Nikon Z6ii Raw Files Not Readable

...just as it has been for every major high-selling camera model in history. These days the "hot" cameras are the Nikon Z series, the Canon EOS R series, and the Sony a7 series.

And predictably, every time, someone comes up with a hack to modify the files, to trick ACR/Lightroom into thinking it's the previous model.

That's actually getting a bit worse now, because there seems to be a new naming convention. Now they all just use incremental mark x numbers, while the basic model name stays the same. Canon and Sony have done this for a while, and now Nikon has adapted the same practice. But make no mistake, these are new cameras.

My own basic instinct, with any kind of hardware, has always been to hold back until the new gadget has settled into its surrounding ecosystem. That usually takes a few months, whatever it is.

There's a lengthy discussion on the Z6II in the Lightroom Classic forum:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/nikon-z6ii-error-importing-to-lightroom/td-p/11576664

"Has anyone else experienced this issue?"

Anyone who buys a brand new camera model the minute it hits the shelves.

Seriously, I'm not trying to be funny. New camera support takes time. Adobe get nothing from Nikon. They have to do what you did - buy a camera when it's available, shoot test images, then sit down and deconstruct the files.

It will very likely be supported in the next ACR update. Rest assured that this is high priority. When the next update comes, nobody knows, but these updates come about four times a year. It can't be too far off.