Import from Hard Drive

John1313 wrote on 2/15/2021, 8:44 PM

I am trying to import from an external hard drive but the device does not show up in the pull down when I select "Import". It just shows "no external device selected". The external hard drive shows up without a problem in the file manager format. I don't want to just use the import from a file feature, as I do not keep the external hard drive connected all the time. This is why I want to import. How can I get it to appear in the drop down?

I am using a standard Dell laptop with Windows 10 with a Seagate USB external drive.

Comments

PATIENT-X wrote on 2/15/2021, 10:10 PM

Hello. welcome

@John1313

Go to this forum for similar issue. https://www.magix.info/us/forum/i-am-trying-to-select-extermal-horddrive-to-import-pictures-from--1246648/

emmrecs wrote on 2/16/2021, 4:20 AM

@John1313

The "Import" function, as explained in the thread to which @PATIENT-X has pointed you, is NOT what you need here; it is for importing pictures from a camera.

When Photo Manager is correctly pointed to your external drive, again as explained in that other thread, it will "index" (i.e., create a "Internal" Database) of where all your photos are to be found. That database does NOT contain the actual images, merely a record of exactly where they are stored.

In your case, if you then disconnect your external drive from your computer, I think PM will update its database when next opened and, essentially, remove those images from the database. Thus, when you reconnect your external drive and direct PM to index it, it will need to recreate the database by "adding" those photos.

Is there any particular reason why you do not keep the external drive connected all the time? On my computer I have four internal (SSD and HDD) and three external USB 3 hard drives, all of which remain permanently connected.

HTH

Jeff
Forum Moderator