Photos not importing into Photolibrary

Two possibilites I can think of:

First - do you have more than one library? If so is it possible it is importing into one, but you are opening and viewing the other.

Second - is the format of your external drive correct?

It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) (preferred for spinning drives)

It Must not be (or have been) used for time machine. (A time machine drive can be used if re-formatted)

It must have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked.

It should not be on a memory stick, SD or similar.

It must also not be a network drive (a direct connection is required - eg USB or Thunderbolt).

File sharing services such as iCloud Drive, Drop box, Onedrive etc are not compatible with Photos libraries.

It stands to reason that if you want any sort of reasonable performance it should be a fast drive with a fast connection.

See

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517

What version of Macos Do you have

To the best of my knowledge, Apple have not removed support for cameras they once supported. I suspect the Nikon service center have given you incorrect information.

You can see in this list that your camera is still supported in Big Sur - and their comments about a codec are wrong. No codec is needed for raw files. If apple supports it that is all that is needed.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211241

According to this https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208967 Support for the Nikon D500 and RAW images was added in macOS Mojave.

So upgrading to Mojave (if your Mac is able to) may resolve your problem.

This table tells us that your camera was supported in High Sierra, but with note 4:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211241

4. Nikon RAW L format only

Have you changed your camera to a different format for it's raw files?

Jeanuine1 wrote:

Hi Tony. Yes it is formatted on MacOS extended (journaled). I have never used time machine.

You do have a backup strategy, right? There are only two types of hard drive: those that have crashed and those that will.

Time Machine is an excellent way to protect against drive failure and, more that that, accidental file deletion. With TM it's so easy to recover accidentally deleted files or files that have become damaged. You should seriously think about some sort of backup strategy.

So the drive format is fine.

Did you check the other suggestion?

As a workaround, can you try the image capture app (already on your mac) that is intended to copy the files from your camra to a folder (you could put a temp folder on your desktop). Then you can import into the photos app from that folder (File>import from within photos).

Like Tony, my first thought was that you have more than one Photos library!

When you import, are you opening the Photos.app and then using the import option from the File menu in Photos to import the pictures from the camera? This way means they should go into the library you are using/have open!

That's a nuisance, time to invest in a new Mac!?!

At least you now have a definitive answer to the problem.

Well spotted Tony, I missed that!

Try using the Adobe DMG converter. It works with nearly all RAW formats. Get it here: Adobe DNG Converter for Mac OS