Importing from a card

Opening the sheet

Press Ctrl+Shift+I, or click Import... at the top of the left pane while the grid is up and choose From a card or folder.... You don't need a folder open first. The same menu has A Lightroom catalog..., described below.

When the sheet opens, greycard looks for a card: the first mounted drive with a DCIM folder on it. If it finds none, the From line says "No card found" and you choose the folder yourself.

The choice at the top is Copy, which this page describes first, or Add in place. The sheet always opens on Copy.

The sheet, line by line

The button at the bottom says how many frames it will import, such as Import 214 frames. It stays off until there is a source with frames, a destination that exists, and patterns that make a name.

The sheet remembers To, Folders, Name, Preset and Backup for next time.

What gets copied

• Every raw and picture greycard can open.
• The camera's JPEG of a raw (IMG_0001.JPG beside IMG_0001.CR3) goes with the raw and takes the raw's new name. A JPEG with no raw beside it is a frame of its own.
• An XMP goes with the frame it belongs to. A Lightroom edit in it becomes the frame's first step, under the preset if you chose one, and the line at the end says how many frames came "with a Lightroom edit".
• Videos and other files greycard can't open stay on the card. The note under From counts them.

Patterns

Folders and Name take these tokens, with any text between them:

A / in Folders makes a folder inside a folder: {yyyy}/{date} gives 2026/2026-09-24. {folder} alone in Folders keeps the source's subfolders as they are, and {date}/{folder} puts them under the day. In Name, its / becomes _. For a frame directly in From, {folder} is empty and takes a -, _, space, . or / beside it with it, so {folder}-{name} gives IMG_0001.CR3 there. The extension is always kept, so a pattern like {date}-{seq} gives 2026-09-24-0001.CR3.

If a pattern has a typo, such as an unknown token, the preview says "Not a pattern" and the import button stays off.

The date is the day the frame was taken, or the day the file was saved when the frame doesn't say. Characters some systems refuse in a name (: or ?, for one) become _, so the names work on Linux, macOS and Windows alike.

Preset

The preset is applied to each newly copied frame as one step in its history, "Preset: name", so you can undo it per frame. A preset with a camera profile made for another camera has that profile left off; the status line says how many frames that happened to. Frames that were already imported are not touched.

Backup

The backup gets the same folders and names as To, copied from the new copies rather than read off the card again. If the backup is on the same drive as To, the sheet warns "Backup is on the same drive.", since one drive failing would take both.

If a remembered To or Backup drive isn't plugged in, the sheet says "Destination missing; is the drive connected?" (or "Backup missing"), and the import button stays off. The sheet never makes those folders for you.

To and Backup can't be on the card, can't contain the source folder, and can't be inside each other.

Verification

Every copy is checked. greycard reads each copy back from the drive and compares it with what it read from the card, and the file only appears under its name once the two match. So a stopped import, a full disk or a failing card never leaves a half-written frame behind. The backup copy is checked the same way.

Verify against the card is about frames that are already in To, as when you import the same card twice. Normally greycard recognizes them by their size and the start and end of the file, which is quick. With Verify on, it compares every byte instead, which reads the whole card again. Turn it on if you suspect an earlier copy was damaged.

Frames already there, and names already taken

• A frame you imported before is skipped and counted as "already there". greycard recognizes it under any name inside To, and in any folder your library holds. Run an import again after it stops, and it picks up where it left off.
• A name another file already has is never written over. The new frame gets -1 before its extension (-2 and so on if needed), and the status line says how many.

While it runs, and when it's done

The import runs in the background. Its progress shows under Import... in the left pane (the button becomes Stop import), and on the status line in the loupe. Stop import, or Esc when nothing else is using it, finishes the frame in hand and stops. If you close the window during an import, greycard waits for the frame in hand before it closes.

When it finishes, greycard opens the folder that took the most frames. If you moved to another folder while it ran, it leaves you there and says which folder to open instead. The status line sums it up, for example "imported 214 frames to ~/Pictures (5400 MB at 85 MB/s), 214 backed up, 12 already there".

If one file fails, the import stops there and names the file. The frames before it are in place, and running the import again carries on from there.

If a folder under From could not be read, the import copies the rest and the status line ends "1 folder could not be read, its frames not imported". Those frames are still only on the card.

Adding a folder in place

Add in place, at the top of the sheet, adds a folder already on your computer to the library where it is, as + Add a root... does, and opens it. Nothing is copied or renamed, and its subfolders come with it.

1. Click Add in place.
2. Click Choose... beside Folder and pick the folder. The note under it counts its frames and its subfolders, such as "214 frames, 3 subfolders". A subfolder greycard can't read is passed over and counted: "1 folder could not be read".
3. Click Add 214 frames. The sheet closes, the folder becomes a root, and the grid shows its frames as the library reads them.

A folder already under a root is not added twice: greycard says which root holds it and opens the folder there. Nothing is written beside the frames until you edit, rate or label them, as with any folder you open.

From the command line

--import runs an import without opening a window, for a script or a card reader on a server:

greycard-ui --import /media/me/EOS_DIGITAL/DCIM --to ~/Pictures/shoots --subfolder "{date}" --name "{date}-{seq}"

The command line checks the same things the sheet does before it copies anything. It prints the summary line when it's done, and exits with 0 when the import finished, 1 when it stopped on an error, and 2 when it went through but a folder under the source could not be read: the line then says so, and those frames are still on the card, so don't format it.

A Lightroom Classic catalog

greycard reads a Lightroom Classic catalog (a .lrcat file) and brings its frames into your library with what you did to them in Lightroom. It only reads the catalog, and it never changes a raw: what it brings is written to greycard's own sidecars beside the frames, to your collections and to your library's roots.

Quit Lightroom first: a catalog Lightroom has open is refused. If you import a copy of a catalog, copy the -wal file beside it too when there is one, since Lightroom keeps its newest changes there until it quits. greycard reads catalogs from Lightroom Classic 15.2 to 15.5, and says so when a catalog is from another version.

What comes across

• Ratings, picks and rejects, color labels, keywords (with their full path, such as Places/Scotland/Skye), titles and captions.
• A capture time you corrected in Lightroom, as a shift on the frame, so it sorts and groups by the time you set there; the camera's own time stays in the file.
• The develop settings, as one step in each frame's history, "Imported from Lightroom", which you can undo. They are translated as a Lightroom preset's are, so they are a starting point rather than an exact match, and the report names what has no place here, such as masks, healed spots and color noise reduction. A camera Lightroom shows brighter than greycard does, such as the Fujifilm GFX 100S II, has its exposure corrected on the way in.
• Crops, with their angle, and a frame turned in Lightroom stands turned here too. A flipped frame keeps neither its flip nor its crop.
• Virtual copies, each as a version of its frame, named for the copy. A version shares its frame's rating, flag and label, so a copy rated apart from its master takes the master's.
• Stacks, as greycard stacks, open or closed as Lightroom had them.
• Collections, in a set named for the catalog unless you change it (below), with the catalog's own sets inside it. The Quick Collection comes as "Quick Collection". Books, prints, slideshows, and web pages come as collections of their frames, unless you leave them out.
• Smart collections, as greycard's smart collections, when each of their rules has a filter term here (rating, flag, label, keywords, capture date, camera and lens) and they match all of their rules. Any other is skipped, and the report says why. Lightroom's six stock smart collections are left out.
• Each of the catalog's folders that was found, added to the library as a root.

Importing one

1. Click Import... at the top of the left pane, choose A Lightroom catalog..., and pick the .lrcat file.

2. The sheet lists the catalog's folders, one line each: the folder's name, whether its files were found, and Choose... to say where it is now. Under the name is where greycard found it on this computer, and the catalog's own path for it when two of the catalog's folders share a name. greycard looks where the catalog says, then beside the catalog and under your library's roots, for a folder of the same name holding the same files.

   • "found, 400 of 400 checked": greycard looked for the folder's 400 files and found them all.
   • "found, no files in the catalog": the folder is there, and the catalog lists nothing in it.
   • "not found": choose where it is.
   • "not found; nearest: ~/Archive/Shoots": a folder of the same name that holds only some of the files, which may be another shoot's.
   • "not found in ~/Archive/Shoots": the folder chosen, or the one the catalog names, holds none of its files.

   Where it found none, or the wrong one, click Choose... and pick where that folder lives now; the sheet looks again at once.

3. Under the folders, Collection set names the set your collections go into, with the catalog's own sets inside it: the catalog's name to start with, or empty to put them at the top of the list. When the catalog has books, prints, slideshows, or web pages, a switch below brings them in as collections or leaves them out.

4. Check shows what the import would do, writing nothing, in a short summary such as "1,240 frames, 1,198 found. 312 with edits. 14 collections, 3 stacks, 7 virtual copies." Details opens the rest: which Lightroom wrote the catalog, where each folder was found, the frames not found, the settings that have no place here and how many frames used them, edits on the old 2003 or 2010 process, the crops, turns, copies, stacks, and collections it would bring, the smart collections it would skip and why, the frames it would leave alone, and where new sidecars would go. When the catalog was copied without its -wal file, a warning above the summary says that Lightroom's newest changes may be missing, and what to do. Back goes back to the folders.

5. Write writes it. It stays off until at least one of the catalog's files is found. The sheet stays up while it writes, and the button in the left pane reads Importing the catalog.... When it is done, the sheet says what was written in one line, such as "Wrote 1,198 sidecars; 42 frames not found.", with the rest under Details, and the grid, the folders, and the collections show it at once. OK closes the sheet.

On a catalog whose pictures are on a network share, finding the folders can take a while. The sheet says how far it has got, and Cancel stops it while it looks or checks. Once Write has started, it runs to the end.

A frame's edit goes into the sidecar it has already, if any. A new sidecar goes into the folder's hidden .greycard folder when the folder has one, and otherwise where Edits go in Settings puts it.

Frames you already worked on

A frame that already has an edit, a version, or a rating, flag, label or keyword set in greycard is left alone, so an import never undoes your work here, and the report counts those frames. When there are some, the sheet offers a switch to write over them too, with their count. With it on, Lightroom's edits, ratings and capture times replace yours on those frames.

Importing the same catalog a second time writes nothing that is already here: the frames imported the first time are left alone, and collections, stacks and roots already there stay as they are.

The catalog from the command line

greycard library import-lightroom CATALOG prints the whole report, which the sheet shows as its summary and Details, and --write writes it:

greycard library import-lightroom ~/Lightroom/Shoot.lrcat --root "A:/Photos=/home/me/Photos" --write