# Import crashes when synchronising



## Norfolk Lad (Jan 22, 2019)

If I ask LR to synchronise a folder, I have it set to show the import dialogue before importing any fresh pictures, so I can check what is being imported.  When (eventually) the Import dialogue comes up, it will then crash nine times out of ten.  This has been going on for a couple of years now.  If I open the Import dialogue without going through the Synchronise Folder dialogue, it works just fine every time.  Do others have this problem and is there a cure?


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## Norfolk Lad (Jan 27, 2019)

Any ideas?


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## MarkNicholas (Jan 28, 2019)

I had (and still have) a similar problem when trying to synchronize with a folder that contains 1000s of photos. How about yours ? In the end I was forced to import the usual way.


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## Norfolk Lad (Jan 28, 2019)

I've not noticed any relationship to the number of pictures in a folder but I've not thought of looking.  I'll check next time I need to synchronise.   I'd say all the folders in question contain 1000+ photos.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 28, 2019)

If you go to the import dialog without going through synchronize, does that crash too? Any Android devices attached to your computer?


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## Norfolk Lad (Jan 28, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> If you go to the import dialog without going through synchronize, does that crash too? Any Android devices attached to your computer?


No, see my original post, and no Androids attached.


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## MarkNicholas (Jan 28, 2019)

Norfolk Lad said:


> I've not noticed any relationship to the number of pictures in a folder but I've not thought of looking.  I'll check next time I need to synchronise.   I'd say all the folders in question contain 1000+ photos.


If that is the case, then I suggest (as a test) trying to synchronize with a folder which contains just a few photos and see if it works on that folder. If it does then we would appear to have the same issue.


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## Norfolk Lad (Jan 31, 2019)

MarkNicholas said:


> If that is the case, then I suggest (as a test) trying to synchronize with a folder which contains just a few photos and see if it works on that folder. If it does then we would appear to have the same issue.



Sorry for the delay.  I've not had any folders that needed importing new photos until today.  I've just synchronised a folder with 150 photos in it and the import worked just fine.  It does appear to be a problem that only occurs when the folder has a large number of photos in it.  Can't say exactly where the cut-off point is but assume around the 1,000 mark.


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## clee01l (Jan 31, 2019)

Norfolk Lad said:


> Sorry for the delay.  I've not had any folders that needed importing new photos until today.  I've just synchronised a folder with 150 photos in it and the import worked just fine.  It does appear to be a problem that only occurs when the folder has a large number of photos in it.  Can't say exactly where the cut-off point is but assume around the 1,000 mark.


Importing images whether through the regular import process or the Syncgronise function requires the creation of several temporary file (previews, intermediate work files etc.)   I would check the free space available for working Storage (usually C:\TEMP) as well as the free space needed for the swapfile.   If you have less that 100GB of free space on the C:\drive Lightroom can fill it up with temporary files.  Other Windows apps are also using this same working storage.   If they too have unreleased working storage, then Lightroom and Windows can run out of space causing the crash.   Also another Windows limit is file handles or GDI objects.   That GDI object limit for all processes is around 10,000.  Although this may seem to be a lot, there are lots of background tasks and other apps besides LR that are running.


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## Norfolk Lad (Jan 31, 2019)

Thanks Cletus.  That's very interesting but why would regular imports work quite normally every time but imports via Synchronise fail nearly every time?  And I've loads of free disc space on three hard drives including 356 GB on C-drive which is SSD.


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## clee01l (Jan 31, 2019)

I did not say this was the cause, only that it could be.   With 356 GB free on C:\ , I don't think you need to worry about using up all of your available working storage.    The other issue might still be exceeding that ~10K GDI object limit that Windows imposes.   The next time you run into this, open Task Manager and take a look at the GDI object counts for all processes. Windows programs crash usually because of a competition for available resources.    Normally this is a soft fail but if windows messages the app with a condition that the app is not coded to handle, a hard crash can occur.   In worst case, a BSOD os the result.


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## Norfolk Lad (Jan 31, 2019)

Thanks again.  I'll check the task manager next time it happens.  What's a BSOD?  Probably quite obvious but I can't at the moment work it out.


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## Hal P Anderson (Jan 31, 2019)

BSOD: blue screen of death.


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## Norfolk Lad (Jan 31, 2019)

Oh.  It's not that bad!!


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