Importing photo from folder into Photos App results in error, but images still imported

Question

Importing photo from folder into Photos App results in error, but images still imported

Fair warning -- I'm a mac newbie (I'm a long time PC user, but trying to help setup my daughter's new mac for college). I'm a very proficient PC user (former web developer), but the mac is foreign to me.

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MacBook Air (M1,2020)

macOS Big Sur (v11.1)

We have mac, and all my daughter's photos are stored in a cloud service (this is more than just iPhone photos, so one reason I'm not using iCloud).

In the Mac's photos app, I create a new library.

I'm importing the photos, and I occasionally get a message... "Some items cannot be added to your Photo library because they may be unrecognizable file format or the file may not contain valid data."

then it lists the affected files, and next to each of them it lists the error as "Unknown Error"

Then I check the library and it did in fact import the image.

These are all JPG files. I then tried a new image from my iPhone in HEIC format. And yes, sometimes that gave the error too.

I don't get this consistently. I import the images manually and sometimes get it.

And I'm using the Automator app to create a folder action script to attach to a folder to watch for new files/images added and then import them into the photo library.

I find the images successfully import, but often result in this unexplained error with no real specifics that I can troubleshoot.

Suggestions? Any help is appreciated.

MacBook Air (2020 or later)

Posted on Jul 20, 2021 4:40 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

24,056 points

Jul 20, 2021 10:38 PM in response to deborahfrombridgewater

Hi

Where is your Photos library stored? In you pictures folder, or somewhere else? Is the location where it is stored synced with the cloud service.

If you are importing from a synced folder, it is possible that the syncing software is accessing the file at the same time as photos, causing the error.

Can you get your automator to first copy the file to another non synced folder, and then import from that folder?

By the way - you can store any photos in iCloud, not just iPhone pictures. iCloud will sync any files you add to the photos app.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,675 points

Jul 21, 2021 1:45 AM in response to deborahfrombridgewater

The error message "Some items cannot be added to your Photo library because they may be unrecognizable file format or the file may not contain valid data" is very typical for trying to import from some synced folder or a cloud storage. I am also getting this error message occasionally, when I try to import a file from iCloud Drive or from my DropBox. Photos may temporarily not have access the items while a syncing is in progress, or the file may change, while Photos is trying to import it. I second Tony's suggestion to copy the items you want to import to a local folder, on a volume formatted MacOS Extended Journaled or APFS and not case sensitive, before you try to import the items to your Photos Library.

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Answer 3

Jul 21, 2021 12:30 AM in response to TonyCollinet

PS - this is particularly likely if your automator is importing the image immediately it appears. It is possible the

file will be "visible" to the file system before it has been fully downloaded, resulting in the appearance of a corrupt file. It will still be best to move to another folder before the import.

For some of those that were listed as having an error, check you can open and edit them in photos. You might just be seeing a preview image.

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Answer 4

Jul 21, 2021 4:08 AM in response to léonie

Thank you TonyCollinet for your reply and suggestions. This makes sense, however, even when I tried with the same thing local copies of the images -- not saved in cloud service, but manually copied some images to a folder I created on the mac's HD -- resulted in the same issue.

(and I'm not using iCloud, as the storage default storage is insufficient, and I already pay for another cloud service for the family where each family member receives 1TB of storage so I'm not going to pay for iCloud storage, too).

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Answer 5

Jul 21, 2021 4:12 AM in response to deborahfrombridgewater

Hi

When you used the folder on the mac, were you still using automater to trigger the import? If so, it might still be suffering from the file copy not being complete when the import is attempted - although this is much less likely.

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Answer 6

Jul 21, 2021 4:19 AM in response to TonyCollinet

I get the error using the automator AND when manually importing them.

Then I manually deleted all the images from the photo apps library, cleared them from "recently deleted" (to avoid the duplicate image prompt)

And tried to import them again, to test the automator... the same images that might have just imported manually fine. Didn't copy new ones, they still all exist on the mac's physical HD. So I would think any "delay" of the file be "ready" would not be an issue at this time. And the automator results in the error.

I again manually delete or or more of images from photos app library, clear from "Recently Deleted" (to avoid the duplicate image prompt)

And then I try manually importing... sometimes I get the error, sometimes not.

And I should say that I don't get it consistently even when using the automator, but I do get it more often.

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Importing photo from folder into Photos App results in error, but images still imported

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