jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

My Lightroom will no longer recognize my card reader.

Do you think it’s a problem with the card reader, or with Lightroom?
I also had quite a bit of trouble the last time I imported photos from my phone, having to try several times. Does this point to a Lightroom problem?

Any thoughts will be helpful.

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

Two different import scenarios on same computer - computer hardware or operating system. You can browse (during import) from LR in the "Select a Source" window for the device you are looking for. LR is just using Explorer in the background so if you can see it via Explorer, (or whatever Apple uses if on an apple) then LR should see it.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Try using your card reader without opening Lightroom. See if you can copy files from it to a folder on your system without any issues. I have a feeling that the problem isn't with LR. If you have a problem, shut your computer down, disconnect the card reader, turn your system back on, let it finish booting and then try connecting the card reader to a different USB port. Test it again to see if the problem still exists. If it does, then possibly the reader. If not then more likely an issue with the USB ports on the system. Most likey either a corrupt driver or possibly malware.

Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

Very good advice in the first 2 replies.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right. I prefer keeping things as simple as possible. I like to put the images into a "New" folder on the computer and then do with them what I want. I can eliminate the junk and then import the rest with LR.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I knew there wasn’t an issue with the USB slot because I use it for other things, so I followed the rest of your advice and disconnected, shut down, rebooted the Mac, reconnected, and presto--it works fine. Thanks for the advice. I had forgotten the old “shut it down and try again” adage.

photosbytw Loc: Blue Ridge Mountains

I've had to replace my card readers a few times as they do wear out. Usually it depends on the quality of the unit, as cheaper is not better, but I've had my Lexar 3.0 fail on me........so it happens.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Thanks all for your help--problem solved, I think.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Copy the photos to your computer first, then import to LR.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

Since it is USB, a useful, minimum effort is to eject the reader, physically unplug it, and simply plug it back in. I have found that it takes no more than that for fixing many problems with USB devices.

jpgto Loc: North East Tennessee

IMO; when something stops working as it had in the past, my experience has been a 'rocket scientist update' occurred in the software. Can you restore your computer to an earlier date to see if is corrects? That has worked for me in the past. Good luck.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I wouldn't know.... I'd never use Lightroom to download my images. It's not necessary and is easily fouled up.

I simply use my computer's operating system to download images....

1. If one doesn't already exist, create a folder to receive the downloaded images.
2. With the system browser, navigate to the memory card holding the images (which will appear as another drive).
3. Open the card, open the DCIM folder on the card, open the file folder(s) containing images.
4. If you want to download them all, select any single image, then press "ctrl a" keys. This will select them all.
5. Drag and drop to the folder where you want the images to download.
6. Be sure to "copy" the images.... Don't "move" them (usually only possible with a right-click drag & drop). By copying the images you leave the originals on the memory card in case something goes awry during the download. Later, before you start shooting with it again, you can simply format the card in your camera to "erase" all the old images on it (this doesn't actually erase the old images, but it does mark them as "okay to overwrite"... so be sure you've safely and securely downloaded all you want to keep).
7. Final step is to go into Lightroom > Library module > Import and then point LR to the folder where you downloaded the images. It then adds them all to your catalog.

It takes far longer to describe or read about doing this, than it does to actually do it. It eliminates LR from the download, preventing a lot of possible issues with the things LR tries to do during the download. (Note: If when you first insert the memory card into the reader LR starts to download, cancel it. With a Windows PC you can use "Default Programs > Change Autoplay Options" to prevent this from happening. In fact, I've set my Windows PC so that with any media where there are picture files, including any type of memory card, it simply opens the folder when I first insert it. As a result, I'm halfway through step 3 of the above workflow immediately.)

I learned the hard way how LR can screw up downloads. Years ago I had it all set up to do a series of things while doing automatic downloads... create folders, perform backup, rename files, add copyright info, etc. Then I did an update to LR (it might have been an auto update... I forget)... didn't realize that much of my download and Import setup was changed.... auto downloaded a few thousand images and ended up having to fix a whole bunch of problems. That was the last time I let LR do an auto download. (Note: I also won't let software auto update.... I get a notification and decide whether or not to do the update now, or wait for a while to see if there are any problems. Just a few years ago Adobe pushed out an LR update that everyone hated. They had to do another update within a week, largely undoing what they'd done in the previous update.)