Hi, trying to import photos from folders on my desktop to Photos, all was fine then suddenly I started getting ‘missing metadata files’. *whispering...I don’t even know what metadata is to know what to look for.
PS. When I click on the photos in the folder, they open which means they’re ok and still there.
Thank you.
Hi again Léonie, just to let you know importing is successful now. For future reference, and to help others having the same problem, here's what I did:
1. Restarted my iMac
2. Opened Disk Utility -> First Aid -> Permissions
3. Opened PHOTOS, and started importing pictures from folders on my desktop by dragging and dropping them onto Photos (main window) anywhere actually, i'm using the Last import window so I can see the downloaded pics.
After a while, I started getting the same 'Missing metadata/not importing' error message. Then I saw a message that flashed on my screen: PHOTOSTREAM LIMIT REACHED! Assuming I'm not giving the pictures a chance to download by dragging and dropping folders one after the other (some folders contain more than 1000 photos), I started giving them time to download (a min), and now it's importing perfectly.
Thank you again, for taking the time to reply.
Randa
Hi again Léonie, just to let you know importing is successful now. For future reference, and to help others having the same problem, here's what I did:
1. Restarted my iMac
2. Opened Disk Utility -> First Aid -> Permissions
3. Opened PHOTOS, and started importing pictures from folders on my desktop by dragging and dropping them onto Photos (main window) anywhere actually, i'm using the Last import window so I can see the downloaded pics.
After a while, I started getting the same 'Missing metadata/not importing' error message. Then I saw a message that flashed on my screen: PHOTOSTREAM LIMIT REACHED! Assuming I'm not giving the pictures a chance to download by dragging and dropping folders one after the other (some folders contain more than 1000 photos), I started giving them time to download (a min), and now it's importing perfectly.
Thank you again, for taking the time to reply.
Randa
This problem has been reported several times since Photos first came out. see for example this discussion: Re: unable to get metadata import error
The problem may be the names of the folders and files.
Try the work-around by virtualdavid2
and use "Share to Photos" instead of importing to Photos:
I'm have the same problem but figured out a tedious, but always effective solution.
For photos that can not be imported by dragging them into Photos or using Photos' import menu option due to this "lack of meta data" bug, do the following:
- Select the photo you want to import.
- Control click on it.
- Select 'Share' from the menu that opens.
- Select 'Add to Photos'.
- Make sure the photo actually imported by checking for it in Photos.
- Repeat process for same photo until it imports.
I found that sometimes you can select several photos to import, but not all will import, so it is better to do them one at time and make sure they actually import. Eventually, this does work, though I have had to repeat this process sometimes two or three times before a photo finally shows up in Photos. Once there the info button shows that they have all the meta data that Photos importer said they did not, and their meta data looks no different from other photos that imported just fine. This is really tedious, but worth it for me as I really like the Photos as an archive tool. I had hundreds of photos in separate folders instead of iPhoto, imported from camera to folder for project documentation purposes. Now I can confidently move them all into this great app, even if it does take several hours for some of the folders of photos.
I hope this work around might give Apple's Photos Team some clue as to the nature of this bug.
Cheers!
PS: Just changed out my 17" MacBook Pro (early 2008) for a 480gig solid-state-drive, and I have got a whole new computer now running Yosemite super fast (boots in 30 seconds, Motion opens in 3 seconds, etc.). The joy of my newly recharged Mac, plus the cool new programs in Yosemite I can finally use are more than making up for the drudgery of importing photos one-at-a-time.
What is the exact error message you are getting, Randirand?
And which version of Photos are you using?
trying to import photos from folders on my desktop to Photos,
What kind of photos are these? Have they been taken with a camera or an iPhone, or are they scans? What is the file format?
Hi Lèonie, these are photos that I had saved from iPhoto. I was getting zillion duplicates so decided to turn iCloud off to sort out my 68,000 before turning Photos on, on my then new iMac (about 2 years ago). Backed up my iPhotos on my MacBook Pro, Time Capsule and a few external HD’s. Unfortunately I got robbed, all gone except my iMac (luckily) so now trying to import all the photos while iCloud on. Not sure if it’s the right thing to do considering the number of photos. They are work and personal photos, some old, scanned, but mostly using my phone since 2001 I think. So all iPhones starting from the first one. Sorry for the detailed info.
At the moment, I’m on iPhone 7plus, iMac (Retina 5K, 27”, late 2014, OS X El Capitan 10.11.6, iPad Air2, iPad Pro 2nd gen. These photos are my work and my life :( also have a whole batch of greyed up pictures I’m assuming I can’t do anything about.
Hope this info helps? :) sorry too detailed.
Randa
Forgot the most important question: error message is:
The following files could not be imported (they may be unrecognised file type or the files may not contain valid data) Reason: Unable to get metadata
Photos version 1.5
Thank you very much for your reply/help Léonie, I appreciate it. Will try the above. Take care.
Randa
Couldn’t import photos from desktop to photos due to missing metadata files
