• Welcome to the Lightroom Queen Forums! We're a friendly bunch, so please feel free to register and join in the conversation. If you're not familiar with forums, you'll find step by step instructions on how to post your first thread under Help at the bottom of the page. You're also welcome to download our free Lightroom Quick Start eBooks and explore our other FAQ resources.
  • Stop struggling with Lightroom! There's no need to spend hours hunting for the answers to your Lightroom Classic questions. All the information you need is in Adobe Lightroom Classic - The Missing FAQ!

    To help you get started, there's a series of easy tutorials to guide you through a simple workflow. As you grow in confidence, the book switches to a conversational FAQ format, so you can quickly find answers to advanced questions. And better still, the eBooks are updated for every release, so it's always up to date.

Import Problems with downloading photos to LR from memory card

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Harry Peterson

New Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
8
Location
53562
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Classic
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom 7, Classic
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
I have downloaded photos dozens of times into LR--no problem. Until today. When I hit Import it will show the photos on the card already downloaded, but no others. (I forgot to clean the card by formatting.) Any advice?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Under the import menu you should see
1524025378574.png


Check the box that says "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates"

If you don't see any other photos, they all should have been imported already.
Try a test - and take one new photo and try it again without cleaning the card.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Jimmsp said:
Under the import menu you should see
View attachment 10863

Check the box that says "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates"

If you don't see any other photos, they all should have been imported already.
Try a test - and take one new photo and try it again without cleaning the card.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have already done that--the don't important duplicates is already checked. The duplicates show up--grayed out--and nothing else--I have taken additional photos and they also don't show up--although they do on the camera screen. I have also checked Import All Photos, as well as Import New Photos. Thanks for your suggestion.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Harry Peterson said:
Thanks. I have already done that--the don't important duplicates is already checked. The duplicates show up--grayed out--and nothing else--I have taken additional photos and they also don't show up--although they do on the camera screen. I have also checked Import All Photos, as well as Import New Photos. Thanks for your suggestion.
Click to expand...

So, just to clarify. If you have a card with previous loaded photos and new photos, LR will not import or show the new photos.
And if you have a card with only new photos, LR will show those and will import them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Was the card used in two different cameras without reformatting in between?
If you open the card in Windows Explorer, do you see the new images and the old images?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Harry Peterson said:
Thanks. I have already done that--the don't important duplicates is already checked. The duplicates show up--grayed out--and nothing else--I have taken additional photos and they also don't show up--although they do on the camera screen. I have also checked Import All Photos, as well as Import New Photos. Thanks for your suggestion.
Click to expand...

I just took additional photos with a clean, newly formatted card. They downloaded fine, no problem. I have no idea what was going on with previous photos, but I will take a temporary, isolated problem over a long term one! Thanks. Harry
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
What happens if you use Explorer to copy the new images (and only the new images) over to a temporary folder somewhere on your hard disk, then get Lightroom to import them from there? If Lr is being confused by anything left behind by the other camera, that could let you at least get the rogue photos into Lr.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
clee01l said:
Was the card used in two different cameras without reformatting in between?
If you open the card in Windows Explorer, do you see the new images and the old images?
Click to expand...
No, same camera. I can see the photos in the camera, but am also unable to download them in the Windows photo software.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Laura Smith said:
What happens if you use Explorer to copy the new images (and only the new images) over to a temporary folder somewhere on your hard disk, then get Lightroom to import them from there? If Lr is being confused by anything left behind by the other camera, that could let you at least get the rogue photos into Lr.
Click to expand...
I will give that a try. Thanks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have this same problem. Have been using LR for years, with a Canon 5d Mk 2., up to date OSX High Sierra.

Lightroom CC Classic has gradualyy been deteriorating in its import function over the last 6 months or so. Have tried all the usual suggestions, duplicates etc etc.

Just tried a new CF card, formatted in the camera and took a few test shots. Again, cannot import from the card. Just shows out greyed images. No check delection dialog box.. Can do all sorts of work arounds, using Bridgre, resycncing etc, but this is no solution.

Any help much appreciated.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just to add, I can see the images in Bridge, PS, Finder, any other program, but LR CC can't handle it. Do I have a Catalog problem in LR CC Classic?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Are you importing via a direct camera attachment, or using a card reader? Generally speaking, the latter is more reliable in my experience. But if you are importing via card reader, can you try selecting the DCIM card folder via the "Files" section of the Source panel on the Import screen, rather than the default "Devices" section? Does that make any difference?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I am using Lightroom Classic CC so do not see a Devices option. LR sees the CF card as a drive, and whether or not I use the DCIM folder or the 100EOS5D folder produces the same greyed out result.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Card reader. Makes no difference whether I select the Devices source or go into LR seing the CF as an external drive and choosing the image folder. Same result in both cases ...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
OK, can we have a screenshot of the import screen after you've selected the source?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Harry Peterson said:
I have downloaded photos dozens of times into LR--no problem. Until today. When I hit Import it will show the photos on the card already downloaded, but no others. (I forgot to clean the card by formatting.) Any advice?
Click to expand...

This just happened to me today for the first time.
I import through an external card reader, and eject the card when it is done.
I had imported a couple of dozen shots from the card, then proceeded to edit them.
Card was ejected; PS was also open, LR was still open.

I went away, and shot another dozen. Then when I went to import them, LR failed to see them. It only saw the previous shoot.
I tried a few " look here - look there", then back to the card with no success.
Eventually I used Windows file Explorer to move them to the folder I wanted, then I did a "sync folder" which saw them all.
I eventually closed Lightroom & PS.

Before I wrote this, I took another shot on the same card.
I reopened LR, asked it to import -- and it showed the new photo, no problem.

Go figure.
I believe it might be related to the current bug of LR having issues with ejected cards and hard drives.
Solution - close LR after you are done processing and reopen it for a new import.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Attachments

  • LQForum_ss1.jpeg
    LQForum_ss1.jpeg
    132.3 KB · Views: 275
Upvote 0 Downvote
...and Bridge shows that these test images are in the destination folder, but Lightroom Classic CC will not see them...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just a thought. Did you eject the card properly or did you just remove it? If just removed it could have corrupted the files.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you hover the cursor over one of those greyed-out thumbnails, do you see a pop-up message? If so what does it say?

Generally, greyed-out thumbnails like that usually means that Lightroom thinks the image is already in the catalog, so we need to eliminate that possibility. One way is to uncheck the "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates" option to see if that changes things.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've recently had the same problem. I think it started with 7.3 or 7.3.1 . It's intermittent. The card reader is built into the laptop, and it's the same card and same camera, "Don't import duplicates" checked. The new photos aren't showing up in Grid view. I think that every time I've been able to solve it by quitting LR and restarting it. But there's an issue somewhere in the Import procedure.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top