# Lightroom 6.7 is causing some images to go black or partially black



## Monkeychange (Oct 23, 2016)

Hi There

I have Lightroom installed on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro. My Catalogue is housed on the Mac with all my photos stored on a Drobo 5N attached to my Wi-fi network which is made up of two Airport Extremes.
Over the past few weeks I have noticed that some files can suddenly go black or partially black. It is always horizontal bars. It can be .NEF (from a Nikon D800) raw files or >RAF files from a Fuji XT1 or x100s or tiff files created using NIK from within Lightroom.

Any thoughts?


----------



## clee01l (Oct 24, 2016)

It could be a network issue. It could be that your Drobo is failing. It the Drobo a NAS? Or is it connected to the Airport Extreme via USB? 
Can you use Finder and Previews to navigate to one of the suspect files and view it in Previews?  What happens if you copy a suspect file to your local drive and try to access it with LR?


----------



## Simon Tracy Forster (Mar 23, 2017)

Same with me. LaCie NAS drive plugged into the back of my Mac. I have put them on the C drive and it still happens. They look alright at first but then go black (most of each file) as the import finishes.


----------



## Jim Wilde (Mar 23, 2017)

Simon Tracy Forster said:


> Same with me. LaCie NAS drive plugged into the back of my Mac. I have put them on the C drive and it still happens. They look alright at first but then go black (most of each file) as the import finishes.



Hi, welcome to the forum.

What happens if you try to take one of these "black" images into the Develop module? Do you see the full image, or does it remain mainly black?


----------



## Simon Tracy Forster (Mar 23, 2017)

Hi Jim, 
The images look fine in the camera (Nikon D800). The JPEGs have downloaded without a problem. I import from the card using Nikon Transfer, and they look fine in Nikon View. 
When the RAW files start to import they look OK, but then as the import finishes this is when they get corrupted. Each picture is about 3/4 black with the band of useable material. Develop module does the same. I have also double checked it by importing onto my MacBook Pro and the same thing happens. There are 147 pictures from a job today.


----------



## Hal P Anderson (Mar 23, 2017)

I suspect that your troubles will go away if you stop using Nikon Transfer. It has a known bug on Sierra that damages images in such a way that Lightroom doesn't display them properly. There's no need to use it, anyway.

See this article: How Did Nikon Fix Transfer for macOS Sierra? | DSLRBodies | Thom Hogan


----------



## Simon Tracy Forster (Mar 23, 2017)

Oh dear. Does that mean that the files are corrupted and unusable now?


----------



## Hal P Anderson (Mar 23, 2017)

I don't know. Are they still on the card?

You said that Nikon View displays them properly. Can you use it to convert them into TIFFs or JPEGs? Not as good as raw, but lots better than nothing.


----------



## Rob_Cullen (Mar 23, 2017)

FYI
If the files have been affected by the Nikon transfer there is a fix method available here for the cameras listed-
Fix Corrupted Nikon NEF Images


----------



## Simon Tracy Forster (Mar 24, 2017)

I have just been on the phone to Nikon support and had a very helpful chap explain all.
i) I have been using an older version of Nikon Import that is not compatible with the current version of Mac Sierra 10.12.2. Nikon were aware of this and have made modifications and the new version is available here: 
http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/download/sw/89.htm
ii) They say that it is advertised on their support website, and they recommend every time Apple issue a new OS version that you check for updates. 
iii) The reason that the images look OK in Nikon View is that like the camera itself, these show JPEG previews and these have not been corrupted. 
iv) Converting the files to TIFFs in Nikon View doesn't work either, the black picture is the same.  
v) I have tried the Fix corrupted Nikon NEF images but unfortunately, that didn't work either. So they are beyond repair. Back to the client....
Thanks for all the advice, I hope this helps others.


----------



## clee01l (Mar 24, 2017)

Simon Tracy Forster said:


> I have been using an older version of Nikon Import that is not compatible with the current version of Mac Sierra 10.12.2. Nikon were aware of this


You realize of course that Nikon Transfer/ViewNX-i is irrelevant. You can insert the camera cards into the computer card reader and import directly into LR. It is a much faster workflow to import from the camera card directly into LR and use LR as intended to be, the data asset management tool.


----------



## Simon Tracy Forster (Mar 24, 2017)

clee01l said:


> You realize of course that Nikon Transfer/ViewNX-i is irrelevant. You can insert the camera cards into the computer card reader and import directly into LR. It is a much faster workflow to import from the camera card directly into LR and use LR as intended to be, the data asset management tool.


Thanks Cletus, I will try it.


----------

