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Start import will not press

The Review this import sheet reads the source before anything is copied, and its Start import button carries the number of files the import will cover. This page is for a review whose button is dimmed, reads Start import (0), or sits under a red sentence or a row with a triangle, and for figures that do not match what the Finder shows. Importing from a card or a folder walks the same sheet when all is well.

The button reads (0)​

Start import stays dimmed at Start import (0) when there is nothing for the import to do:

  • Every file on the card is already in the library, and no backup is chosen. Press Choose… on the Backup — a separate drive row and choose a folder on another drive. The number now counts the files the library already holds, because the import checks each one's copy in Originals and copies it to the backup. That is how a card imported without a backup is given its second copy; Scanning a card again has it. Without a backup there is nothing to do for those files, and no last panel to show.
  • The scan found no photographs. A card that holds only video, or only other kinds of file, has none for Vixlo to cull. Check that you chose the right card or folder. If you did, those files are yours to copy before you format the card.

A red sentence under the folders​

Under the two folders the sheet can say why it will not start, in red:

  • These two folders are on the same drive — they can never count as independent copies. Choose a backup location on a different disk.
  • This backup folder is on the card being imported — formatting the card would erase it, so it can never be the second copy. Choose a folder on another drive.
  • The working library folder is on the card being imported — formatting the card would erase every copy in it. Choose a folder on another drive.

The Review this import sheet with the backup folder on the card: the red sentence under the folders and Start import dimmed.

Press Choose… on the row and choose a folder on another drive. The sentence goes and the button comes back. Vixlo refuses a folder on the card, rather than only leaving it uncounted, because formatting the card erases whatever was copied there. The folder chooser can open on the card, and a New Folder made there lands on it. On a camera card, "on the card" means anywhere on its volume; for a folder that is not a camera card, anywhere inside the folder you scanned.

The line Without a backup you can still import and start culling — but the card will never read as safe to erase. is not a refusal. The button works; the card simply cannot read as safe to format without a second copy.

A row with a triangle​

Under the figures the review can add a row. Neither row stops the import; each changes how it can end.

  • Part of the card could not be read. The Mac could not list a folder or read a file on the card, so the card cannot be called safe to format. The card is not safe to format has what to do.
  • Frames that do not match this card. Its sentence counts frames that an earlier version of Vixlo catalogued on this card and that are not the photographs now at their places, so they were not merged. Scanning a card again says why.

The Review this import sheet with the row Part of the card could not be read under the four figures.

The scan fails​

If reading the source fails on step 2 of the new-library wizard, the sentence saying why appears in red under the source rows; choose the source again, or a different one. On the review sheet a Couldn't scan that source dialog says why, with a Close button; press it and scan again. If a card keeps failing, try another reader or port (A card Vixlo does not see).

The figures and the Finder​

The four figures are FILES FOUND, NEW, ALREADY IMPORTED and DUPLICATES HELD. Step 2 of the new-library wizard shows all but the first beforehand, as new, already imported and duplicates held back. They count files, not frames, so a RAW+JPEG pair adds two to NEW.

  • FILES FOUND counts the files the scan reads for photographs, which is not every file on the source. Wherever it starts, the scan leaves out hidden files, files whose names begin with ._, and, inside the folder you chose, any folder named FFDB, MISC, PRIVATE or CANONMSC and the folders the Mac and Windows keep for themselves. So FILES FOUND rarely matches what the Finder shows. What it leaves out still counts for safe to format: Vixlo walks the whole card separately, and the last panel names any file there as not copied.
  • NEW counts the files found that are new to the library: not already in it, not a duplicate, and not one of the odd cases below. Video, XMP files and other files are included, though none of them is copied, so on a card with clips NEW can read higher than the number of photographs the import will copy. It can also read lower. Three kinds of file are copied but counted in none of the figures except FILES FOUND: the one copy kept from a set of identical files; a file with the same name, camera and capture time as a frame the library already holds, but different contents; and a photograph whose details could not be read. Two identical photographs on a card read FILES FOUND 2, NEW 0 and DUPLICATES HELD 1, and Start import (1). Go by the number on Start import.
  • ALREADY IMPORTED counts the files the library holds a copy of in its own Originals folder, still there and unchanged. Vixlo tells them by what is in the file, never by its name or its place. It is always 0 for a new library, on step 2 and on the review that follows it, because there is nothing yet for a file to have been imported into. A card you already copied into another library scans as new here, because each library keeps its own copy.
  • DUPLICATES HELD counts files on the source that are identical, byte for byte, to another file in the same scan, such as the same photograph twice on one card. One of each set is kept and the rest are held back, whatever their names. Two files that only share a name are not duplicates: What an import copies has what happens to them.