3 Replies Latest reply on Jan 17, 2010 12:54 PM by Owen Carey

    completing import/previews with unreadable files

    Owen Carey
    Owen Carey Jan 11, 2010 12:46 PM

      I was just importing last night's job of 2500 images shot during a theater production into lightroom 2.6 - 64 bit on my 8 core Mac pro tower running 16 Gigs of RAM. As I often do after such a production - I return to the studio - move all the files from the cards into a single folder on my desktop then import them all into lightroom creating copies of the RAW files and the catalogue itself onto redundant hard drives. I also always create 1:1 previews for quick and easy viewing at any point in time. It's usually late in the evening, and I set Lightroom about this task while I go home to sleep, then begin my edit in the morning with catalogue built and previews made.

      HOWEVER-- after the catalogue was imported but BEFORE lightroom began making previews, lightroom posted a dialogue box on my screen advising me that a file was somehow unreadable -- either corrupt, or the wrong kind of file, COMPLETELY STOPPING THE TASK OF BUILDING THE PREVIEWS.

      So I returned in the morning, no previews were made -- and two hours later I'm not even 1/2 way through building the previews. SO-- ADOBE people -- or any lightroom users out there -- is there any way for Lightroom to continue building previews instead of waiting for me to respond to this dialogue box first. Lightroom assumes apparently that I at my computer to respond to this dialogue box.

       

      It seems like such a horrible waste of my time when I'm under deadlines to get this work done. I'm happy for the reminder that one of my files was a movie file or a corrupt file or whatever -- please lightroom... sequester these file on my desktop somewhere and finish the job!

       

      Does anybody know if there is a preference I can click on or off to prevent this from happening. Trying to edit large files that are 10- 21 megapixels and waiting for 1:1 previews to open takes a long time of and by itself -- but waiting and extra 4 hours to have previews built that should have been made while was asleep is something that should NOT be happening. I'm about to make two changes that should speed up my workflow i.e: install a fast ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB of RAM, plus upgrade to snow leopard to take better advantage of the 8 cores of processors that my machine has. But even these upgrades would be for nought when Lightroom STOPS the process in it's tracks.

       

      HELP-- SOMEONE -- PLEASE!!!

       

      owen carey

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        • 1. Re: completing import/previews with unreadable files
          Ian Lyons MVP & Adobe Community Professional
          Ian Lyons Jan 12, 2010 3:42 PM (in response to Owen Carey)

          Having had similar a experience on at least one occasion I can feel your pain. Alas, I don't think that a  lot can/will be done to change what Lr does when traps what it believes to be a corrupt or unreadable image. I'm certainly not aware of a preference that would allow Lr to bypass such images.

          • 2. Re: completing import/previews with unreadable files
            bill@sshaphotos
            bill@sshaphotos Jan 17, 2010 10:35 AM (in response to Owen Carey)

            I just finished a folder sync with Lightroom 3 and also ran in to the same error.

             

            It would be nice to move the Error Dialog box to display after everything is done, telling you all the errors it found.

             

            Having the coming back after letting it run all night just to wait for a hour or more for it to build previews is unproductive.

             

            Bill.

            • 3. Re: completing import/previews with unreadable files
              Owen Carey Level 1
              Owen Carey Jan 17, 2010 12:54 PM (in response to Owen Carey)

              thanks for the note Bill -

               

              I also posted my question to the forum for new features in the next lightroom iteration. Seems like once the import stops and before the previews are made -- that's when the dialogue box opens stopping the previews from being made. I'm not an engineer and I don't write code, but it seems to me the software could and should continue with the task at hand ( import AND build previews) for all the image files that it has correctly imported, while it segregates and does not import -- and later confirms the unreadable files.

               

              Actually I don't think that Lightroom actually imports the disputed files at all -- if they are .mov files I don't think they can -- if they are corrupt files, they advise me of the camera given file name - not the re-named file that my import menu would give it, leading me also to believe that they were not imported into the catalogue or moved into the assigned destination folders. I would love to get some clarification from adobe on this.

               

              I would imagine that this is a matter of overlooked scriptwriting that has not yet come to their attention... or a script that could be made better if enough people had a problem with it. I was very much hoping to get a response from someone at adobe to my query -- but nothing yet -- hopefully the response will be the elimination of this roadblock in the next version or update. Often it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and maybe there are not as many people out there as myself who have run into this problem, and posted inquiries to the forum. Theater shooters like myself who might shoot 2,500 to 3,500 images in 2-3 hrs, event photographers, sports photogs, wedding photographers and fashion photographers are all the kind of people who can shoot thousands of images in a day or a matter of hours. Unless we are sitting at the computer when the import finishes, we will be waiting for previews to build - be they standard or 1:1 previews - until after we have read and checked the warning dialogue. hopefully this will be fixed soon or we will get some sort of explanation.

               

              I have a lot of admiration for the folks at adobe, their genius, their talent, their accomplishment and their responsiveness to our issues, so I hope this problem gets addressed soon - I cannot be the only one out there who was STOPPED at this point in the workflow.

               

              cheers, and best of luck