LR 6.14 No Longer Importing Photos - What's Up?

[ronn356]

Lightroom Version Number

LR 6.14

Operating System

Hello all:

I have used LR Classic 6.14 on my iMac 10.10.5 Yosemite and everything was working fine for years. On Sunday, May 1, 2020 I went to import some photos from a desktop folder and the images available for uploading (not already in the master collection) did not show up as ready to be imported. I checked the image appends, checked that they were in a folder, checked that I was importing using the usual LR protocols, but everything was done in customary order. I tried to import several times using standard procedures but with no positive response. The images would not show up on the LR import screen as "ready to import."

I then tried to import the latest photos taken from a photo shoot using the camera's memory card and performing the usual procedure for doing that. No photos recognized. Unable to import.

I then rebooted LR to see if it was having a hiccup. No change in its bad behavior. Did it again. Still no joy.

This was a rather sudden development, as I had successfully imported photos from a desktop folder on Friday, May 15 and Saturday, May 16. With no problems...

My immediate thought was that Adobe no longer supported LR 6.14 and was attempting to push me toward subscription usage. Then I read some posts on the Internet by other folks who may have been having similar problems. No solutions that my non-technical mind could wrap around, just a lot of acronyms and lists of coding.

So, my question is: What do I do next? I am trying to avoid upgrading LR, as I use it infrequently and do not fully exploit its very sophisticated features. I am hoping that it does not have to do with my ancient but trusty iMac and its ancient but solid OS level. For the record, I am having no other problems on any other software - just LR.

Can anyone help me with steps on fixing this? Would be much obliged,
=Ronald

 

[clee01l]

You say your MacOS is 10.10.5. Is there a chance that you upgraded to MascOS 10.15.x? There are some Apple security changes that too place in 10.15 that could explain what you are seeing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[ronn356]

I read about upgrades and how certain ones might cause problems, so I have not upgraded anything. I have attached a screen shot of what my current system is comprised of.

Being somewhat of a Luddite and very wary of large corporations and their imperious, arbitrary behaviors, I had instantly wondered whether this was a secret move by the Home Office to force me to switch.

If that is not the case, do you have a diagnostic suggestion?

thanks,
=rds

 

[ronn356]

When I import, I have always selected "Copy as DNG" and that has successfully imported images to my LR platform. However, in the situation I am now experiencing, the images do not even show up as being available to impost, even if I select "Copy," "Move," or "Add." Nothing seems to work.

The destination folder is on my La Cie portable hard drive where my catalog is stored.

 

[Hal P Anderson]

Could you show us a screen shot of your import dialogue showing the problem?

 

[ronn356]

Below is a series of screens showing the steps I took as normal to upload an image from a desktop folder. I'll send one next of an attempt to upload new images from a Canon camera memory card. BTW, the random dialog box came up at one point and the upload destination switched to a "pictures" storage on my computer's had drive. I then switched it back to the La Cie (as its destination), which I have been using for two years with no problems. Image 6 shows that it still has lots of room left on it.

Image 7 shows the folders within LaCie. I have been storing images in "Pictures to Sort fr Photos" and have not had problems up to now.

 

[clee01l]

With only 4GB of RAM you will be making maximum use of the Swapfile. Importing to and Copying to DNG will create temporary files in Working storage Bother the swapfile and Working storage use the Freespace on the Primary disk drive. (MacIntosh HD) If you don't have 100GB of freespace, then Lightroom may be stopping and not telling you why. How much free space is on "MacIntosh HD"?

 

[ronn356]

When I tried to upload photos from my Canon SD card, all I saw as in the screen shot was a blank screen and "cancel" as my only highlighted option. Usually the new photos show up as bright images and the already uploaded images are grayed out. The "source " image on the top left of the screen took some time to show up, which makes me think that the card's image files were being uploaded even though I could not see them displayed.

This makes me wonder if I have inadvertently pressed a key to disable something.

Cletus:

I just saw yr email about swapfile and free space on the desktop's hard drive. It looks like I have 93 GB of space... I had added a WD external hard drive to handle computer needs (provide Time Machine backups), and then also added the la Cie drive to store just LR-related information. I am including images below because your comments may indicate that I have a problem with my computer's internal memory. Please take a look at the images and let me know what you think.

 

[Jim Wilde]

You need to expand the Destination panel in the Import dialog so that we can see exactly what you have selected there. Redo the screenshot when you've done that.

 

[ronn356]

Jim Wilde:
Slide 4 should indicate what you are requesting.

Cletus:
I took my La Cie drive and hooked it up to my MacBk Pro which also has LR 6.0 installed. I checked its free memory and it has tons.

I was able to load both desktop images and also images from the SD card into the La Cie using the LR program. The images are now visible in my LR collections and available to manipulate.

Therefore, it would appear that you are onto something in terms of my iMac's internal drive not having enough free memory, if I am reading you correctly.

In order to free space up on the internal hard drive, is this something that I could do (a non-techie) or should I consult with a tech repair shop to perform that?

 

[clee01l]

In order to free space up on the internal hard drive, is this something that I could do (a non-techie) or should I consult with a tech repair shop to perform that?

There's no problem with Disk space. With 93GB you have about 20% of that disk to be used for the Swapfile and any temporary files that Lightroom and other apps might need to create. This should be sufficient. If you reboot, the temporary files are dropped sop this should are up all of the available freesia that could be used by Lightroom.

The 4GB of RAM is the minimum memory needed to rum LR6. 12 GB is recommended, When Lightroom needs more RAM, the OS will swap out portions to the Swapfile and back again when an app called for that bit of memory.

 

[ronn356]

Hmm... Well, if there is room for the files in the available disk space on the desktop, and if the 6.0 version of program seems to run properly on the laptop, then that might imply that there is a problem with the desktop computer or the LR 6.14 program that is on it.

Your opinion?

 

[clee01l]

Hmm... Well, if there is room for the files in the available disk space on the desktop, and if the 6.0 version of program seems to run properly on the laptop, then that might imply that there is a problem with the desktop computer or the LR 6.14 program that is on it.

Your opinion?

It would suggest something in the hard ware chain from the camera card to the computer is amiss. Are ut using an internal card reader, external card reader attached via a USB cable to the Camera itself as a card reader connected to the computer via USB? Since the card works on import to the MBP it does suggest a hardware fault on your ancient 12 y.o. iMac.

 

[ronn356]

Prior to Sunday, May 17 I was able to import photos:
1. from my desktop
2. from an SD card inserted into an adapter and then into the ISB slot on my computer
3. from a thumb drive inserted into the USB.
All of these methods had worked fine. All of this changed on Sunday.

I contacted Adobe today and they informed me that LR 6.14 would not work on my 10.10.5 system, that I needed to upgrade my OS. Funny that LR 6.14 worked fine up until Sunday, and that it also (right now) works on my laptop that also has 10.10.5.

I suppose that I could upgrade my OS to something newer, but first I would have to obtain the upgrade discs as they are no longer available from Apple, if I have read things correctly. It appears that I could upgrade to 10.11 or 10.12 on my current system. Maybe 10.13... you are correct - my system is old.

Or I could just try to reinstall the LR 6.14 on my desktop. Adobe advised the OS upgrade.

Opinions? Thanks for pointing out what to look at and for. I feel like I am on a solution path.

 

[clee01l]

The help desk at Adobe works off of a script. LR 6.x works on OSX 10.10. They don’t know what to do when you go off script.

Upgrading to Catalina (10.15.x) will cause you more headaches and the installer is 32 bit and you can only upgrade the OS you can no longer reinstall LR6.x on Catalina.

Adobe stopped supporting LR6 some time ago LR6.14 is the last update. It is considered a legacy app and will run as it always has on your legacy OS.

In my previous post, I suggested that you have a hardware problem. And I asked some questions about your import hardware chain. If you answer those we can probably resolve it if it is resolvable.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[ronn356]

Cletus:

I will ask your question on Wednesday to a techie who understands what all of that means and get back to you directly.

 

[ronn356]

Cletus:

I'm back. This is what I did:

1. I sent my computer off to my repair guy and he upgraded my OS to 10/11.6 El Capitan as part of an iterative process. Will probably stop at Sierra as this machine is old.
2. He checked for hardware faults and found only a defective fan program and a vertical line on the screen, unrelated to my LR woes.
3. After I got it back, LR would still not import photos, so I went back to online Adobe Support and engaged the chat line, and then spent two hours with them.
4. We first reloaded and reinstalled LR 6.14. They used screen share and asked me to perform SOP re importing photos, but still same problem (not importing). Because we could not get to the bottom of the issue, they kept switching off to someone more skilled and more acquainted with the "failure to import" malfunction.
5. The fourth Virtual Assistant used Screen share and went to the LR preferences panel. VA then looked at lists of LR preferences code faster than I could track. The VA found the line needed, typed in "old" into the code, and then closed that screen.
6. I then tried to load photos and it all started to work again as normal. It all came down to a word typed into the code, which somehow had been deleted. Or maybe the code had been defective all along.

I'm not going to call this magical, but I do understand enough about coding that if something is wrong, then all ** can break loose and in a random fashion. In this case there was a defect in the coding. At this point I am very grateful for what they did, and if it still works tomorrow, I will be even more grateful.

Meanwhile, I am going to start shopping for a newer computer, but one that will use an OS that will support LR 6.14. I'll have to do some research on this.

I hope that this information helps,
=rds