September 26, 2026

Lightroom on the Mac mini - Importing

I have not yet tried to import files from an SD card. What I am doing here is rearranging files that are on disk on my linux machine. The linux machine imports these files over the network via SMB for lightroom to use.

The first note. If lightroom already knows about the folder in question, you need to use lightroom to rename it or move it around or all kinds of trouble will ensue.

My case right now is that I have a folder full of images that lightroom has never seen before. I placed it where I want to using tools on the linux system. Now I want to make lightroom aware of it.

I click "Import" at the bottom in lightroom. The top part of the window shows the "flow". The right hand column shows where things are coming from and the left is where they are going to.

The top center shows "Copy", which is not what I want. This is a menu and I change it to "Add"

It now shows on the left top "TO My Catalog", which I guess is what I want. I click on "import" at the lower left. The result is almost instantaneous and seems to have worked!

Note that this works just fine for a folder full of folders full of images. Just select the top level folder as the import source and be sure that "Add" is selected up at top center.

Catalog backup

After doing all this, I want to force a catalog backup. Apparently the only way to do this is to change the backup frequency, then exit. It goes to /Users/Tom/Pictures/Lightroom/Backup. After doing this it takes a -long- time for Lightroom to start up.
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Adventures in Computing / tom@mmto.org