Skip to main content
J
joonyoungkang
Participant
February 27, 2017
Answered

Can't ADD or MOVE when importing from an SD card.

  • February 27, 2017
  • 5 replies
  • 8376 views

I want to import photos from my SD card without having to actually copy the file to my mac's hard drive.

So I want to ADD this files instead of copying them bu the ADD button is grayed out. I tried formatting the SD card to my mac (FAT 32) and it still doesn't work.

How can I ADD images from my sd card in lightroom?

    Correct answer Rob_Cullen

    You cannot.!

    Lightroom is protecting you from losing your original files, because it is so easy to format the SD card in a camera- you lose the lot!!, and the SD card would need to be always plugged into the computer for Lr to have access to the 'originals' when developing or exporting derivatives.

    You must copy the photos to an internal or connected external drive.

    5 replies

    greenlinephoto
    greenlinephoto
    Participant
    October 29, 2022

    Why is MOVE not available from SD cards, but MOVE is availble from my CFexpress Card? I´m using the Canon R6 and R5, and this is quite strange. Any reason?

      D
      dj_paige
      Legend
      October 29, 2022

      CFExpress cards are treated differently by the operating system, the OS considers them to be a hard-disk, that's why. Lightroom Classic gets its information about drives from the operating system.

        yslinyslin
        yslinyslin
        Participant
        March 24, 2020

        YOU CAN.

        I also want to manage my mobile phone SD card(512G) using LR, becoz the DCIM folder has 5k+ photos. 

         

        0. Don't goto import dialog.

        1. First, u need a basic real HD or network HD on ur LR collection.

        2. create a new folder XXX on that.

        3. then the magic part over here; right-click that empty XXX folder and select re-locate folder path.

        4. [re-locate folderpath] chose ur SD card root drive or DCIM

        5. then u will get a SD folder on ur collection

        6. right click update, which is ADD not COPY. DONE.

         

        http://decade.tw

         

          J
          jmctrumpetier
          Participant
          August 24, 2020

          This method totally fixed my problem! Allow me to add some minor clarification to help others. Basically, you add a hard drive-based folder in Lightroom and then tell Lightroom that that folder is actually located somewhere else on your computer (i.e. on your SD card). The above post is not, as I initially thought, as I initially thought, telling you to create a virtual folder using mklink; while that method might work, it is definitely not necessary.

          Bob Somrak
          Bob Somrak
          Legend
          February 19, 2020

          You can ADD and MOVE files from a USB Flash Drive.  You can also ADD and MOVE files from an SD card if it is not formatted with the DCIM file structure and just formatted as a regular drive.  This is on a Mac.  Windows may be different.

          M4 Pro Mac Mini. 48GB
            M
            muralin
            Inspiring
            February 19, 2020

            Looks like you cannot move or copy from a USB Flash Drive as well.

            D
            dj_paige
            Legend
            February 19, 2020

            Looks like you cannot move or copy from a USB Flash Drive as well.

             

            I am skeptical. Show us a screen capture that prevents COPY from a working USB Flash Drive.

            M
            muralin
            Inspiring
            February 19, 2020

            Rob_Cullen
            Community Expert
            Rob_CullenCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
            Community Expert
            February 27, 2017

            You cannot.!

            Lightroom is protecting you from losing your original files, because it is so easy to format the SD card in a camera- you lose the lot!!, and the SD card would need to be always plugged into the computer for Lr to have access to the 'originals' when developing or exporting derivatives.

            You must copy the photos to an internal or connected external drive.

            Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.0, Photoshop 27.0, ACR 18.0, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0 .
              JuSchu
              JuSchu
              Participant
              September 19, 2018

              That explains why you can't add images from the SD card but it doesn't explain why you can't move them from there.
              I mean is Adobe expecting us to keep safety copies on our SD cards, that medium that as explained above isn't really save, until they are full and then we buy a new one? Just like in the old days when we bought a new film after we took 36 or 24 images. If they don't expect us to do it like that there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to move the images from the SD card.

              D
              dj_paige
              Legend
              September 19, 2018
              is Adobe expecting us to keep safety copies on our SD cards

              That's not the explanation.

              The problem with doing a MOVE from SD card to computer hard disk is that if the photo gets corrupted during the file transfer by hardware malfunction, or the power goes out during the move, you have lost your photo(s).

                Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices