Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Trouble importing photos into Photos

J

jclin10

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 1, 2009
149
17
I've been trying to import photos into Photos and there are a bunch for which I get an "unknown error" when I try to import them. It's always the same photos, so I don't think it's an error like a bad cable. It happens whether I am trying to import directly from the SD card or from a separate hard drive onto which I've already transferred the photos successfully. Strangely, I can open the files using Preview, so I wonder if there is just some reason why I can't import them into Photos.

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on and whether there is any way for me to fix this? If necessary, I'd be happy to take the SD card to a data recovery person, but would like to first see if I can take care of it myself.
 
jclin10 said:
I've been trying to import photos into Photos and there are a bunch for which I get an "unknown error" when I try to import them. It's always the same photos, so I don't think it's an error like a bad cable. It happens whether I am trying to import directly from the SD card or from a separate hard drive onto which I've already transferred the photos successfully. Strangely, I can open the files using Preview, so I wonder if there is just some reason why I can't import them into Photos.

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on and whether there is any way for me to fix this? If necessary, I'd be happy to take the SD card to a data recovery person, but would like to first see if I can take care of it myself.
Click to expand...
I don't know the cause but can you download (or transfer) the problem photos to a folder on your internal drive first and try and import them from there?
 
Thanks for the idea. I tried it with one file just now and it didn't work. Same unknown error.

It just says, "This item cannot be added to your Photo library because it may be in an unrecognizable file format or the file may not contain valid data."
 
jclin10 said:
Thanks for the idea. I tried it with one file just now and it didn't work. Same unknown error.

It just says, "This item cannot be added to your Photo library because it may be in an unrecognizable file format or the file may not contain valid data."
Click to expand...
I assume the file format is something supported.
Since Preview can open it, can you export or save new files from Preview?
Apps like Graphic Converter could probably do the same.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, it's JPEG. I'm not sure if there are different forms of JPEG, but the camera that I shot from is a Canon, so I don't anticipate there would be any weird or exotic file formats that are unsupported.

Do you mean to view it in Preview then export that same file from Preview and then try to import that?
 
Thanks. Do you know if it would keep any metadata if I did that?
 
Do you know if Photos can view or manipulate a file without importing it? I wonder if I could do what you recommend using Photos.
 
I tried opening with Photos and it won't open (or import)

I tried opening and then exporting from Preview, back into JPG. That didn't work either.
 
Tried with Graphic Converter and it also didn't work

Though very weird is that I tried to import one of the files with the error into the Apple Photos of a different computer and somehow, it did work!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mike Boreham
jclin10 said:
This item cannot be added to your Photo library because it may be in an unrecognizable file format or the file may not contain valid data
Click to expand...

If you can copy the file to your disk can you see the metadata using something like A Better Finder Attributes? Are the values OK?

jclin10 said:
I'm not sure if there are different forms of JPEG
Click to expand...

There are.

What camera are the files from?
 
After poking around a bit, I think the issue isn't the file. I'm able to import into Apple Photos on another computer with a different log in, but not to the one that I want to import it to. So, I think there is something weird going on with one of my computers.
 
OP:

Try this. No promises.

Make a NEW folder on your internal drive (NOT on an external drive).
Give it any name you wish.
I suggest you create it right on the desktop - easy to see for now.

Now, copy a few of the "un-importable" photos from the SD card to the new folder you just made.
DON'T copy ALL of them yet.
Just a few for "test purposes only".

When done, open Photos.
See if you can use the import feature to import them from the new folder.

Does this work, or do you get the same error?
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

Try this. No promises.

Make a NEW folder on your internal drive (NOT on an external drive).
Give it any name you wish.
I suggest you create it right on the desktop - easy to see for now.

Now, copy a few of the "un-importable" photos from the SD card to the new folder you just made.
DON'T copy ALL of them yet.
Just a few for "test purposes only".

When done, open Photos.
See if you can use the import feature to import them from the new folder.

Does this work, or do you get the same error?
Click to expand...

That was my suggestion in post#2. OP said in post#3 it didn’t work.
 
"I don't know how to fix that, though"

Try this quick-n-dirty trick to overcome permissions:
(again, no promises)

Copy the files you want to import to an external drive, OR, you could try a USB flashdrive.
Bring that drive to Mac that's giving you problems.
Let the icon mount on the desktop (don't open it)
Click ONE TIME on the icon to select it
Bring up the get info box (type command-i)
At the bottom of get info, click the lock icon
Enter your password to unlock it
Now put a check into "ignore ownership on this volume" (sharing and permissions)
Close get info.

Try importing from this drive now.
Any improvement?
 
Will try. But at this point, I may just end up switching to Lightroom!
 
Give the process I outlined in #19 a try.
Takes only a minute or so and it MIGHT solve your problems.
 
OP:

Can you open the problem pics using Photos on A DIFFERENT Mac?
I think you said you already did this, correct?

OK, more suggestions.

Take one or two photos to the OTHER Mac -- the one that worked.
Open them in Photos.

Photos has an option that lets you EMAIL a photo to another person.

Choose to do this.
Make the "recipient" the account on your "problem Mac" (the one that won't import the photos).

Once the email is received on the other end, open Mail.app and see if it "came in".
If you can now see the photo, CONTROL CLICK (or RIGHT CLICK) on it and choose:
"export to Photos".

Does this work?

Yes, I realize that this routine is a pain.
But sometimes one has to do, what one has to do.
If it works, well... it works.
 
Tried opening on a different Mac in Photos, which was successful. So, I think the issue is a local one where, for some reason, Apple Photos on that computer doesn't want to recognize those files, even though they are perfectly intact files.
 
The quick fix might be- if the OTHER Macs Photo library is up to date- to import these photos into that library, then move that library to the problematic Mac and open the whole library in Photos.

May work or may not work but easy enough to try... especially if both libraries are kept up to date.

Bonus: if the metadata is correct on the Mac Photos library that works, it should be preserved when you open that library on the problematic Mac.

OPTION 2 (much more efficient)
  1. create a NEW library on the Mac that CAN import them.
  2. Import only these problematic photos to the new library.
  3. Move that probably much smaller library to the Mac that won't import them.
  4. Add/import that library into your existing library. Conceptually, old Mac import preserves metadata and the import of the little library made in #1-2 should move the metadata with the photos into the bigger library on the #3 Mac.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back