• 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.
  • Dark mode now has a single preference for the whole site! It's a simple toggle switch in the bottom right-hand corner of any page. As it uses a cookie to store your preference, you may need to dismiss the cookie banner before you can see it. Any problems, please let us know!

Trouble Moving Images

Status
Not open for further replies.

Beetone

Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2015
Messages
25
Location
Toronto, Canada
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Classic
I am trying to move images into LR which are currently in a folder on my hard drive. I have
selected this folder and also the destination folder which is in the LR catalogue. When I
hit "import" I get a message that there is no room to move some of the images and also the
previews of these images each bear the message "Preview unavailable for this file". I am new
to LR so any advice would be appreciated.
I should add that I am using LR5 (Mac version) and there is lots of unused space available on
the hard drive. All the images are in JPEG format.
 
Hi Beetone, welcome to the forum.

Ensure you have a backup of your photos first.

Have you tried to copy some or all photos from your source folder to the destination folder (as seen in LR) using the finder?
I mention copy just in case the move action messes things up.

IF the Finder copy works you know you have enough space on your HDD. IF not deal with that first before proceeding with this post.
Then Go in to the IMPORT module of LR and Import (Add) from the destination folder where you have copied your pics to. The pics are in the destination folder - all you're doing now is making LR aware of their location.

Wrt the unavailable previews - No ideas - someone else may know.
 
Hi Beetone, welcome to the forum.

Ensure you have a backup of your photos first.

Have you tried to copy some or all photos from your source folder to the destination folder (as seen in LR) using the finder?
I mention copy just in case the move action messes things up.

IF the Finder copy works you know you have enough space on your HDD. IF not deal with that first before proceeding with this post.
Then Go in to the IMPORT module of LR and Import (Add) from the destination folder where you have copied your pics to. The pics are in the destination folder - all you're doing now is making LR aware of their location.

Wrt the unavailable previews - No ideas - someone else may know.

I have copied the images to the destination folder as you suggested. When I go to the "Move" mode and highlight the destination folder (on the left of the screen) LR displays the rows of grey blank previews with "Preview unavailable for this file" on each.The "import" button is greyed out.
 
Welcome to the forum. When you use the Move option, LR will create temporary files in the Working storage area of your Disk Drive, It will then write a copy of the original image file in the Destination folder. Last it will delete the image file from the Source folder. It sounds like the message that you are getting is that your drive is full and there is no room for temporary files and two copies of the original. You need at least 125GB or 10-15% of free disk space available for OSX's working storage.
 
Welcome to the forum. When you use the Move option, LR will create temporary files in the Working storage area of your Disk Drive, It will then write a copy of the original image file in the Destination folder. Last it will delete the image file from the Source folder. It sounds like the message that you are getting is that your drive is full and there is no room for temporary files and two copies of the original. You need at least 125GB or 10-15% of free disk space available for OSX's working storage.

According to the disk utility I am using 51.79GB out of a total 743.93GB.
 
I don't recall mentioning Move. Why move something when it's already in the destination folder.

Then Go in to the IMPORT module of LR and Import (Add) from the destination folder where you have copied your pics to. The pics are in the destination folder - all you're doing now is making LR aware of their location.
 
I don't recall mentioning Move. Why move something when it's already in the destination folder.

Then Go in to the IMPORT module of LR and Import (Add) from the destination folder where you have copied your pics to. The pics are in the destination folder - all you're doing now is making LR aware of their location.

Apologies. I should have typed "Add" rather than "Move". My posting was otherwise correct. I don't know how to answer your question, however.
 
To better understand what it currently looks like can you share some images of your finder folder structure where you have you photos incl the folder where you copied the pics to (the destination folder as you called it)
Also post a screenshot of your LR folder structure and lets see if we can make sense of it. No promises though that I can fix it but we have several Gurus on hand too :D
A copy of the import screen would also help and what is the actual name of the Dest folder?

And if I understand correctly you have 743 -59 = 690 gb free?
 
To better understand what it currently looks like can you share some images of your finder folder structure where you have you photos incl the folder where you copied the pics to (the destination folder as you called it)
Also post a screenshot of your LR folder structure and lets see if we can make sense of it. No promises though that I can fix it but we have several Gurus on hand too :D
A copy of the import screen would also help and what is the actual name of the Dest folder?

And if I understand correctly you have 743 -59 = 690 gb free?

Yes, 690GB is available. The requests for further info will have to wait for a while as other matters require my attention! Thanks for your efforts so far.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top