Shotwell doesn't import across symbolic link

[Pernig]

Binary package hint: shotwell

Bug can be reproduced on my machine by opening Shotwell, going to File > Import From Folder... then choosing my /home/user/Pictures folder.

When I attempt to import the pictures a dialogue box comes up saying; "Import complete - 1 non-image file skipped".

This folder contains 491 items, 27 of them are subfolders, the rest are .jpg, .gif, .png, .pspimage, .psd etc.

This folder is a symlink to /media/share/Pictures

/media/share is a mounting point for an NTFS partion, perhaps related to this bug? https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/shotwell/+bug/636084 However, maybe not as all subfolders which contain images within them import OK.

Edit: Have just imported the photos from the directory rather than from the symbolic link and it has worked successfully so I guess that means it has a problem with the symbolic link. Other apps (for instance digiKam) work OK using this link.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: shotwell 0.7.2-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.41-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Dec 12 02:36:19 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: shotwell

[Adam Dingle (adam-yorba)]

This is a known bug in Shotwell:

http://trac.yorba.org/ticket/2983

It's too late to fix this for 0.8 - hopefully for 0.9.

[Ben Ockmore (ben-sput)]

I also get this problem, on the version shipping with Ubuntu 11.10. I try to set Shotwell to use a symlink for its library, and it automatically uses the directory above.

It's going to be a real pain for user on dual boot systems, who want to manage their pictures on an NTFS partition.

Any chance we can get a fix for the next version?

Thanks :)

[Adam Dingle (adam-yorba)]

No promises, but we can try to look at this for Shotwell 0.13.

[dah bien-hwa (dahbien-hwa)]

Hasn't been fixed in more than 2 years now... any chance this will get fixed soon?

[Jim Nelson (yorba-jim)]

We currently have it ticketed for 0.15, which is the release after the one pending.

[Fastguy (erenoglu)]

I'm having this problem in Ubuntu 13.04.

[Andreas Jonsson (sonofjon)]

Still not fixed in Shotwell 0.15 (Ubuntu 13.10).

[Florian (florian-phpws)]

Nearly four years later, I still have this problem in 0.20.2. Is this still on the radar to be fixed?

[Felipe Reyes (freyes)]

Hi,

I posted a patch to fix this in upstream[0], but in the mean time I'll really appreciate if people affected by this bug test the fix and give feedback. I created a ppa[1] with the patch applied so you can easily try the fix.

Thanks

[0] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=720039#c3
[1] https://launchpad.net/~freyes/+archive/ubuntu/shotwell-lp689139

[Felipe Reyes (freyes)]

I forgot to mention that you should backup your photos before trying this patch, I tested with my photo collection and it worked, but you should backup them in any case.

[darkgallium (darkgallium-deactivatedaccount)]

@freyes
Your patch DOES work with a blank Trusty (14.04) Ubuntu install,
Thank you !

(It would be helpful if one of the app developers could correct that)

[Franck (alci)]

I can confirm that:
1) the bug is still present in latest Ubuntu 14.10
2) the binary found in Felipe's PPA does fix the problem

Many thanks to Felipe ! Hope this will find it's way upstream...

[Jim Nelson (yorba-jim)]

As I reported on the bug page, the contributor's patch makes changes beyond fixing import. I've asked him to narrow the focus of the patch and resubmit.

[Johan Bjäreholt (johanbjare)]

What's interesting though is that it works fine to save your files to a symlink as a destination.

For example, my ~/Pictures are linked to /media/raid/Pictures and it works just fine to import from /media/raid/Pictures/Camera and have my library at ~/Pictures but it does not work to import from ~/Pictures/Camera with my library still at ~/Pictures.

[Erik Steiner (estebanium)]

Any news? I am on Ubuntu 20.04 with Shotwell 0.30.8-0ubuntu2 and I am unable to add a folder that is a symlink to another folder..