# More Lr4.2 weirdness - previews prior to import



## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

In Lr3.6, when I put in my SD or CF card, I could select a thumbnail and hit "E" to review a loupe view of an import candidate before importing.  Now, Lr4.2 says "no preview available" when I click "E" with a selected thumbnail in grid view.  How do I remedy this so that E takes me to a loupe view of the import candidates?  Obviously the upgrade to Lr4.2 changed something but I don't know where to look for the problem to fix it.
Thanks in advance
Diane


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 30, 2012)

Are you using a card reader or camera cable?  The former is usually more reliable.


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## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

Hi Victoria.  Answer is "Neither" to your question above.  I was using the computer's SD slot, which is what I always use for SD's.  Thing is, it was showing the previews just a few days ago when I was importing.  By the way, Mr. Computer has not yet gone in for diagnostics because everything settled down after my last post on the other thread (no more freezes with either Lr or PS).  This "no preview available" is new.  If Lr can generate the thumbnail, why isn't it generating a preview?


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## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

O.K., things are getting even weirder.  I inserted the same card, this time using the card reader.  Not only did I get the same message of "cannot read preview" when hitting the E key for loupe view, _now even some of the thumbnails were not generated that were generated the first time around_.  So I cancelled import, ejected card and shut down Lr.  I then reopened Lr and re-inserted the same card this time back into my computer's SD slot.  This time all thumbnails were generated like the last time I used the computer card slot _and_ now the previews _could_ be viewed in loupe???  Very erratic behaviour by Lr's import module, I must say :crazy: !

And here's another thing.  Yesterday, when the import wouldn't let me preview in loupe, I had to import all images because I couldn't tell which were bad photos.  Then after the import I rejected several photos and "deleted them from disk".  Just now, on my latest insertion of that same SD card, the files I had rejected and removed from disk yesterday showed up in the import window (as expected because they are still on the card) but they were greyed out like they were after I rejected them in the library.  It would seem Lr remembered I had rejected them after import yesterday and applied the grey-out in the Import window.  Is this normal Lr behaviour ?

So to recap:
1. Yesterday's import using computer card slot --> "cannot read preview" in loupe view of Import window, all thumbnails generated.
2. Today's import of same card using card reader --> "cannot read preview" in loupe view of Import window + some thumbnails not generated
3. Today's import of same card using computer card slot (like yesterday) --> can now see preview in loupe view of Import window + all thumbnails generated, but the images I rejected and removed from disk in the Library module yesterday have their thumbnails greyed out in the Import window.

Any thoughts anyone? Victoria?

Thanks
Diane


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## Replytoken (Oct 30, 2012)

Diane,

What happens if you first copy the image files from the SD card to your computer's hard drive and then try to import them?

--Ken


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## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

Replytoken said:


> Diane,
> 
> What happens if you first copy the image files from the SD card to your computer's hard drive and then try to import them?
> 
> --Ken



I've never imported that way.


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## Replytoken (Oct 30, 2012)

DianeK said:


> I've never imported that way.



I understand, but I am trying to isolate both your card readers and your SD card from this problem so they can be ruled out as the culprits.  Most likely they are not, but it still helps to narrow down the possibilities.

--Ken


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## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

Replytoken said:


> I understand, but I am trying to isolate both your card readers and your SD card from this problem so they can be ruled out as the culprits.  Most likely they are not, but it still helps to narrow down the possibilities.
> 
> --Ken



OK, I'll take a few new shots and try importing as you suggested.


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## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

DianeK said:


> OK, I'll take a few new shots and try importing as you suggested.



OK, did as you suggested and this is what happened:

1. Copied to desktop from card then opened Lr Import.  Could see all thumbnails and previews in loupe view. 
2. Did not proceed with import. Ejected card and trashed the images from my desktop.
3. Inserted card into Sandisk card reader and opened Lr Import.  Could see thumbnails but the previews in loupe were _smaller_ _than the thumbnails_ .
4. Did not proceed with import and ejected card.
5. Inserted card into iMac card slot. Could see all thumbnails and the previews in loupe view were visible and the correct size.

So looks like I have two different issues going on.  (1) The Sandisk card reader is screwy  (2) Lr is not behaving consistently when using the iMac card slot.

I'm just getting the feeling that Lr4 was released in a rush and is still buggy and quirky.  Too bad because I really loved Lr3 but I need v4 because of a new camera. SIGH.

Diane


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## Replytoken (Oct 30, 2012)

DianeK said:


> So looks like I have two different issues going on. (1) The Sandisk card reader is screwy (2) Lr is not behaving consistently when using the iMac card slot.
> 
> I'm just getting the feeling that Lr4 was released in a rush and is still buggy and quirky. Too bad because I really loved Lr3 but I need v4 because of a new camera. SIGH.



Hi Diane,

Thank you for trying out my suggestion.  You may indeed have a scewy card reader.  Once way to further evaluate it is to use it with another machine.  Alternately, your card reader may be OK, but not play nice with your particular computer hardware and software set-up.

If you want to use LR3, you could use Adobe's free DNG Converter to convert you image files to DNG and then import them into LR3, but that does not realy solve the problem at hand.

One more question.  Were you opening LR and importing from within the program, or is your computer set up to automatically ask for an import when you insert your SD card into the reader or computer slot?

--Ken


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## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

1.  Re: Sandisk card reader.  It didn't start acting up until I loaded Lr4.2. I got it several months ago when I picked up a 7D because I needed to read the CF cards (the iMac only has an SD slot).  It worked without a hiccup with Lr3.6.

2.  My import process:  I open Lr first, then insert the card.  That way Lr's Import window opens automatically.  But if I forget and don't have Lr open before inserting the card, Canon ImageBrowser opens.  I shut that program down, launch Lr, then manually go to the Import function in Lr.  But I almost always remember to have Lr open before inserting my card.

P.S, I really do like Lr4's new developing process so prefer it to Lr3 for that.  But the whole program just doesn't feel as stable as Lr3.  Lr3 never did a single quirky thing for me.  Maybe Lr4 is just pushing my system to the limit in a way Lr3 never did.  I would also like to upgrade to photoshop CS6 but am hesitating until I make sure that Lr4 is stable.

Diane


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## Replytoken (Oct 30, 2012)

DianeK said:


> 1. Re: Sandisk card reader. It didn't start acting up until I loaded Lr4.2. I got it several months ago when I picked up a 7D because I needed to read the CF cards (the iMac only has an SD slot). It worked without a hiccup with Lr3.6.
> 
> 2. My import process: I open Lr first, then insert the card. That way Lr's Import window opens automatically. But if I forget and don't have Lr open before inserting the card, Canon ImageBrowser opens. I shut that program down, launch Lr, then manually go to the Import function in Lr. But I almost always remember to have Lr open before inserting my card.
> 
> ...



Hi Diane,

As I am not a Mac OS person, I am only going to be able to offer a few additional suggestions, but hopefully somebody else will join this thread who can offer more specifics.  First, unless it's your CF cards, you could try out another CF card reader, but the test that we did above already eliminated the reader from the issue.  Next, you could try to reinstall LR just in case something did not install correctly.

Either way, if you like LR4, the chances are that the next minor releases (i.e. 4.x) should work out more bugs, so you may only need to find a temporary solution.  I am not sure which is the path of least resistance for you, but as there are not large numbers of people with the identical problem, you may be closer to a solution than you think.  But, it still may take some effort to find it.  There are a large number of Mac users in the forum, so let's see if somebody can offer some useful diagnostics for you.  Hang in there!

--Ken


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## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

Thanks for your help Ken.  I am hoping for some Mac users to chime in because, for me, uninstalling and reinstalling Lr4.2 is an action of desperation and last resort....I am so _not_ computer-savvy  !
Diane


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## Replytoken (Oct 30, 2012)

Diane,

You may not need to uninstall.  You might be able to just re-install, but let's have a Mac user confirm.

--Ken


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## Replytoken (Oct 31, 2012)

DianeK said:


> OK, did as you suggested and this is what happened:
> 
> 1. Copied to desktop from card then opened Lr Import.  Could see all thumbnails and previews in loupe view.



Hi Diane,

I was re-reading this thread, and I am wondering if the simpliest solution is to copy your images from your cards to your mac before importing?  You stated above that this caused no problems.  It may be worth consideration, and it provides you with a temporary back up until you reformat the card in your camera.

--Ken


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## DianeK (Oct 31, 2012)

Replytoken said:


> Hi Diane,
> 
> I was re-reading this thread, and I am wondering if the simpliest solution is to copy your images from your cards to your mac before importing?  You stated above that this caused no problems.  It may be worth consideration, and it provides you with a temporary back up until you reformat the card in your camera.
> 
> --Ken



Well that is an alternative if Lr doesn't settle down.  Hopefully this problem will go away on its own like the freezing-up issue of last week did. We'll see what happens on the next import :hm:
Thanks again.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 31, 2012)

I'm slightly mystified about what's happening, but I was missing 2 thumbnails reading from a SanDisk reader yesterday too.  I'm wondering if an OS update has changed something, as this is the first time I've seen it and I've been using 4.2 for a couple of months.  But you're still on Snow Leopard, not Mountain Lion?

As far as the Canon software goes, you should be able to open the Image Capture app (find it in Applications folder) and with the card hooked up, you should be able to change the default program that opens when you insert a new card.


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## LouieSherwin (Oct 31, 2012)

Hi All,

I have had a similar experience recently when trying to import from my wife's iPhone directly into LR. She has about 3500 pictures on the iPhone and I wanted to select the ones from our recent travel. When I selected the iPhone as the source for the import usually only half the previews would be available. At first I thought it was due to the fact that iTunes insists on grabbing any iPhone for itself first. But even when I waited for iTunes and explicitly unmounted it I still was seeing the problem in LR import.

In my case the problem seems to be related to the number of images on my source device since it doesn't start loosing previews until the end. But it does seem to confirm that LR can fairly easily get confused. 

My workaround was to select a different source in the left panel, preferably one with no images in it, and then reselect the iPhone as the source. Usually after the second or third time LR would finally get all the previews and then I could finish the import. Maybe that will work for you Diane.

-louie


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## DianeK (Oct 31, 2012)

Hi Victoria and Louie.

Yes Victoria I am still on Snow Leopard so the missing thumbnails and previews issue can't be due to the Apple update (SL did not get an update).  My plan was to upgrade to Mountain Lion but until Lr settles down for me I don't want to make too many changes.  Hubby has upgraded to ML on his laptop so I am using him as a guinea pig (his cursing and ranting at Lion last year is what stopped me from upgrading to Lion at that time)  His is not the photo editing computer in the household so have not worked on Lr on his computer even though it is installed there too.  His MBP is for business so the last thing I want to do is cause any problems on it.

Louie, if this happens again I'll give your work around a try.

Thanks
Diane


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## Replytoken (Oct 31, 2012)

Victoria Bampton said:


> I'm slightly mystified about what's happening, but I was missing 2 thumbnails reading from a SanDisk reader yesterday too. I'm wondering if an OS update has changed something, as this is the first time I've seen it and I've been using 4.2 for a couple of months.



Victoria,

Could this be related too? http://www.lightroomqueen.com/commu...port-any-file-into-LR-4-2&p=121518#post121518

--Ken


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## DianeK (Oct 31, 2012)

Replytoken said:


> Victoria,
> 
> Could this be related too? http://www.lightroomqueen.com/commu...port-any-file-into-LR-4-2&p=121518#post121518
> 
> --Ken



Hi Ken.  Hmm, there does seem to be some similarity to the symptoms.  Thanks for picking up on that.
Diane


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## DianeK (Nov 5, 2012)

Just wanted to let everyone here know that import's previews in loupe view is still misbehaving.  I work around it by canceling the import action, ejecting the card then reinserting the card to relaunch the import process.  When I reinsert the card, the previews in loupe view are then viewable and at the correct size. 
But a new glitch has shown up.  If I view a preview in loupe then decide I want to review an image I had just looked at before by using the left arrow on the keyboard Lr will not let me go back and pressing G will not get me back to grid view either.  I have to click on the grid icon in the lower left corner to get back to grid view. Is it time to report this as a bug to Adobe?
Diane


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 5, 2012)

Definitely worth reporting Diane.  If you can come up with exact steps that will help them reproduce it, they stand a chance of fixing it.


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## DianeK (Nov 5, 2012)

Hi Victoria.  I just tried reporting a bug on Adobe but the process seems very confusing.  Do I really have to create a new account with "Get Satisfaction" in order to report bugs?  Is there not somewhere else on Adobe that I can directly report this?  I really don't want to join yet another forum.  If this is truly the process it certainly appears that Adobe is trying to make it very difficult to get feedback to them.  I would have thought the process would be more direct.
Thanks
Diane


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 5, 2012)

You should be able to sign in with your normal Adobe ID - the one you use for logging into your Adobe account.


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## DianeK (Oct 30, 2012)

In Lr3.6, when I put in my SD or CF card, I could select a thumbnail and hit "E" to review a loupe view of an import candidate before importing.  Now, Lr4.2 says "no preview available" when I click "E" with a selected thumbnail in grid view.  How do I remedy this so that E takes me to a loupe view of the import candidates?  Obviously the upgrade to Lr4.2 changed something but I don't know where to look for the problem to fix it.
Thanks in advance
Diane


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## DianeK (Nov 6, 2012)

Victoria Bampton said:


> You should be able to sign in with your normal Adobe ID - the one you use for logging into your Adobe account.



Well, that's what I thought too.  But after I signed in with my Adobe ID, it sent me to the "Get Satisfaction" page where I was supposed to set up yet another user account with a new user name and every user name I selected was rejected (and I did try some very complicated ones in the hopes of getting something accepted).  Did this twice, so I aborted mission.  There must be some weird intergalactic energy field disturbances between Adobe and myself these days :crazy:
Diane


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## Replytoken (Nov 6, 2012)

DianeK said:


> But after I signed in with my Adobe ID, it sent me to the "Get Satisfaction" page where I was supposed to set up yet another user account with a new user name and every user name I selected was rejected (and I did try some very complicated ones in the hopes of getting something accepted). Did this twice, so I aborted mission.



I share your frustration, Diane.  I know several companies that either use Get Satisfaction, or similar services.  Like you, I do not want to open up a new account, and think that companies should make it easy for their customers to provide feedback.  I realize they need to track issues, but putting the burden on the customer just seems lke a bad idea to me.  I hope that Adobe has alternate channels to receive input from its customers.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## DianeK (Nov 6, 2012)

Replytoken said:


> I share your frustration, Diane.  I know several companies that either use Get Satisfaction, or similar services.  Like you, I do not want to open up a new account, and think that companies should make it easy for their customers to provide feedback.  I realize they need to track issues, but putting the burden on the customer just seems lke a bad idea to me.  I hope that Adobe has alternate channels to receive input from its customers.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> --Ken



Thanks for understanding.  It just makes Adobe appear that they really don't want our feedback by putting such obstacles in the way.
Diane


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