If you’re running into issues when trying to ship your images from Narrative into Lightroom, take a look at the most frequent problems and exactly how to fix them.
Some of Your Images Aren’t Showing Up in Lightroom
Issue: You shipped your full selection, but Lightroom imported fewer images than expected.
Causes:
You're shipping a large number of images:
Make sure you let all your images load in the import window before you click the 'Import' option. This will help ensure all images are importing.
You're working with a source folder that contains subfolders:
Lightroom will import your images in the same folder format so initially you will only see the images from your main folder. In the Lightroom import window, make sure you tick 'include subfolders':
You have 'Don't Import Suspected Duplicates' turned on:
After you've shipped from Narrative into Lightroom, ensure that the 'don't import suspected duplicates' is toggled off in the import shipping menu. Having this toggled on can cause Lightroom to skip some of your images:
All of Your Images Aren’t Showing Up in Lightroom
Lightroom Import Window Doesn't Open at All:
If you ship from Narrative, but Lightroom doesn’t launch or the import window doesn't appear, it's possible that Narrative can no longer find the images in their original folder. This could be because you've either moved or renamed the files.
To fix this, head to File > Change Source Folder and reconnect the folder that currently contains the images, or if it's a cloud source folder you will need to make sure they are downloaded (e.g. for iCloud you need to click the little cloud next to the images to download them to local storage).
Shipping is failing instantly with the message 'Sorry, something went wrong':
If you're seeing this error as soon as you try to ship, the most common cause is due to your catalog name you're attempting to create. Make sure your catalog name does not contain any slashes (/) or other symbols. These will cause the shipping process to fail instantly.
Alternative Ways to Import Your Images into Lightroom
If you're still having trouble with SHIP + EDIT, here are two reliable workarounds:
Option 1: Drag and Drop
Highlight the selected images in Narrative (you can use the filters and then hit use ⌘ A (mac) or Ctrl A (windows) to highlight them all), then drag the highlighted images from the filmstrip in Narrative, directly into the Library tab in your Lightroom app:
Option 2: Move or Copy Your Selection and Import Manually into Lightroom
Once you’ve made your selection in Narrative, you can easily move or copy those images into a new folder and then import them manually into Lightroom.
Option 2A: Move or Copy inside Narrative
Filter to your selected images in Narrative.
Use ⌘ A (Mac) or Ctrl A (Windows) to highlight all the images you want to export.
Go to File > Copy File... or File > Move File... to place the selected images into a new folder.
Open Lightroom and import the images from that new folder.
Option 2B: Move or Copy via the Shipping Menu
You can also move or copy your images directly from the Ship + Edit window. To do this:
Open the SHIP + EDIT window.
Toggle on Move or Copy Files.
Click BROWSE to choose or create the destination folder.
When you use the Move or copy files option, you can also apply an AI Preset to these images by toggling this on and choosing an AI Preset from the right-hand panel.
Once your files are done moving/copying to your chosen destination, you can now locate this folder inside your Finder and then import those images straight into Lightroom.
If you're experiencing any other issues or the article above hasn't resolved your issue, please contact support via the chat bubble in the bottom right corner.