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Import from Another Catalog does NOTHING

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Tim Devine

New Member
Joined
May 30, 2016
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16
Lightroom Experience
Advanced
Lightroom Version
New member here (hi everyone!). I am experiencing some Lightroom weirdness...

The following menu items do absolutely NOTHING... (the click does nothing at all):
New Catalog
Import from Another Catalog

When I click on them, they do absolutely nothing. At all. Zippo. Dead click.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling LR and even tried copying the base files from my laptop (which works fine) and overwriting the files on my desktop. Nada.

Both machines are running Win10-64 with 16gb RAM and both are running version 6.5.1 (perpetual).

Clearly this is a major problem for me as I want to be able to move edited files from my laptop and put them into my main LR installation on my desktop, where the files are stored on my Drobo, while keeping all of the edits. I can do an import and copy no problem, but then I lose the work I did on my laptop.

Please advise!
--------------------------------------------
Lightroom version: 6.5.1 [ 1073342 ]
License: Perpetual
Operating system: Windows 10
Version: 10.0
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 3.5 GHz
Built-in memory: 16327.1 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 16327.1 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1776.2 MB (10.8%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 1814.2 MB
Memory cache size: 3003.1 MB
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 8
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
System DPI setting: 96 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 2560x1080
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:
GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2

Check OpenGL support: Passed
Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 368.22
Renderer: GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2
LanguageVersion: 3.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler


Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom
Library Path: C:\Users\Timothy\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\Timothy\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) Canon Tether Plugin
2) easyHDR 3
3) Facebook
4) Flickr
5) HDR Efex Pro 2
6) Leica Tether Plugin
7) Nikon Tether Plugin
8) Piwigo
9) The Fader

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 10de
Device : 1401
Subsystem : 86781043
Revision : a1
Video Memory : 1969
Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414
Device : 8c
Subsystem : 0
Revision : 0
Video Memory : 0
AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024
AudioDeviceName: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2
AudioDeviceSampleRate: 44100
Build: LR5x102
Direct2DEnabled: false
GPUDevice: not available
OGLEnabled: true
 
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could it be a driver ? other clicks commands work ?
theres no menu shortcut to these, but what if you try ALt+F and N (or go to the menu item by the arrow and press enter)
 
Hi Tim, welcome to the forum!

That is an odd one, indeed. Both of those dialogs would bring up an OS dialog, so just as an odd test, can you see if File > Open works?

Also try quitting LR and then hold down the Ctrl key when you open it again. That should bring up the Select Catalog dialog, and I'd be interested to know if the New Catalog button in that dialog works for you.
 
could it be a driver ? other clicks commands work ?
theres no menu shortcut to these, but what if you try ALt+F and N (or go to the menu item by the arrow and press enter)
That did not work, unfortunately.

Hi Tim, welcome to the forum!
That is an odd one, indeed. Both of those dialogs would bring up an OS dialog, so just as an odd test, can you see if File > Open works?
Also try quitting LR and then hold down the Ctrl key when you open it again. That should bring up the Select Catalog dialog, and I'd be interested to know if the New Catalog button in that dialog works for you.
Neither of those suggestions worked either.
File > Open was another dead click.
New Catalog using Ctrl+Launch was a dead click also.
Thanks for the welcome, though. Now for Plan B!
 
Hmmm, ok, let's test my theory a bit further... since you have a catalog open, what happens if you go to Export and try to set a destination folder.

And one more while you're there... how much stuff on your desktop? There was a really old bug that stuff got messed up when the desktop was overflowing.
 
Desktop has very little on it, as the computer is only about six months old. As far as exporting goes, I have five different folders that I export two, depending on the purpose of the photo. Everything seems to be working normally on that end. I haven't tried creating a new export folder yet
 
Victoria, how about trying a prefs reset?
 
So you can select a different folder when exporting - one that has to show the OS dialog in order to select it?
 
Let me clarify-I have five different folders that I have export presets too. I haven't tried creating a new one which requires going out to windows. These presets bar from before.
 
Let me clarify-I have five different folders that I have export presets too. I haven't tried creating a new one which requires going out to windows. These presets bar from before.
Tim,
I don't think Victoria was referring to export presets. I believe she was either asking about whether you're able to export a catalog or choose "Export..." from the file menu and select a folder on your machine.
 
choose "Export..." from the file menu and select a folder on your machine.

This one. I'm interested to know whether you can access the OS dialog from anywhere else in LR.
 
YES! Export as catalog worked fine, as did file > export when I tried it. (it did invoke the OS).
 
Last edited:
Yep, I've tried pretty much all of that. I've even uninstalled and reinstalled light room, removed and re-added my presets, and I've even gone so far as to copy the entire light room program folder from my laptop to overwrite my desktop. None of it has worked.
 
You tried a new user account and it still didn't work?
 
Congratulations, you have a very very rare problem. :unsure: Almost everything is fixed with a new user account or a reinstall. I can't help but wonder if you don't have a problem deeper in the OS, but I wouldn't know where to start looking on Windows any more.
 
I have also found that I cannot add a new folder to the catalog from grid view by using the dropdown arrow on the folders panel. Which basically limits me to what I have in there and not much else. I can add folders to folders that are already inside my catalog but if I wanted to add a new location or drive to the catalog, I am beat. Add subfolder works but add folder does not.
This is complete BS right now.
 
I was able to add a new folder to the catalog by changing the destination folder location at the import dialog. Not an elegant fix, but neither is having to use XMP sidecar files to get around the fact that I cannot import a folder as a catalog either. This sucks.
 
Did you ever try running in Safe mode?
 
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