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Participant
March 13, 2017
Answered

Lightroom won't import

  • March 13, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 617 views

I have a mid 2010 mac pro w/four internal hard drives, one of which has all things photo, including the Lightroom catalog; it's running OS X 10.10.5 Yosemie

I’m running Lightroom CC 2015.3 Release  Camera Raw 9.3

I’ve been using Lightroom for a year, current catalog has ~35k files.

My issue: Lightroom won’t import files likely because I aborted an import.

What happens: With Lightroom open I click on the <Import…> tab, navigate to the folder I want and click on it.

It opens, but the grid contains no thumbnails, only file names. If I double click a “picture”, a preview of the file opens; if I right click the “picture” and click on “show in finder” a finder window opens with the proper file hi-lighted and in the correct location on the hard drive. In other words, Lightroom is acting as if the file has already been imported (because of the aborted import?).

I have tried:

    unchecking the “Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates” box under “File Handling"

    resetting the presets folder

    deleting the preset folder and rebooting

    restoring the catalog to a previously dated backup

    importing to a new catalog

    restoring the entire photo hard drive to a previously dated time machine backup

None has worked.

There might be some Lightroom files resident on the home drive that’s preventing a proper reset, but I’d rather not do random time machine restorations on that drive.

A final twist - I have loaded these files onto a late '07 13" macbook running OS X 10.7.5 and Lightroom 5.7.3 with no problems.

Any thoughts on what to do?

Thanks   

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Rob_Cullen

    I also note from your screen clip that the folder you are trying to import has .MOV video files in it.

    I have read forum threads where this can cause import problems.

    Can you try and use the operating system /Finder and separate the videos from the images- by moving them out to another folder. Then try the import of the images folder only.

    And turn off 'Smart Previews'- these can be easily created at a later time.

    2 replies

    Participant
    March 15, 2017

    The .MOV files were the culprit. Moved them to a separate folder and all's well.

    I'm sure I'd have found it on my own sometime in April.

    Thanks for giving me my life back./

    jk

    Rob_Cullen
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 13, 2017
    Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
    Participant
    March 13, 2017

    Followed suggestions in both links - issue persists.

    Thanks

    Rob_Cullen
    Community Expert
    Rob_CullenCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    March 13, 2017

    I also note from your screen clip that the folder you are trying to import has .MOV video files in it.

    I have read forum threads where this can cause import problems.

    Can you try and use the operating system /Finder and separate the videos from the images- by moving them out to another folder. Then try the import of the images folder only.

    And turn off 'Smart Previews'- these can be easily created at a later time.

    Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .