened LRC and it worked! - So I can import photos / videos provided I'm logged in as someone else on my IMac!

[Spiketrain]

Yes! - did this. And I was indeed able to import without issue - when I was 'someone else'. Also able to import in the main catalog. So we're getting there! 

[John R Ellis]

I missed the update about creating a new account, thanks.