Preview unavailable

[gregw822]

This seems to be a longstanding problem. I'm getting that "Preview unavailable for this file" message.

Here are the data from Help/System Info:

Lightroom Classic version: 10.2 [ 202103041821-226a1211 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-US
Operating system: Mac OS 10
Version: 10.16.0 [20E241]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 4
Processor speed: 3.5 GHz
SqLite Version: 3.34.0
Built-in memory: 8,192.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 8,192.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 229.5 MB (2.8%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 7,758.6 MB
Memory cache size: 52.1MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 13.2 [ 738 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 3
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 120MB / 4095MB (2%)
Camera Raw real memory: 122MB / 8192MB (1%)
Displays: 1) 5120x2880

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: AMD Radeon Pro 575

[John R Ellis]

I assume you're seeing that message on grey thumbnails in the Import window?  What is the exact file type and camera model of the photo or video you're trying to import?

[TheDigitalDog]

First, try using the free Adobe DNG converter and convert to DNG, any better?:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/quot-preview-unavailable-for-this-file-quot-sony-ar...

[gregw822]

I had a support guy from Adobe online this morniung. He spent more than an hour tracking down the problem, which he said came about because the newest version of LRC haas differnt permission functions. I had to give the tech access to my computer, and I watched as he went through Security & Priacy/Privacy/Files and Folders to give full access to LRC, PS and Bridge. Upon reestart, the import woerked fine. I'm not entirely sure that's all he did. It took a bit of poking around before he was able to work it out. It was good to actually have the problem solved rather than find a work around. 

[John R Ellis]

Glad you got it resolved.

[Jao vdL]

>he went through Security & Priacy/Privacy/Files and Folders to give full access to LRC, PS and Bridge

That is overkill but will work. You only need to give it access to desktop, downloads, removable volumes, and network volumes in the privacy panel. This is a very poorly documented security feature in Mac OS X where it prohibits new apps from accessing these folders by default. Normally it should pop up a dialog allowing you to give access to the app requesting access to one of the above folders but I've seen it often not do that.

[billdavies]

I was hoping this would work for me, but my LRC already has full disk access.  This issue started happening about 6 months ago and really bothered by not seeing my image previews.  All images from from my phone, same file format, same photo shoot.  Some get previews, some don't.  Maddening.

[John R Ellis]

There was a bug in LR 12 with similar symptoms importing from IOS devices via USB cable, but it was fixed for most people with LR 12.6.   Please do these initial troubleshooting steps:

1. Do the menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste or attach the entire contents here.

2. Which model phone and version of IOS?

3. Are you importing via a USB cable or some other method?

4. Try using the Mac Image Capture app to copy from the phone to the hard drive and then importing to LR from there.  Does that work?

[billdavies]

iPhone 12 Pro for me, but if my daughter sends a photo to family group chat, I may add it to mine and she is using iPhone 15 Pro.  Or my wife may text a photo I like (iPhone SE2) and I add it to my camera roll.   It happens with all these different photographers, hrandomly.  All our phones are IOS 17.2 with the exception of mine which is on 17.3 public beta.

Once the photo is on my phone camera roll, I utilize iCloud sync and the photos show up in Apple Photos on my iMac Pro.  Used to do the cable and Image Capture, but not for 3-4 years now.

All these photos show up fine in Apple Photos.  No trouble seeing the image.

From there I select the ones I want and export them to my Synology NAS, where the pictures are organized into folders by year and/or event.  Some may go into Jan 2024 folder, some may go into folders for a property we own up at Donner Summit.  This is my sorting system.

From there, I launch LR and import the photos into the LR catalog.

Lightroom Classic version: 13.1 [ 202312111226-41a494e8 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-US
Operating system: Mac OS 14
Version: 14.3.0 [23D5051b]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 20
Processor speed: 3.0GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 65,536.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 65,536.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1,917.7 MB (2.9%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 50,374.5 MB
Memory cache size: 764.6MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 16.1 [ 1728 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 30MB / 32767MB (0%)
Camera Raw real memory: 32MB / 65536MB (0%)
Standard Preview Size: 5120 pixels
Displays: 1) 5120x2880

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Users/bdavies/Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog-2021/Lightroom Catalog-2021-v13.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/bdavies/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr
4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

[John R Ellis]

Some troubleshooting thoughts:

1. For one of the photos on the NAS that show "Preview unavailable", attach it here (if forum lets you) or upload it to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar. We can verify it imports properly into other LR configurations, ruling out the possibility that something in your workflow was making the photo incompatible with LR. (Seems less likely, but it's easy to rule it out.)

2. If you copy some of the problem photos from the NAS to your Mac hard drive and import into LR from there, does the problem occur? There have been occasional reports her over the years about incompatibilities between LR and NAS (including Synology), so it would be good to know if the NAS is a proximate trigger of the problem.

3. Ensure you're mounting the NAS volume with the SMB protocol rather than deprecated AFP protocol. There have been reports here of problems between LR and older NAS that are still configured with AFP.

4. If you can't make your current workflow work again, consider using the LR Cloud rather than iCloud. Configure LR Mobile to automatically import photos from the phone camera roll, which will sync them to LR Cloud. Configure LR Classic to sync from the cloud into your LR Classic catalog.

[billdavies]

I've attached one of the images that says No Preview in my screen shot above.

In the Finder, clicking on that shows a normal preview, and double clicking opens it in Preview, and it is fine.

What I've actually been doing all day is just making a whole new catalog and re-importing my 140,000 images that live on the NAS.  I just want to see if a clean, new catalog has the grey squares or not. This is about 60% done so I suspect I won't have a report until tomorrow.

Bill

[John R Ellis]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

Interesting, I get the same problem trying to import IMG_7429.jpeg into my LR 13.1 / Mac OS catalog:

I'll put the file under the microscope...

[John R Ellis]

I filed a bug report:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/apple-generated-jpeg-with-icc-profile-quot-app...

[billdavies]

Very interestingly, I created a brand new catalog and let LR import 127,000 images.  No grey rectangles with preview missing.

I do not edit photos in LR, so I don't care about making a new catalog.  I know several folks who would have cardiac arrest if they lost their catalog.

[John R Ellis]

"I created a brand new catalog and let LR import 127,000 images.  No grey rectangles with preview missing."

Did you re-export those images from Photos.app or use the previously exported ones?

[billdavies]

Same images on the NAS.  Just pointed LR at the NAS.

[John R Ellis]

Very curious indeed. But your sample image almost certainly indicates it's a bug in Lightroom, given all the apps that can read that image (including Adobe Acrobat).  

A moderator incorrectly merged my bug report back into this thread, but Adobe uber-moderator Rikk Flohr will undo the merge and ensure that the bug report is presented to the developers for their evaluation.

[John R Ellis]

When you import the attached JPEG into LR 13.1, you get the following:

But the following 12 apps (Mac unless indicated) can read the photo correctly:

Acrobat, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Image Viewer, Photos, Photoshop Elements
2020 Editor, Preview, Safari, Windows Paint, Windows Photos, XnView MP

The photo was taken on 1/12/2024 with an  iPhone 12 Pro, IOS 17.3. 

The proximate cause of the problem is the ICC profile, "Apple Wide Color Sharing Profile". Using Exiftool to delete the profile allows the image to import into LR correctly. That profile can be generated by Apple Photos.app when exporting a photo with Color Profile: Most Compatible.

Others have reported this problem:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/preview-unavailable/m-p/14353747#M35265... 

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/some-exported-photos-from-macos-sonoma-photos-app-w...

That all those other apps are able to read the photo strongly suggest that there's a bug in LR handling the profile, rather than the profile not conforming to the ICC standard.