# Trouble importing photos to DROBO on new iMac—painfully slow



## jessicaeve (Apr 4, 2011)

I just switched from an old macbook pro to a new iMac. Since making the change, I cannot import photos from LR into my library, which is housed on my Drobo. 
WHen I insert the CF card, the images are recognized, and the import begins, but nothing happens. Maybe if I gave it some time (an hour?) I would see a photo or two. But it is cripplingly slow. 

I can import onto my HD, so I believe the problem is between LR and Drobo. I read something about 64 bit kernel and so changed my machines settings. But the problem persists. 

Thank you for your help!


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## rjalex (Apr 4, 2011)

Hi Jessica,
DROBO is an external NAS isn't it ? What is the protocol which allows you to see this external unit from the iMac ? LR catalog cannot reside on external disks IIRC. Sounds like a system setup problem more than a problem within LR itself.
Do you see the DROBO filesystem from the finder ? Can you read files off it, such as copying one to your local HD filesystem ? Can you write a file to it like when copying a file from the local mac hd to the DROBO ? I would try with largish files to have a feeling about performance.
Sorry for not being of more help.


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## jessicaeve (Apr 4, 2011)

I don't know what an NAS is. . . . Drobo is a backup/raid system connected via firewire. My Lightroom catalogue is on my mac hard drive, but photos are stored on the drobo. 

I can edit photos that are already on the drobo. Exporting from the Drobo is also possible. Problem seems to be only with importing them to the drobo. 

Thanks for your comments rjalex. Maybe this gives you some more information?


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 4, 2011)

I have very little knowledge of the Mac world, but a similar problem in the Windows world (i.e. after moving configuration from one PC to another) would immediately raise 'permissions' as a potential source of the problem, particularly write permissions. When you say you can 'edit photos' on the Drobo, if you mean within Lightroom then of course Lightroom isn't actually writing to the actual photos, only to the catalog which is on your internal drive.

Try writing directly to the Drobo from outside Lightroom, e.g. use Finder to try to copy a file from your hard drive to the Drobo....


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## jessicaeve (Apr 4, 2011)

Yes, I do mean that I can edit from within LR photos that reside on the Drobo.

And, yes, I can move files from my computer hard drive to the Drobo.
The problem does seem to be contained to importing files via LR to the
Drobo.

Any suggestions regarding how to repair this crippling problem? I
should also clarify that I can import the photos via LR to the Drobo,
only that it is absolutely impossibly slow (1 raw file in 30
minutes!?)


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## sizzlingbadger (Apr 4, 2011)

How long does it take to copy a RAW file to the Drobo using the Finder ?


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## rjalex (Apr 4, 2011)

Could you do a Get Info on the lightroom catalog file you are using (the catalog is on the computer hard disk if I understood your setup it's only the photos that are on the DROBO) and tell us what the permissions are and then do the same for one of the photos on the DROBO ?
A NAS is a Network Attached Storage device that is used over the network (usually attached with an ethernet cable to the same router/hub of the computer) and implements file sharing protocols that let you "mount" the NAS disks on your local computer. If the DROBO is attached via firewire I guess it acts just as any other locally attached hard disk such as a USB2 external disk.


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## jessicaeve (Apr 4, 2011)

Happy to report issue is being resolved! Thank you all for your help.


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## rjalex (Apr 4, 2011)

Can you let us know what it was ?


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