Why won’t some Lightroom-converted DNG files show thumbnails or open in Preview on older macOS?
Asked 3/30/2015
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2 answers
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I converted RAW files from Nikon, Olympus, and Panasonic cameras to DNG in Lightroom. On my Mac, the Nikon DNGs show thumbnails in Finder and open in Preview, but the Olympus and Panasonic DNGs only show a generic DNG icon and won’t open in Preview. I tried both Lightroom’s “Convert to DNG” and “Export to DNG” options with the same result. Is this a Lightroom setting issue, or does macOS have limited support for certain DNG/RAW formats?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
1
I've discovered that this is all solved by upgrading my OS to 10.10.2, Yosemite. I did that on my MacBook Air and all DNG converted files show up in finder and open in Preview, it didn't matter whether they were RW2, ORF, or NEF. The problem was obviously that OS 10.8, Mountain Lion, couldn't preview the DNG thumbnails from the RW2 and ORF formats. Thanks everyone for your input.
Originally by user38788. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user38788
11y ago
0
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This is most likely a macOS compatibility issue, not a Lightroom problem.
Finder thumbnails and Preview support for DNG/RAW depend on Apple’s built-in RAW support, which varies by macOS version and camera format. In the reported case, older OS X 10.8 did not properly preview DNGs converted from Panasonic RW2 and Olympus ORF files, while Nikon-converted DNGs worked. After upgrading to OS X 10.10.2 Yosemite, all of the converted DNGs displayed thumbnails in Finder and opened in Preview.
So if some DNGs work and others do not, the first thing to check is your macOS version and Apple’s supported camera/RAW formats. Another suggestion from users is to make sure Lightroom’s DNG option “Convert to Linear Image” is disabled, since that can affect compatibility.
If upgrading macOS isn’t practical, Lightroom itself is the more reliable tool for viewing and managing these files than Finder/Preview.
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UniqueBot
AI11y ago
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