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Participant
July 9, 2018
Question

LR Classic does not merge raw and jpeg while importing

  • July 9, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 4972 views

Unlike described in the tutorials and manuals, LR Classic would keep raw and jpeg separately, even though they have the same filename except for the extension.

Will it be resolved any time soon?

Example:

I import from Nikon D7100, where I store raw and jpeg on two different SD cards. Even though I unchecked the preference  "keep raw and jpeg separately", both pictures would show up side by side in the grid view instead of a single picture "+jpeg".

Same when importing from a file system.

This really an annoyance when you have large numbers of photos!

3 replies

JP Hess
Inspiring
July 10, 2018

I have never understood the option "Treat JPEG files next to raw files....." As a means of providing a way of importing the JPEG as a sidecar. If that option is left unchecked then Lightroom simply doesn't import the JPEG file. If the option IS checked then the JPEG will appear alongside the raw file as a separate image. That's the way I have always used it, and I don't think it has ever been any different.

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 10, 2018

JimHess  wrote

I have never understood the option "Treat JPEG files next to raw files....." As a means of providing a way of importing the JPEG as a sidecar. If that option is left unchecked then Lightroom simply doesn't import the JPEG file. If the option IS checked then the JPEG will appear alongside the raw file as a separate image. That's the way I have always used it, and I don't think it has ever been any different.

If that option is unchecked, then Lightroom uses the jpeg as a sidecar file. You see a small icon that indicates this. Whether or not that means the file is ‘imported’ is up for debate. It is ‘imported’ in the same way that an XMP file would be ‘imported’. I agree however that it is pretty meaningless to have a sidecar file like this, because I don’t think there is anything that Lightroom can do with it.

The only exception I know is when you use ‘Embedded & sidecar’ for previews to speed up import. Some cameras (Olympus is one of them) do not generate a full size preview, but a rather small one. If you shoot raw+jpeg with such a camera, and you use ‘Embedded & sidecar’ previews, then the jpeg will be used as preview rather than the small embedded one.

-- Johan W. Elzenga
Just Shoot Me
Legend
July 9, 2018

That is happening because they are 2 different files on 2 different memory cards and imported at different times, 2 different imports.

This is not a LR  problem and does not need to be corrected.

If you want the JPGs to be imported, but hidden from view in LR, and Copied to your storage media, HDD, at the same time then set the camera to record both the RAW, NEF, and JPG files on the same card. Then when importing the JPGs will get copied to the HDD and imported into LR as hidden Sidecar files for the NEF files.

foxlynx99Author
Participant
July 9, 2018

I disagree.

As mentioned in my report, the same happens when importing from a file system.

Therefore I do not believe the reason is storing on two memory cards instead of one.

Nevertheless, I will test storing raw+jpeg on the same HDD, to verify your suggestion.

Thank you for your insights.

Sean McCormack
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 9, 2018

The other aspect of this is that if what you're asking was to be done, you would never see edits returned as JPEG (with the same), because they'd be converted to sidecar files. I often save to JPEG in Photoshop for non critical files to save space and they return with the original filename (not the -Edit version).

Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.
JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 9, 2018

I don't see this problem with my cameras. This might be due to the fact that you store the raw and jpeg files on separate SD-cards, so they are not imported at the same time. Or perhaps the D7100 writes a slightly different capture time, that confuses Lightroom. But if you don't want to see the JPEG files separately, why do you import them at all? What purpose does it serve you to have the jpegs? As they are on a different card, you don't have to import them in the first place.

-- Johan W. Elzenga