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Bethany5E0B
Participant
August 26, 2020
Question

Why can't I add photos to Lightroom? (New user)

  • August 26, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 292 views

I added Lightroom to my new MacBook Air. When I try to add photos, I get a message saying "Checking free space on disk" (there should be plenty!)......and then nothing seems to happen for a very long time. Meanwhile, I've tried several times to just create an empty album to put these photos in once they are imported, but nothing seems to appear there after I title it. Can anyone advise? Thanks in advance. (BTW I have used Photoshop for years- just new to Lightroom.)

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1 reply

Jim Wilde
Community Expert
Jim WildeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 26, 2020

Can you post a screenshot of the Lightroom Preferences>Local Storage tab?

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Bethany5E0BAuthor
Participant
August 27, 2020

Sure- here it is.

My photo library is on iCloud. I was trying to add 22 photos that I'd downloaded to a folder.

 

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Bethany5E0BAuthor
Participant
August 27, 2020

Looking at that screenshot, it would seem that Lightroom is having trouble reading the system drive. You say this is a new MBA, is it running Catalina by chance? If so, it may be a Catalina-inspired permissions issue, in which you need to check the permissions and make sure Lightroom is fully enabled.


Thanks so much for your help! Yes, it's running Catalina 10.15.6 . How would I go about checking the permissions and enabling Lightroom? At what level would I be doing that? 

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