File "permission" to import Photos

[tobindia]

I have a folder of pictures in various formats (,jpeg, .heic, etc) that I tried to import into Photos. Nearly half of them failed with the message "<filename> couldn't be copied because you don't have permission to access "ALL"." (ALL is the name of the folder.) Obviously, I do have permission, since I created ALL and put the files there in the first place. I see no correlation between the photos that were rejected. In most instances, the photos that are rejected were taken on the same device as the photos before and after them in the folder, and they were imported just fine. How can I import these photos?

I am running Catalina, 10.15.5 and Photos 5.0.

 

[IWT]

I was wondering if you are able to determine whether the "failed" photos were in the HEIF/HEIC Format (or JPEG for that matter)?

Also, if I may ask: obviously the pictures were taken on a camera - were they all from the same camera, say an iPhone? And how were they initially imported into your ALL Folder on your Mac?

I have the feeling that the answer is straightforward, but we need to know a little more detail. You'll see where I'm coming from if you care to glance at this article:

Complete guide to the HEIC image format in iOS

Apple has replaced the JPEG image format with the new HEIC alternative in iOS. So what is HEIC, what is HEIF, and how will they benefit iPhone users?

www.macworld.co.uk

Ian

 

[tobindia]

whether the "failed" photos were in the HEIF/HEIC Format (or JPEG for that matter)

The failed photos are .jpg, .heic and .mov. They were taken by at least 3 different iPhones and 2 standalone cameras.

 

[MacInWin]

Try this: Use Finder to locate the folder in which the pictures are located. Now right click on it and then Get Info. In the resulting Get Info pane, click on the lock in the lower right corner, then provide an admin password. Now set the permissions for your name to be "Read & Write" and click on the little gear symbol and click on Apply to Enclosed items. That should transfer the ability to read and write to all of the elements in the folder. It may take a minute for the permissions to apply to all of those image files, so hold on, eventually it will be done.

 

[IWT]

That was my very next step, Jake, having found that the problem covered all formats and several cameras. Thanks for stepping in there. Let's hope that works. It should.

Ian

 

[tobindia]

Try this

I did what you said, and when I imported some of the files that originally got the error one at a time to test it, the photos imported without error. But when I started over with an empty Photo Library and the first few thousand photo files, I got the error again on most of the photos, including the few that I had tried individually. For the record, both the folder and the individual files show Read & Write permission for me. Why would files import successfully sometimes and not others?

 

[tobindia]

Success!! I decided that I was trying to be too cute. I had gotten all of my photos together in one directory and was trying to import them all into a new, empty Photo Library, but I was running into these issues. So, I went back to the Photo Library that only had my MBA photos and just imported the photos that I had copied from my iPad. That worked with no problems! Now I have to clean up my HD, cause I'm very low on storage space and eliminate many duplicate photos. Then I'll worry about syncing everything to iCloud and our iPhones. Many, many thanks to everyone who helped, and most especially to MacInWin for bearing with me thru all of my troubles!

 

[IWT]

especially to MacInWin for bearing with me thru all of my troubles!

Hear, Hear.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Glad you got it all sorted out. Syncing may be an adventure if you don't have space on the iPhones for all of the images. But that is a problem for another day.