# Lightroom stopped working on import



## Carmen (May 20, 2012)

I have lightroom 4, it was working fine until recently when it stops working every time i try to import photos. I click import photos and video and it stops working straight away.

What have I done to it??


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## Cathy Pyle (May 20, 2012)

*I have the same problem*



Carmen said:


> I have lightroom 4, it was working fine until recently when it stops working every time i try to import photos. I click import photos and video and it stops working straight away.
> 
> What have I done to it??



Hi there - I'm still using Lightroom 3.6 and have had exactly the same problem for the past week. I'll follow this thread with interest!


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## Jim Wilde (May 20, 2012)

Carmen said:


> I have lightroom 4, it was working fine until recently when it stops working every time i try to import photos. I click import photos and video and it stops working straight away.
> 
> What have I done to it??



Can you provide a bit more information? What exactly do you mean by "it stops working"? Do you get any error messages? Does the Import screen actually appear? How do you get out of the problem? Do you have to force quit?

@Cathy, welcome to the forum. Same questions to you please.


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## Carmen (May 21, 2012)

It comes up worth a windows error message all it says is lightroom had stopped working., then it says windows is searching for a solution to the problem and closes.


I managed to get it working again for now by reloading a backup catalog.


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## Jim Wilde (May 21, 2012)

Thanks. And this problem only happened when you tried to import? How do you import: from memory card or direct from Camera?

And the import now works OK on the backup catalog, yes?


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## Carmen (May 21, 2012)

Yes it only happened on import, importing from SD and CF card readers..  but the error was happening before I even got the dialotg to chose where to import from. One day it was fine the next I started getting the error messages. it's OK now I've restored a previous backup catalog though, suggests that something may have happened to the catalog file.


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## Cathy Pyle (May 22, 2012)

Thank you Jim. With help from friends at my camera club, I've now got it sorted - a new card reader was all that was required! Thanks for your help


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## Jim Wilde (May 22, 2012)

Good to hear. Thanks for reporting back.


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## Norfolk Lad (May 22, 2012)

I missed this thread and started another on the same topic last night.  Interesting that teh card reader possibly has something to do with it.  I imported on Sunday from a card reader but yesterday I was trying to import from a folder on my hard drive.  LR gwent quiet for a while without opening the import dialogue and then the Windows message came up.  As reported in my thread, somehow this was resolved by rebooting the computer.


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## Mardi (Jun 5, 2012)

I have a similar problem - even with card reader unplugged, as soon as I hit Import, Lightroom goes to "not responding" and just sits there. I can't even import from laptop hard drive. Export works, all other tabs seem to work, I've uninstalled and reinsatlled software with no luck. Any ideas?


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## Mark Sirota (Jun 5, 2012)

Do you use external disk drives or similar devices? Could it be hunting for one, or waiting for one to spin up?


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## Brad Snyder (Jun 5, 2012)

This may not fit the symptoms exactly. Have you ever had a secondary monitor installed?  Could the Import dialog box be appearing on the now non-existent secondary monitor?
To check, when things seem frozen, hit Alt-spacebar and then M, which should enable the arrow keys to move the window with current focus. See if you can move it into view.

BTW, welcome to the forums. Sorry you're experiencing problems.


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## Mardi (Jun 6, 2012)

I will try and answer both questions with 1 response. Same problem occurs with and without external disc connected. It is my laptop and I have no secondary monitor. It was working on this laptop, with this card reader a few months ago.

Thanks for the help.





Brad Snyder said:


> This may not fit the symptoms exactly. Have you ever had a secondary monitor installed? Could the Import dialog box be appearing on the now non-existent secondary monitor?
> To check, when things seem frozen, hit Alt-spacebar and then M, which should enable the arrow keys to move the window with current focus. See if you can move it into view.
> 
> BTW, welcome to the forums. Sorry you're experiencing problems.


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 6, 2012)

Are you really still using 3.0 as per your profile? If so I would suggest firstly downloading and installing the last dot release of LR3 (3.6), which is free and available here, then try importing again.

If that works, fine, but if not you might try resetting the preferences file, instructions for which are here.


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## Parafly (Jun 29, 2012)

Just FYI, I found out that if you have your phone plugged in (at least my Galaxy Nexus), then Lightroom import crashes, even if you are importing from a completely separate drive. There is some wierd conflict there.


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## Parafly (Jul 1, 2012)

Spent o er four hours on the chat with adobe support last week and didn't get the issue resolved. Tried creating new user profiles and removing services that could have conflicted. I'm super frustrated about this


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## Carmen (Feb 3, 2013)

I have recently realised that Lightroom does this every time I plug my phone in.... unplug the phone from the USB port and lightroom import works fine!! Must be a problem when other DCIM devices are attached.


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## MattFry (Mar 8, 2013)

Parafly said:


> Just FYI, I found out that if you have your phone plugged in (at least my Galaxy Nexus), then Lightroom import crashes, even if you are importing from a completely separate drive. There is some wierd conflict there.



Thanks for posting this, just found the exact same issue.  I have a Samsung S3.  LR would instantly stop working (windows 7 said the program has stopped working, click OK...)

Adobe, suggest you add this as bug fix...


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 8, 2013)

Hi Matt, welcome to the forum!

If you want to talk to Adobe, you'll need the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum.


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## LRT2013 (Jun 25, 2013)

*Import stops working mid-import*

Hello - joining the thread as I have similar issues. I am using LR 4.4, I have a new Mac OS X 10.8.4, I import directly from my camera which is a Nikon D800. It will import some but not all. I get a message that the files could not be imported because they could not be read/recognized. I exit LR, start over, it will import a few more then I get the same message again. The files are RAW/very large. I've tried also using "Import as DNG" which is no help. Suggestions? I do concert photography so you can imagine how many I take, have to sort through, edit, etc. Frustrating when I have to keep starting over!!!!! Thanks!
Linda


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## clee01l (Jun 25, 2013)

LRT2013 said:


> Hello - joining the thread as I have similar issues. I am using LR 4.4, I have a new Mac OS X 10.8.4, I import directly from my camera which is a Nikon D800. It will import some but not all. I get a message that the files could not be imported because they could not be read/recognized. I exit LR, start over, it will import a few more then I get the same message again. The files are RAW/very large. I've tried also using "Import as DNG" which is no help. Suggestions? I do concert photography so you can imagine how many I take, have to sort through, edit, etc. Frustrating when I have to keep starting over!!!!! Thanks!
> Linda


Linda, Welcome to the forum.  Do you have a Mac with USB3 port or are you importing using the camera cable connected to a USB2 port?


Can you bypass the camera and insert the card into a card reader?  Camera batteries are necessary to power the camera during import.  You need to use freshly charges batteries if you want to import from the camer and even this may not alway be reliable.   I recommend using a card reader always.  Otherwize there is drain on the camera battery and the (expensive) camera battery is only good for so many recharge cycles.

FWIW, I have a D800 and shoot 14bit RAW NEFs. I'v e always imported using either the built in SDXC card reader or a Lexar USB3 CF/SD combo.  Both are connected via USB2 since this is the only port available on my iMac.


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## LRT2013 (Jun 26, 2013)

clee01l said:


> Linda, Welcome to the forum.  Do you have a Mac with USB3 port or are you importing using the camera cable connected to a USB2 port?
> 
> 
> Can you bypass the camera and insert the card into a card reader?  Camera batteries are necessary to power the camera during import.  You need to use freshly charges batteries if you want to import from the camer and even this may not alway be reliable.   I recommend using a card reader always.  Otherwize there is drain on the camera battery and the (expensive) camera battery is only good for so many recharge cycles.
> ...




Hello and thanks for replying. I am importing directly from the camera, to a USB3. My iMac is new, just months old. I have had unfortunate experiences with my card reader - nearly lost all files, reader corrupted my card. I try not to use that, suggestions from other photogs to import direct from camera. Battery may be issue, am charging, will try again. This is not the first time I've had trouble tho. If the import from the camera is going to shred my batteries, do you have a suggestion for a better card reader? I have a Delkin I'm now afraid to use!!


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 26, 2013)

There are quite a few threads in which the relative merits/problems of importing from camera versus importing from card are discussed. Irrespective of those arguments, however, Lightroom is (in my view) inconsistent when using a direct-camera attachment.....there are scores of forum posts about problems such as yours being fixed by switching to a card reader, so for that reason alone I would always use a card reader (I have other reasons as well, but I don't want to re-ignite the "which is better" debate).

I understand your concern if you've had a bad experience with a card reader, all I can suggest is toss the Delkin and buy a new reader. I have a built in (USB2) reader which I tend to use most for the convenience factor, but I also have a Lexar Professional USB3 Dual-Slot reader for those (rare) occasions when I have a large import.


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## clee01l (Jun 26, 2013)

Linda, I have a Lexar Dual Slot USB 3.0 Reader 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FEFQDA/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Most often I use a SDHC card and Lexar SDXC slot. I've also used the built in SD slots on my iMac and MBP.  I also have a USB3 multi card reader for reading CF. cards on my MBP. 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0062EUE54/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You do not indicate whether this is a problem with CF or SD cards or whether the problem is apparent in one card type and not the other.  Do you experience this issue with more than one CF or SD card or can you isolate the issue to one card that might be failing?

Also card brand (and quality) is important. There are no name cards, 2nd tier and 1st tier brands. Lexar and Sandisk are the two 1st tier brands that Nikon specifies as tested satisfactorily with our camera. If you are using these then you are probably OK. One of the 2nd tier brands that I use is Transcend. I'll say that these are OK too. CF cards have a building logic controller and they require more power to function than an SD card.  So, a little more detail about the brand and types of card you are using, will help eliminate that part of the equation.


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## LRT2013 (Jun 26, 2013)

I do plan to toss the Delkin. Haven't used it since the first and last time it nearly ate 700 images - I hear the 32 gig CF cards are also maybe an issue. I use CF for the Nikon, not SD. Don't have a slot on my iMac for that. The type of card that was giving me a hassle yesterday is a Lexar Platinum II, 8 GB. I also notice I get a lot of "preview not available". I just tried to get pics off a 16 GB SanDisk Extreme and about 20 pictures wouldn't show up in the preview. Unplugged the camera, plugged it back in and now different pictures won't show in the preview. Not sure if it's just the size of the original RAW files doing this or what.

I have multiple ports on the back of my iMac. I've switched to a different port and that seemed to help. I just had better luck with the last card that had over 300 on it, although this was even a different CF card, a Pro-Master, high speed (so maybe that helped too). I'm admittedly not a computer wiz and just got both the iMac and Lightroom a few months ago so I'm quite a beginner with both - double whammy!

Thank you Cletus and Jim, for the help and suggestions. 

Linda


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## Carmen (May 20, 2012)

I have lightroom 4, it was working fine until recently when it stops working every time i try to import photos. I click import photos and video and it stops working straight away.

What have I done to it??


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## SkipBradley (Sep 2, 2013)

I had the "Not Responding" on attempting to Import last night after having a power outage. On Windows 7/64bit, I was able to fix the situation by:

1) Open 'Windows Explorer"
2) 'Right-Click' on the 'C' drive (or where ever your system files are)
3) Click on 'Properties'
4) Click on the 'Tools' tab
5) Under 'Error Checking', click on the 'Check Now' button
6) Select both the "Automatically Fix File System Errors' AND 'Scan For and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors'
7) Click 'OK'
8) Re-boot your computer and Error Checking will begin

WARNING! This could take HOURS!


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## masya (Dec 15, 2013)

Unplug all usb external devices including MOBILE PHONES! My problem is the same when mobile phone (SG S3) is connected


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 16, 2013)

Excellent tip masya, welcome to the forum!


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## gnewak (Mar 27, 2014)

You nailed my problem.  I had just installed older versions of InDesign and Illustrator, went through the effort of deleting them, multiple restarts.   I had plugged my Galaxy S4 phone in to charge as the battery was running low.   Thanks.


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 27, 2014)

Excellent, thanks for the success story, and welcome to the forum!


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## bridgkat (May 10, 2014)

*LR not importing*



Parafly said:


> Just FYI, I found out that if you have your phone plugged in (at least my Galaxy Nexus), then Lightroom import crashes, even if you are importing from a completely separate drive. There is some wierd conflict there.



Parafly, thank you, thank you.  I have never had problems importing.  Thought I had a bug or something in this version.  I had my Samsung Galaxy 4 plugged up that I had viewed some photos with.  LR kept crashing and crashing until I read your post, unplugged my phone and it worked as it always has before.  Thank you for this tidbit I NEVER would have figured out.
Myra:angel:


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## Ali Nasir (Jul 15, 2017)

Carmen said:


> I have lightroom 4, it was working fine until recently when it stops working every time i try to import photos. I click import photos and video and it stops working straight away.
> 
> What have I done to it??


I am using Lightroom 6 and have the same issue. can't do anything once I click to import Photos and videos. It remains just still and I cant use anyway on LR. and when I go to task manager details it says NOT RESPONDING. so have to end there. please help, i have about 500 pictures to work on from yesterdays shoot :(


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## clee01l (Jul 15, 2017)

Ali Nasir said:


> I am using Lightroom 6 and have the same issue. can't do anything once I click to import Photos and videos.


Welcome to the forum.  You profile says LR6.0/LRCC2015.0.  There were lots of very nasty bugs in the initial release of LR6.x/LRCC2015.x.   The latest stable release is LR6.10.1/LRCC2015.10.1.  Make sure that you are on the latest update to LR. Also Lightroom 6 uses the GPU as an additional data processor.  Many Windows installs have problems here. Some of these problems were related to an incompatible video card or out of date video driver. The latest stable release of LR does a better job of identifying supported GPUs and does not automatically try to add GPU acceleration in preferences if they are not supported.   Once you are are the latest version of LR, if you are still having these problems, turn off GPU acceleration in Preferences. And return here where we ca assess your install.


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