Impossible to move a file to the destination folder because there is not enough available space

[Lise34734661z2ty]

Hello, looking for some help. I have been transferring my old jpeg pictures from my iMac Picture folder into Lightroom. I was able to transfer a lot of them and then suddenly I received an error code telling me its 'impossible to move a file to the destination folder because there is not enough available space'.  I am on iMac with latest version of OS.  Find below the french dialog box with the error code. I have translated it for this purpose. I have 500g still available on my disk so don't think this is the issue. Would really appreciate understanding how I can fix this. Thank you.

[GoldingD]

Do you have more than one hard drive?

If so:

• What hard drive is your LrC catalog on?
• What import method in the LrC import screen are you using, Copy, Copy as DNG, or Add?
• If Copy, or Copy as DNG, what hard drive have you selected as destination?

[Lise34734661z2ty]

Good morning, I am currently only using my iMAC 2TB SSD drive. I do not use an external, except for back-ups. So the LrC catalog is on my iMAC SSD drive. I'm using the 'Move' import method as I want to move the photos from the 'Pictures' folder to my Lightroom.  Interestingly the selected destination seems to be 'images'. I don't have an option for the Lightroom catalog. I am including pictures hoping this will help. I'm working in French but I can translate what you need. Thank you very much for your help.

[GoldingD]

. I'm using the 'Move' import method as I want to move the photos from the 'Pictures' folder to my Lightroom

This Move, it is from a hard drive folder to another? And not from a SD card?

following applies to Move from an  SD card (or similar)

Not a solution to your issue, but a caution point to make.  Adobe probably should have never ever included Move. Move can be a dangerous method of transferring files from a SD card or other memory card. If something happens during the Move, you could loose both the originals on the SD card and the hopefully moved files on the hard drive. I would never Move unless I had a backup copy on a hard drive of those photos. I would never remove the photos on the SD card, until at least two copy's exist on hard drives, the working photos, and the backup photos. SD cards and other memory cards are not a safe media to trust, they can fail, they can fail long before a proper hard drive fails. That is part of why Adobe does not allow ADD when a SD or other memory card is used (new CFexpreess cards are an odd beast as OS treats them like a hard drive  hence LrC does not know they are not)

[Lise34734661z2ty]

Good morning, I only use 'Move' if I want to move a picture from a hard drive folder, such as from Pictures,  to my Lightroom catalog. If you use 'Add' the photos will stay in the Picture folder and they will also be in the Lightroom database. Which is what I don't want. I want the photo to reside only in one place.

When I want to transfer photos from an SD card to my Lightroom I use 'Copy'. Once I have loaded my photos to Lightroom, I usually do a back-up and only when this is done do I erase my SD card. So no worries on that front. 

[Sean McCormack]

Just to highlight that at no point are your images 'in' your Lightroom Catalog. They're merely referenced by the catalog at their location on disk. Using ADD does not duplicate the photo. It references it at the current location. Move puts them in the new location and then references them. 

[Lise34734661z2ty]

Yes you are right. Its my English and trying to explain which is not clear. So yes I want to move my pictures where  my Lightroom pictures are located so they are all in the same folder. As I mentioned I have done this in the past  few weeks and all was going perfectly well. Until I got this error code which I am tryin to understand.

[Sean McCormack]

Have you done any OS updates recently? There was an issue with Sonoma 14.2.0 which 14.2.1 fixed. I'd check that you're up to date. I'd also make sure that Full Disk Access is still granted to Lightroom Classic in the Privacy & Security panel of System Settings. 

[Lise34734661z2ty]

I'm up to date at version 14.2.1. Yes full disk access is granted to Lightroom and Photoshop. I was wondering if the smart preview cache might be a problem? I currently have the parameter set to erase them after 30 days and it currently sits at 72g. Could the cache be full? 

[GoldingD]

So, you are moving photos from one folder in your hard drive to another? And you are attempting to accomplish that as part of an Import in LrC? But that is failing.

Have you attempted to use Finder, not LrC, to Move the Photos, and then in LrC, Import them via Add?

And, as to your actual issue and possible solution (but you may have already accomplished this) see:

• https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/allow-permissions.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/fr/lightroom-classic/help/allow-permissions.html

[Lise34734661z2ty]

Good morning, yes that is what I'm trying to do and it worked perfectly well for several hundred photos. Then I suddenly got the text box with the error code. Your suggestion to use Finder means the pictures would be in Finder and in LrC which is what I don't want. I only want the pictures to reside in one place on the drive. Adding makes two copies of the same picture.  I have not read your links but will go now. Thank you so much in trying to help me with this error code. 

[richardplondon]

Add import does NOT make an additional copy of the file, just to be crystal clear. Nor does Move import.

Also in no sense is an image ever physically "in" the Lightroom Classic catalog, regardless of whether Add, Move or Copy was chosen at time of import.

Analogy: a record of you can be included - name, age, street address - "in" a list written on a piece of paper. You (as a person) are still walking around using your name, age and address normally - they have not been taken away, nor do you (as a person) somehow now "live" on the surface of that piece of paper. If years pass but the age originally written on the paper does not change, or you move address subsequently, you have not somehow become immortal - and the address originally written for you on the paper has now become simply wrong. Some information concerning you is present on that piece of paper, and that is all.  

The difference between Add / Move / Copy import is (on the same analogy) whether aside from getting added to that listing you stay wherever you currently live / move to a different real-world street address / a clone of you is also created, at a different street address, with this other address then appearing on the piece of paper.

[dj_paige]

Your suggestion to use Finder means the pictures would be in Finder and in LrC which is what I don't want.

This is incorrect. Lightroom Classic does not create duplicates of your photos.

Adding makes two copies of the same picture.

This is incorrect. Importing with ADD does not create a second copy.

Lightroom Classic never stores a copy of your photos for its own use. Importing into LrC does not create an additional copy of your photos.

[Lise34734661z2ty]

You are correct. Read my previous answer. I understand this. I was not clear. So I want to move these pictures, through the 'move' process in Lightroom, so I can file the pictures in folders in Lightroom and have the pictures physically reside in the same repertoire other Lightroom pictures reside (by date). 

[richardplondon]

"would be (seen both) in Finder and in LrC" means nothing more than a successful import. After all you can right-click on any image shown inside the Catalog, and choose "Show in Finder". 

Understood that you want a consistent physical folder filing scheme for new additions, as for images that are already imported. I do the exact same. 

This involve a Move import if the images are already inside the computer - but not where wanted.

A Copy import if these new images are coming directly off (for example) a camera memory card.

An Add import if they are already within the computer and in the desired folder location.

I set an auto date based folder filing scheme for all imports (move or copy as appropriate, as above) into an unchanging import location. Then the Catalog all by itself - because I have set an "organize - by date" option - keeps and adds YYYY/MM/DD subfolders as needed inside that, and transfers each newly imported photo into the relevant place within that structure, then imports it from there. All this happens as a single instruction, so far as I am concerned. Consistency is achieved by saving this scheme into a named import preset, and then re-loading that same preset on each future import occasion, to 100% guarantee all the exact same settings will be used every time.

[dj_paige]

You are correct. Read my previous answer. I understand this. I was not clear. So I want to move these pictures, through the 'move' process in Lightroom, so I can file the pictures in folders in Lightroom and have the pictures physically reside in the same repertoire other Lightroom pictures reside (by date). 

By @Lise34734661z2ty

What move process in LrC? If you mean Move in the Import dialog, this is not the way to accomplish moving of files that are already imported. You can move photos from one folder to another by drag and drop within the LrC Library Module.

I also have a suspicion that the error message, which has

le dossier des ... sible des ecriture

and the three dots has hidden some important meaning. Often, Adobe provides an error message with two possible causes, with the word OR in between, and we can't see what the first cause is, the second possible cause is not enough disk space. I have a guess, that the file already exists in the destination folder is the first cause, but of course I cannot be certain of this.

[Lise34734661z2ty]

Folks,  I really appreciate all the help but I think the focus has shifted to the use of Add vs Move which I have been using for years without any issues. My problem is the error code which suddenly appeared during one of these 'moves'. I have translated verbatum the text of this error and it is the title of my request : Impossible to move a file to the destination folder because there is not enough available space.

So my question is does anyone have any idea what this error code is and which space is unavailable because I have plenty of disk space. Could it be the preview cache? I am just returning from 3 weeks abroad and I did load 5,000 pictures in Decembre. Could I have saturated the preview cache and this is what the problem is? My preview parameter is set to erase the cache after 30 days. The cache is currently sitting at 72g. Is there anywhere I can see what is the capacity of the preview cache or is this driven by the application without any option to increase its size? 

Thank you very much for all the help. Again the problem is not whether to use Move or Add. Its the error code I'm trying to solve. 

[Lise34734661z2ty]

I have just purged the preview cache memory...or thought I did. And I checked the cache parameters. I realise the pictures below are in French but look at the first picture. It shows that the cache is actually at 71 gig...even though the parameter is set to 10 gig (second picture). I purged it and it still says it its at 71 gig. 

[dj_paige]

I have translated verbatum the text of this error and it is the title of my request : Impossible to move a file to the destination folder because there is not enough available space.

While this may be correct, there is no way of know what the ... in the message is hiding, it could be, as I said, two different possible causes; the first one doesn't appear because of the ... and the second one is writing to disk impossible because there is not enough space.

So, please humor me. In Finder, look at the destination folder for this move. Is the file that you want to move already in the folder?

[richardplondon]

This error message is truncated in your screenshot. A lack of space in the destination is just one common reason for difficulty with moving files. Other possibilities exist too.

One that occurs to me: where you are moving the images from. On both MacOS and Windows, a certain user's "Pictures" - also "Documents", "Desktop", others - have special behaviour. Access being limited to a particular computer user; in some ways hiding or virtualising their actual disk locations; participating in cloud syncing.

So I am wondering if e.g. iCloud continuous backup might be interfering with LrC's ability to move files out of there. Regardless of the requested destination for the move. That difficulty would not arise with a Copy import. Nor would it likely arise, if these files were transferred somewhere else first, using Finder.

IMO to limit future problems I would avoid LrC managing images that live inside "Pictures". Of course it is perfectly fine to still export to "Pictures" and to have those exported JPGs synced to cloud, and so on. Just so long as the Catalog is not explicitly managing those.

To illustrate this: (I am on Windows) - recently due to turning on "sync user files to cloud" - OneDrive secretly changed the real physical location of the user "Pictures" etc on disk. Windows did track that change, so accessing my user "Pictures" as a named entity still worked exactly the same. But the Lr Catalog did not track that change, hence the real physical location that it fomerly had for "Pictures" was invalidated. So it's better IMO for all of LrC's imported files to live in standard folders only, where they are not going to get caught up in any such clever shenanigans.

[Lise34734661z2ty]

Folks I found the problem. By the way I found the same message, not truncated, on the web so the title of my initial post is the complete non truncated error message. The problem lies with the 1;1 preview data which is now 77 gig. I looked on the web and found a video on how to remove/erase the preview file but it did not work. I am including pictures of my computer showing the size of this file and also a link to a video which explains how to remove/erase that file. I followed the exact procedure but it did not erase the file. My question is should I go to my Lightroom library and just delete the folder 'Lightroom catalog2-v13 Previews.lrdata'? 

Find below attached the link to the video on how to delete this file. Any further help would be much appreciated. 

[dj_paige]

Folks I found the problem. By the way I found the same message, not truncated, on the web so the title of my initial post is the complete non truncated error message. The problem lies with the 1;1 preview data which is now 77 gig. I looked on the web and found a video on how to remove/erase the preview file but it did not work. I am including pictures of my computer showing the size of this file and also a link to a video which explains how to remove/erase that file. I followed the exact procedure but it did not erase the file. My question is should I go to my Lightroom library and just delete the folder 'Lightroom catalog2-v13 Previews.lrdata'? 

By @Lise34734661z2ty

In LrC use the command Library->Previews->Discard 1:1 Previews.

Although I think that there may be other problems, if 77GB causes you to run out of space. Even if you delete them all now, the problem will just come back after a while in the future. Perhaps there are plenty of other things on your internal HD that could be moved to a different disk as well. If your photos are on the internal HD, then moving them to an external disk would really free up a lot of disk space, and prevent the problem from coming back.

[Lise34734661z2ty]

I have never deleted this file in over 5 years. Actually what I don't understand is that I have a catalog parameter which indicates to delete these after 30 days so how it got this big I don't know. I have already cleaned my disk and other than Lightroom there is not much more I can do. I will move my Lightroom to an external disk in the near future but I need to find what is causing this issue first. You may be right that there is another problem. Right now I'm trying to find them one at the time. Yesterday I was able to download pictures from an SD card without any difficulty. Do you know if there are experts I could talk to at Adobe??? I could'nt find a contact information for this kind of support on their site. 

[dj_paige]

I will move my Lightroom to an external disk in the near future but I need to find what is causing this issue first.

The specific recommendation was not to move Lightroom Classic; you should leave Lightroom Classic where it is. The recommendation was to move the photos to an external HD.

[Lise34734661z2ty]

I guess my French is really getting in the way. I meant moving the data which is contained in Lightroom to an external disk. But yes leaving the application on my Mac.  Any thoughts on getting access to some help from Adobe?