Photos Not Appearing in Import Window – Lightroom Classic Issue

[magdalenaz59854474]

Hello everyone,

I’m experiencing a persistent problem with Lightroom Classic (now on the latest version 14.4) running on Windows 11, where the Import window fails to load any photos from any volume or folder.

Here is the background and what I have done so far:

The issue started after I clicked "Merge" while trying to move a folder within my catalog to another folder on the same volume but with a different name. I only suspect this is related because, as far as I remember, everything was working fine before that.

Since then, Lightroom's Import dialog does not display any photos from any source, whether it’s a local folder or a memory card.

When I open the Import window, the spinning circle in the lower left corner (which usually indicates that photos are being loaded) appears for about a second, then disappears, and no photos show up.

I copied all photos from the card to a new folder on a different location on my hard drive and tried importing from there, but the problem persists.

I have verified that there are no duplicate folders in the catalog, folder locations are current, and there are no missing photos or broken links.

I have checked folder permissions to ensure full read/write access.

I tried creating a new catalog and importing photos there, but the import window still does not load photos.

I updated Lightroom Classic to the newest version, but the problem remains.

I contacted Adobe Helpdesk and two different assistants tried to help me, but unfortunately, neither was able to resolve the issue.

Given all this, I suspect the problem might be related to the catalog corruption caused by the "Merge" operation or some internal catalog inconsistency.

My questions are:

Has anyone experienced a similar issue?

Are there recommended steps or tools to manually repair or clean up the catalog to fix this?

Could a complete manual uninstall and clean reinstall of Lightroom Classic help in this case?

Is there any way to fully reset the import window or its cache?

I would appreciate any advice or solutions. Thanks in advance! Magdalena

[Aleke]

Hi @magdalenaz59854474, sorry to hear you're running into this issue with Lightroom Classic!

Are the photos not showing up with any of the import options like Copy as DNG, Copy, Move, or Add? If you could share a screenshot of your import window, that would really help us see what’s going on on your end.

Thanks so much!
Alek

[dj_paige]

Please show us a screen capture the ENTIRE import dialog box. PLease use the Insert Photos icon to include your screen capture in your reply.

[magdalenaz59854474 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Thank you all for your responses!

I apologize for replying only now, but I wasn’t receiving notifications about the replies to my post.

It turned out that manually uninstalling Lightroom completely and then a clean reinstall resolved the problem.

Thank you again for your willingness to help!

Wishing you all the best and smooth editing ahead! 🙂