No photos to import...

[CB98]

Trying to import photos to my 2018 12.9 iPP using an SD card and a third party Cablematters micro SD and SD card USB C reader. Card itself is formatted FAT/Master Boot Record and all photos (which are RAW by the way - but this shouldn't affect anything) are in folder DCIM and follow naming scheme of 8 characters followed by file type.

Import window comes up but with message 'no photos to import'.

The ONLY reason I can think this is happening is that I'm not using Apple's own USB C adapter; is this the case? The reason I think this probably isn't the case is because surely the import window wouldn't come up at all if the device itself wasn't recognised by the iPad.

I have tried using a JPEG file (just in case someone suggests it as a test) and get the same message.

Help appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[akash.nu]

It’s difficult for anyone to answer this type of questions unless they use the same app.

However, that window coming up doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It completely depends on how the app is developed.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

So you don't see the thumbnail images of the photos on the import page?

 

[charlituna]

Trying to import photos to my 2018 12.9 iPP using an SD card and a third party Cablematters micro SD and SD card USB C reader. Card itself is formatted FAT/Master Boot Record and all photos (which are RAW by the way - but this shouldn't affect anything) are in folder DCIM and follow naming scheme of 8 characters followed by file type.

Import window comes up but with message 'no photos to import'.

The ONLY reason I can think this is happening is that I'm not using Apple's own USB C adapter; is this the case? The reason I think this probably isn't the case is because surely the import window wouldn't come up at all if the device itself wasn't recognised by the iPad.

I have tried using a JPEG file (just in case someone suggests it as a test) and get the same message.

Help appreciated!

Thanks.

have you tried a card that isn't FAT formatted. that could be the issue. which means that you might not be able to use the SD Card reader. you might have to try directly connecting the camera to the iPad

 

[CB98]

Thanks for the help. Just gave up on that card and used the one I use for one of my cameras. Worked perfectly even though within the DCIM folder there are then sub folders (how the camera organises the photos).

Obviously, if I’m at my Mac then Airdrop is also a viable option.

 

[Notechy]

Can anyone advise, or point me to advice, or whether I should be able to get photos from a usb pendrive to my 2018 Pro? And would they keep my album structure? I am looking for an alternative to syncing via itunes which is not always reliable for me.

 

[akash.nu]

Can anyone advise, or point me to advice, or whether I should be able to get photos from a usb pendrive to my 2018 Pro? And would they keep my album structure? I am looking for an alternative to syncing via itunes which is not always reliable for me.

Only third part hardware is able to achieve this and iOS will possibly not integrate well with it.

 

[CB98]

Can anyone advise, or point me to advice, or whether I should be able to get photos from a usb pendrive to my 2018 Pro? And would they keep my album structure? I am looking for an alternative to syncing via itunes which is not always reliable for me.

I forgot to mention, but if you do want to keep the album structure then you can airdrop the main file containing the sub folders over to your iPad and save it under ‘on my iPad’ or in iCloud Drive if you use it. Obviously this relies on a) having a Mac from which to airdrop them and b) not using a pen drive.

This also avoids issues with getting your photos out of the Photos app afterwards if you want them in their original condition. It worked for me when I was going away and couldn’t take my MBP to edit photos on but COULD ship them over to my iPad. It obviously wouldn’t have worked if I was already out an about and moving them from a pen drive on the go. Really, I think importing photos and viewing them like that is really only practical if you have to show photos to a client etc. but if you actually want some real organisation and practicality and can afford to take the time to put them on your Mac first and then airdrop then that’s the best way.

 

[Notechy]

I forgot to mention, but if you do want to keep the album structure then you can airdrop the main file containing the sub folders over to your iPad and save it under ‘on my iPad’ or in iCloud Drive if you use it. Obviously this relies on a) having a Mac from which to airdrop them and b) not using a pen drive.

This also avoids issues with getting your photos out of the Photos app afterwards if you want them in their original condition. It worked for me when I was going away and couldn’t take my MBP to edit photos on but COULD ship them over to my iPad. It obviously wouldn’t have worked if I was already out an about and moving them from a pen drive on the go. Really, I think importing photos and viewing them like that is really only practical if you have to show photos to a client etc. but if you actually want some real organisation and practicality and can afford to take the time to put them on your Mac first and then airdrop then that’s the best way.

I am really grateful for this reply. I use airdrop quite often but only to share locally the occasional item. I had not considerd it for bigger transfers but on a trial of a few albums, on your suggestion, the transfer went well.

But on arrival I found the files to be not available in a very user friendly way for browsing through large numbers of slbums and photos. While I never use the Photo app on the Mac because of my desire to keep control of the folder structure, I do like using the Photo app on the iPad. But there is no eay of firecting the airdrop contents there?

Thanks again.

 

[CB98]

I am really grateful for this reply. I use airdrop quite often but only to share locally the occasional item. I had not considerd it for bigger transfers but on a trial of a few albums, on your suggestion, the transfer went well.

But on arrival I found the files to be not available in a very user friendly way for browsing through large numbers of slbums and photos. While I never use the Photo app on the Mac because of my desire to keep control of the folder structure, I do like using the Photo app on the iPad. But there is no eay of firecting the airdrop contents there?

Thanks again.

Do you use the iCloud photos? Based on you never using the photos app on your Mac I would guess not. With any photo transfer in the photos app there is no way to maintain folder structure; your best bet is albums.

What you can do is drag the photos to your photos app on your Mac from finder (which will obviously be empty if you don’t use it at all/will have some in if you use iCloud photos). If you then put them into albums here and airdrop the albums to your iPad they should then appear on your iPad in the photos app. As far as I know there’s no way to choose where they’ll go otherwise; if you airdrop from finder on your Mac your iPad will choose files... but photos will go to photos.

In terms of airdropping the whole album, you’ll have to see about that. In other words, you may have no choice but to airdrop the photos straight to your iPad and then organise organise them there and then (and the highlighting feature in photos can be useful here for mass moving/deleting photos). You’ll have to test this.

I still think files will be your best bet because of how (Affinity, at least) only lets you save to files rather than photos. Out of interest, could you tell me how the files weren’t available in a user friendly way when they were on your ipad? On mine I send them to the ‘photos’ location created by Affinity Photo which is in ‘on my ipad’ and they maintain the same structure as the Mac (unfortunately you can’t create folders in ‘on my ipad’ but there are some there you can use). If it’s an issue of viewing the individual files, you can switch to a list view by pulling down from the top (below the search bar) to reveal ‘add folder’, ‘sort by name’ and then on the right side an icon with three lines and three dots - this will let you view in a vertical list and you can then further simplify by choosing how you’ll sort them. Bonus tip - if you use Affinity and do save them in that photos section on ‘on my ipad’, every time you open a photo from there it’ll automatically open in Affinity (saving you locating it from the Affinity app - just cancels a step).

Let me know how you get on.

 

[Notechy]

Let me know how you get on.

Thanks again for generous assistance. I will fully understand if you bow out rather than spend more time and forum space on my query.

First, the context. The Mac is our main storage device and finder is our route to organisation. Our main collection of about 50,000 photos (and a few short videos) is one super-folder, subdivided into about 320 folders, a few of which in turn have subfolders. The folders have date names (eg 2018.12), sometimes with something added to this (eg 2018.12 Majorca). Few of the photos originate from Apple devices. We have a lot scanned from old slides and will be adding more from scanned photos, but most come from conventional digital cameras. We view this material by Home Sharing to our Apple TV. And all of the photos are replicated, in the folders with folder names, on our 2 iPads and iPhones so that either of us can access them anywhere and quickly find photos for which we are looking. This replication used to be easily achieved by using the syncing function of iTunes. This met our needs perfectly. But until recently, for some 18-24 months this was not working at all, or erratically (despite many hours of escalated support from Apple Care). We have recently again had success on all 4 portable devices but fear that it will start failing again, or Apple will simply abandon syncing unless from the Mac's photo app or to the Cloud. Hence my interest in alternative routes!

So, I am reluctant to have to repeat the organisation of the 320+ albums within the photos app on the iMac - but might not be able to rule it out. I certainly do not want to organise 4 times on the portable devices! I do not have Affinity (I have DxO Photolab on the iMac). To avoid the risk of messing things up on my iPad, I pursued your suggestion on the iPhone; I assume this works the same way. As the airdropped material was coming in, the iPhone offered the "on my phone" options of Acrobat, Keynote, Numbers, Pages - no Photos. I tried Acrobat. In Acrobat I can see the folders, then get list of file names, no previews, and if I click on one I get the photo but cannot directly scroll to the next. In fact, in Keynote things work rather better . I do see the folder names, then photo names and thumbnail, and having clicked on a photo I can scroll forwards or backwards. So contrary to my first impression, this may be a workable alternative if syncing again starts failing. So thanks again.