Import order Chaos

[mdijb]

I try to download a card into LR.  I assing a number to the image, give a name and date and select a folder to put them in.  WHen imported the order has no bearing to the sequence in which the images were shot.  The order they appear in LR seem jumbled and random.

What is happening?  Can I prevent this?

MDIJB

[Mark D Segal]

This does not happen if you use the native file number for the number sequence and a custom text name before the file number. This option is provided for in the file naming section. Also, I do not download cards into Lightroom. I download the card to the correct folder in my hard drive and then import into LR from that folder. I know it's two steps instead of one, but totally reliable and I'm sure where everything is.

[john beardsworth]

I try to download a card into LR.  I assing a number to the image, give a name and date and select a folder to put them in.  WHen imported the order has no bearing to the sequence in which the images were shot.  The order they appear in LR seem jumbled and random.
What is happening?  Can I prevent this?

I routinely import directly from cards and don't see anything unusual, but I always thoroughly review the Import dialog's right hand side before hitting the Import button.

Do an import, wait for it to finish, and then check  the sort order of grid. What is it? Sort by File Name. Are the images in the same order as they were shot?

[luxborealis]

While not quite chaos, I have noticed a change or perhaps a difference in the behaviour of LR's Grid display of images after import.

I've used a D800E for years now, and after import, all images are displayed in the order they were captured. To be honest, I never thought to look to the bottom panel to see if the sort order was set to "Add Order" or "Capture Order".

For some months now, I've been using an RX10iii and notice that after import, the images are in a random order as a few people are describing on this Forum. I've not changed my routine or settings at all; it seems LRs default sort order is "Add Order" rather than capture order, not even alpha-numeric order by file name, which is even stranger as that's the default on all (most?) file systems. It seems that from the RX10iii card, images are imported at slightly different times as described on another thread.

It's not a problem to select "Capture Order", it's just odd that it is default. It's also odd that the files from two different cameras would be in a different order after the identical import steps.j

[mdijb]

THIS IS JUST SILLY  I just downloaded from a card in MY infrared camera and the numbering sequence matches the sequence on the card.  I then dowloaded from my Sony A7 Card and the numbering sequences DO NOT match and appear completely Random,  "added Order" is the default and when changing to "capture time", the sequence is OK but the numbering is random.

This must be bug in LR.   Is Adobe aware of this and will they fix it?

[Mark D Segal]

I've been doing lots of downloading from cards used in my Sony a6300 according to the procedure I described above and have had no issues with number sequence. The numbering is the file number from the camera and the ordering of capture time is of course consistent with the ordering by file number, because file numbers increase with each successive exposure in time. In the Import dialog, at the very bottom of the interface in barely readable font (an Adobe and Apple specialty) there is a drop down for Sort, which I have at "None" which I believe is the default. You may wish to verify that.

Very strange in your case that this should work properly with one card but not another. Could this suggest some kind of peculiarity with your card rather than LR, or do we know whether LR is systematically treating those particular cards that way whether on account of LR or the card? It may be worthwhile calling Adobe technical support on this one to see whether they have a case record of such incidents and know what to do about it.

[JWB]

I've had problems with sorting by capture time. Anything shot at the same second is ordered arbitrarily. So, for normal shooting, everything is ordered correctly, but as soon as I sort action sequences, I get chaos. It seems to me that Lightroom isn't reading sub-second timestamps when sorting.

I used to end each of my filenames with a sequence number that I asked Lightroom to supply, but that isn't reliable, so I now use the sequence number supplied by the camera (as others have mentioned doing). I now sort by filename instead of by capture time, which is satisfactory in many cases. However, this solution only works with shooting with one camera. If you have files from two different cameras in the same album, sorting by filename doesn't work for me because the start of my filenames is my shooter's initials and that throws things off.

[RikkFlohr]

However, this solution only works with shooting with one camera. If you have files from two different cameras in the same album, sorting by filename doesn't work for me because the start of my filenames is my shooter's initials and that throws things off.

In this case, invoke your Library filter within the selected Collection (album). Set the first Filter pulldown to Camera Serial Number and selectively show one camera at a time.

[JWB]

In this case, invoke your Library filter within the selected Collection (album). Set the first Filter pulldown to Camera Serial Number and selectively show one camera at a time.

Thank you Mr. Flohr. That's a great suggestion for showing one camera at a time. I could also filter by the first few letters of the filename, which in my case is the photographer's initials. But the problem remains if I want all of the photos from an event shown in order by which they were shot--regardless of whoever shot them. I can't sort by filename because I'm using the photographer's initials as the start of the filename and sorting by capture time is unreliable for the reasons mentioned earlier.

[jrsforums]

I've had problems with sorting by capture time. Anything shot at the same second is ordered arbitrarily. So, for normal shooting, everything is ordered correctly, but as soon as I sort action sequences, I get chaos. It seems to me that Lightroom isn't reading sub-second timestamps when sorting.

I used to end each of my filenames with a sequence number that I asked Lightroom to supply, but that isn't reliable, so I now use the sequence number supplied by the camera (as others have mentioned doing). I now sort by filename instead of by capture time, which is satisfactory in many cases. However, this solution only works with shooting with one camera. If you have files from two different cameras in the same album, sorting by filename doesn't work for me because the start of my filenames is my shooter's initials and that throws things off.

If you use Windows, I have found Downloader Pro to very reliably add a sequence postscript to a date-time sequence. It will create directory with a job name, if you wish.

Attached are the preferences I use if you wish to try.

[mdijb]

PROGESS!!

Instead of changing the Original FIle name and number to a different sequence, I left the original file name intact.  GThe images still loaded in random order. But changing the sort order to "file Name" after the import is complete, the sequence and numbering match and are correct.

I know LR bug is a minor  problem,but for those of us have OCD, I have a sense pf relief.

Thanks for the help

MDIJB