Diagnose import failures
What you will do
Section titled “What you will do”Check whether a file drop actually added photographs, then retry with JPEG photos in the same project. This walkthrough covers an unsupported text file that left the project empty, followed by a successful import of two JPEGs.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”Sign in and open an empty project. The example uses Import troubleshooting on Windows with the English interface in Arams 1.11.0-dev.3.
Have two JPEG photographs available in Windows File Explorer. The verified example uses maxine-01.jpg and maxine-02.jpg, each at its original prepared resolution of 6064 × 4040 pixels. Keep the full-resolution files; resizing is not part of this recovery procedure.
Diagnose an empty import
Section titled “Diagnose an empty import”- Check the photo count beside the project name. 0 photos / 0 selected means that the project view contains no imported photos.
- Look at the central photo area. The Start with AI panel and central Add Photos button are the empty-project screen. Its example pictures are not your imported photographs.
- In File Explorer, check which files you attempted to drag into Arams. In the verified failure case, the dropped file was not-a-photo.txt, a text document rather than a photograph.
- Compare the project with the empty state above. After the text-file drop, the count remained 0 photos, no photo cards appeared, and no error dialog was visible at the three-second check. An unchanged screen does not mean the file imported successfully.
You do not need to create or drop a text document to follow this guide. It illustrates one reason a drop can leave the project empty. The same visible state alone does not identify the cause of every failed import.
Retry with JPEG photographs
Section titled “Retry with JPEG photographs”- Leave the same empty project open.
- In File Explorer, select the two JPEG photographs you intend to import.
- Drag the selected files into the central photo area and release them there.
- Wait for both photograph thumbnails to appear in the grid.
- Compare the photo count and the file labels with the files you selected.
Check the result
Section titled “Check the result”In this example, Previous Import shows 2, and the top counter reads 2 photos / 1 selected. Two cards show distinct portrait thumbnails and JPG labels. The card names can be shortened to fit the grid; the selected file’s full name, maxine-01.jpg, is also visible beside the top counter.
The selected-photo count is separate from the imported-photo count. A loading symbol in a card is not yet a photograph thumbnail: wait for the actual image before treating this check as complete.
Both JPEGs were added to the same project after the unsuccessful text-file drop. Recreating the project was unnecessary in this case. Analyze 2, Retouch preview, and Export are not required to complete this import check.
If it still does not work
Section titled “If it still does not work”| What you see | What to check next |
|---|---|
| 0 photos and the empty-project panel | Compare the selected source files with the intended JPEG photographs, then follow the drag-and-drop retry above. |
| Two cards, but a loading symbol instead of a portrait | Wait for the photograph thumbnails. If they never appear, thumbnail loading has not been confirmed. |
| Fewer photographs than you selected | Compare the source filenames with the cards. The two-photo result in this guide has not been reached. |
| An error dialog, or JPEGs still fail to appear | Record the exact message, file types, number of files, Arams version, and whether you used drag-and-drop or Add Photos when reporting the problem. |
Recovery from corrupt JPEGs, file-access errors, missing files, duplicate imports, and failures in the native Add Photos dialog has not been verified here. RAW import and macOS also need separate checks. This procedure does not establish a complete list of supported formats or a remedy for those cases.