I want to add photos to LR using add from SD or USB. I don't have internal space.

[Joshua Weiss]

I don't understand what I am doing wrong or if things have just changed within LR. I only have a small internal HD on my laptop. I can't just import a couple hundred gb of images from the external SD or USB. I want to be able to import photos from my SD card or USB device without copying the photos. Then I would edit them on the external device and export them from there to either my internal HD or back to the external device. I am near certain this has never been a problem for me in the past, but in the last several months, it has been a HUGE frustration and really messed up my flow and time management. SD card is unlocked and able to be written to.

Please help

Josh

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

Extract from the Help html- How to transfer photos from a camera or card reader to Photoshop Lightroom

You can select a location on your hard drive, on an attached external drive, or on a networked drive.

Note that  SD, USB, Camera Card, are specifically NOT mentioned by Adobe as a "Destination" for Importing.

I think it has "changed" - I believe that earlier versions did allow the catalog to reference files on a SD card, but that often allowed the accidental loss of images when the card was re-formatted in camera.

So consider SD and USB as not available for Import destinations (unless the USB is a connected Hard-drive)

I know a person that uses a 64Gb card as storage memory for CAD work files, and Lr will not allow it as the storage location for imported images.

There may be a possible work-around, like 'mapping' as a drive, but that becomes risky without the correct know-how and knowledge.

[Joshua Weiss]

I have a feeling you are correct. Man do I hate that!!! My system worked very well. I liked that I could put a large fast SD card into my laptop and not have an external drive tethered. I do believe this used to work because I'm pretty sure that's how I have done it for a long time. The big frustration outside of the above that this causes is that it requires me to have the files duplicated in order to work on them which adds a step to the process and makes it more clunky. My preference would be to edit from SD, then export what I want. If I choose to archive those originals, then I would go to external.

Thanks Adobe for making life more complicated unnecessarily

[dj_paige]

Do you have an external drive to use?

[Joshua Weiss]

I have several external drives. I went away from using them for LR a few years back because they aren't always stable and would come disconnected. Also, I'd rather use them as backups rather than sitting on the couch or in the car while I work on photos wherever I can.

[Rob_Cullen]

Joshua,

Have you tried Smart Previews?

You could keep you original files on an external hard-drive,  make Smart previews of only images you want to edit (eg. recent folders), disconnect the hard-drive, then edit while "on the couch or in the car" .

'Smart Previews' need to be located with the Catalog (like standard previews), but they take less space than the originals, you can select the files you want as Smart Previews. The only major limitations occur with Exporting, Printing or External editing.

[Bob Somrak]

You can do this easily on a Mac if you format the SD card in the computer and NOT the camera.  You can the use all the import options such as ADD COPY etc like a regular drive.  I don't think this works on Windows from comments in the past on the forum.  I use an SD card a lot when editing on a friends computer by just exporting as catalog with negatives to and SD.  Easier to carry than an external.

[Joshua Weiss]

I think you are correct. I have a USB and an SD that were both formatted in the computer (windows). My internal drive is only 512gb. Both the SD and flash drive are 128gb each.