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Participant
Feb 23, 2018 7:48 PM UTC
Answered

File Destination Folder Not Writable

All of a sudden today, I cannot import any files into Lightroom CC Classic due to this error message:

"Could not copy a file to the destination folder because it is not writable (159)"

I have a 2016 MBP touchbar, 1TB of SSD (150GB free).  This happens when importing from iPhone, copying photos to SSD first, importing photos from internet. Nothing will import.  I tried to repair the SSD using Disk Utility, but no results.  Restarting computer didn't help. "Make a Second Copy To..." is unchecked.

Help.

dj_paige
dj_paigeCorrect answer
Legend
Feb 23, 2018 8:02 PM UTC

You need to change the permissions on the exact DESTINATION folder to have WRITE permission. Changing the disk permissions, or running some sort of permission repair will not work. You must change that exact DESTINATION folder.

22 replies

QuintoYYC
Participant
Jul 16, 2025 3:41 PM UTC

Six years later..... Fixed my issue with Import > click on the Destination in the top right hand corner of the screen > Clear Recent Paths > reselect where you want your images to be stored.

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paulmmartinkf
Participant
Oct 3, 2019 1:15 AM UTC

None of these solutions work. I had a call with the customer support for about 4 hours. They couldn't solve the issue and finally informed that it's a Lightroom issue which is going to be fixed in the next version. Now next version is out and I updated LR CC. Issue not resolved. I'm cancelling my subscription. You guys suck.

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Just Shoot Me
Legend
Oct 3, 2019 1:17 AM UTC

You are replying to a discussion that is 1.5 years old.

Please start your own discussion and give as much detail as you can on the problem you are having.

 

If it is Destination folder not writable that is a permissions problem or the drive is full and the OS won't allow any more file to be written to the drive.

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wwwrico
Participant
Apr 28, 2018 2:17 PM UTC

I had the same error (can't import to destination because not writable or out of space.) The import had already copied 20 files and only a GIF and a movie file remained.  I have 1.97 TB free on the 3.57 TB drive.  I removed the GIF file from the source directory and retried the import.  It worked fine.

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Just Shoot Me
Legend
Feb 23, 2018 8:20 PM UTC

If you are trying to import images that are already on your SSD you should be selecting Copy or Move in the import dialog window.

You should be selecting Add.

Try that.

Also with only 150GBs left from a 1 TB drive you might be running out of disk space. Mac OS X does not always report the correct amount of free disk space. Time Machine local backups could be taking up that 150GBs and not showing it is.

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Participant
Feb 23, 2018 8:36 PM UTC

Thanks, but Add, Copy and Move produce the same results.

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dj_paige
dj_paigeCorrect answer
Legend
Feb 23, 2018 8:02 PM UTC

You need to change the permissions on the exact DESTINATION folder to have WRITE permission. Changing the disk permissions, or running some sort of permission repair will not work. You must change that exact DESTINATION folder.

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Participant
Feb 23, 2018 8:35 PM UTC

The SSD, user, Pictures folder, and 2018 folder they will go into have Read and Write permissions.

Based on your feedback I was successfully able to import a picture into a pre-existing folder in the Pictures/2018/... structure.  If MacOS suddenly isn't allowing Lightroom to create folders, how do I fix this?

Thanks.

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Participant
Feb 23, 2018 8:39 PM UTC

Sigh... solved somehow by re-clicking "import into sub-folder".  Can't imagine how this got turned off, or why this would throw an error to have off. 

Thanks.

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