Can't import photos into Lightroom etc. after El Capitan

Question

Level 1

2 points

Can't import photos into Lightroom etc. after El Capitan

Hi,

I have a mid 2011 iMac. I use Adobe Lightroom 3.6 (old I know) and have always been able to import photos from SD-card in slot or from a USB connected camera or iPhone, iPad etc.

Since upgrading to El Capitan the SD card import works OK but Lightroom does not recognise the camera or iPhone. I know the devices are connecting OK as I can see the photos on the devices when using the standard Image Transfer app or iMovie but the devices do not show up as sources from within Lightroom. I have also tried Adobe Elements and this reports that it can not see any attached cameras. I'm reluctant to splash out on the latest version of Lightroom on the off-chance that this fixes the problem. (I suppose I could try the trial version but then I get into library format territory...)

I can only assume that El Capitan handles cameras in a different way than previous versions.

Has anybody else see this, got it working or got any ideas?

Thanks in advance

David

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 1, 2015 12:45 PM

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Answer 1

rb50

Level 1

35 points

Nov 5, 2015 1:00 PM in response to DavidCeee

I am seeing the exact same problem, but with Picasa (latest version) rather than Adobe software.

If I remove the SD card, Picasa can see that, but El Capitan appears to block these apps from seeing the camera as a file system source. (It's a Nikon D3200).

On a Picasa forum, other users report success but only if their camera looks like a simple USB drive - cameras that used to show up as Devices instead of thumb drives no longer work.

I don't have a solution, other than go back to Mavericks where apps used to work...

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Answer 2

jiverson

Level 1

0 points

Nov 15, 2015 11:41 AM in response to DavidCeee

Had this problem too and finally figured it out. First you open the Image Capture app on your desktop, connect your iphone, and at the bottom, there is a dialog that says "Import To:" Select other from the dropdown and navigate to the Lightroom app and choose it. Then click on "Import All". This will allow the photos to show up in Lightroom. Now you can select and actually import them using the Lightroom import command.

Crazy I know, but somehow Apple screwed this up with El Capitan, forcing us to go through Image Capture now.

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Answer 3

jiverson

Level 1

0 points

Nov 15, 2015 11:47 AM in response to jiverson

BTW I should add that what it is doing is putting copies of your iPhone photos in your users/XXXX/pictures folder which then makes them available for Lightroom to import.

So you'll now have extra copies of the photos in the pictures folder which you can delete after you import them into Lightroom from there.

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Answer 4

DavidCeee Author

Level 1

2 points

Nov 15, 2015 11:10 PM in response to jiverson

Hi @jiverson - I tried that method and it worked but a bit messy for my taste.

I ended up subscribing to Adobe Creative Cloud for Photographers which gave me the latest LightRoom plus Photoshop for a reasonable monthly fee. The current version of Lightroom recognised iPhones, my Canon SLR and everything else as camera devices and allows direct import.

Another cute feature is that you get Lightroom for iPhone etc and can sync photos and edits between phone and Lightroom over the air.

Cheers

D

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Answer 5

Oct 15, 2016 1:04 AM in response to DavidCeee

All you have to do then is pay Adobe $10 per month of the rest of your life to access your photos in your(their) catalog !

What an appalling deal to milk their existing user base !

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