Lightroom refuses to import photos.

[matthewh133]

I have some photos that Lightroom will not import. I have previously had these photos imported, but my Lightroom catalog corrupted, and I've spent the past month putting everything back together (and creating a good backup).

I suspect it is thinking they are duplicates, but even when I uncheck the button to not import duplicates, it will not allow them to be imported. I tried searching for the full file names without any filters on, and I get results (older photos), but nothing of these photos I'm trying to import. Any ideas how I can get these to import? The folder location shows up in the "folders" drop-down menu, but they show up as containing zero photos (not accurate), while other folders on the same hard drive are having no issues showing correctly.

[F. McLion]

If you say they are not getting imported, LrC will probably show a message.

Do you see them in the import dialog?

Do you have any filter active?

What format/source are the files?

Please also share the system information found in the help menu.

[matthewh133]

It doesn't give me the option to import them, the files are greyed out and can't be selected. No filters are active. They are .ARW files (Sony A1). Windows 11, RTX 4080, 64gb of RAM.

[matthewh133]

I will add that when I hover over the greyed out photos, it says "This photo has already been imported". As I said though, without any filters on I have searched for these files and they are not in my catalog.

[F. McLion]

That means, as it says, it has already been imported.

And, that also means that you have selected to not import duplicates. That is a check mark on the right side panel.

Which actually makes sense, because you don't really want duplicates, except in very, very rare cases.

[matthewh133]

I understand, but as per the OP I don't have the "Don't Import Duplicates" selected. It's unchecked. I have selected all photographs, stacks are expanded. When I search the filename, I get multiple hits from older photos with the same file name, just not these particular photos from a date range of about a month of photos.

[matthewh133]

As you will see in these images, I have searched the file name of one of the photos I'm trying to import, but it does not show even though I have stacks expanded and "All Photographs" selected.

[dj_paige]

I will add that when I hover over the greyed out photos, it says "This photo has already been imported". As I said though, without any filters on I have searched for these files and they are not in my catalog.

By @matthewh133

Did you search in "All Photographs" and with all stacks expanded? I'll bet they are in there. 

[matthewh133]

Yep, stacks are expanded and "All photographs" selected. When I search the file name I get hits from other older photos that share the same file name, just not these ones.

[F. McLion]

Also, search for the name of the file using the filter in the library (Ctrl+F)

[GoldingD]

, and I've spent the past month putting everything back together

By @matthewh133

How?

• By creating a new catalog then importing from the Old?
• By creating a new catalog and starting over from scratch, importing the old photos into the new catalog?
• Other?

[matthewh133]

Same Catalog. Using the "update folder location" and "synchronize folder" from the "Folder" section in Library (I have changed the hard drive letters since so this needed to be done), finding all the photos that were "missing" and relinking them, deleting junk and reimporting anything that was no longer there. My next step once I had everything in order was to create a new catalog and import from this one just for a fresh start with completely default settings, but I'm not at the point where all my files are there yet.

[GoldingD]

I see that you are using the Add option. Their used to be an issue, that may or may not have ever been acknowledged, may or may not have been fixed. A nasty little problem where if the Destination folder on a previous import no longer existed or was moved, and you changed the import method to Add, the Import would fail with no error message. And apparently if you had instead selected Copy, you may have noticed an issue with the destination not existing. One would think that Add could care less, one would think that an error message would come up. But nope

Solution and in this case, a test for to see if that is what is going on, is to start an import, select just one brand new never ever before used image (take a photo just for this), select COPY, then over in the destination, change it to anything other than what is currently shown, then Import. After that success, go back and attempt your Import via Add.

Yes, I may be waisting your time, but just a little.

[matthewh133]

Unfortunately, this did not fix it. I still can not import these photos.