You got that fancy new camera during an after-Christmas auction, and y'all're ready to go out and photograph! But when you become dorsum and attempt to import photos, you lot all of a sudden find yourself unable to do so in Lightroom or Lightroom Classic.

So, what gives? Why can't you open your files? In that location are three reasons why this might happen.

Your camera is too new

If y'all are one of the lucky first few to get a new camera, congrats! But along with that comes lack of support from some software. Adobe normally updates its photography software on a monthly ground, then chances are, that photographic camera will exist supported with the next update.

Until then … your best option is to use the software that your photographic camera manufacturer provides, or to use Adobe DNG Converter (Mac / Windows). Y'all can use this for free to convert your files to the Adobe standard DNG format, which you'll and so be able to import into Lightroom.

And if you lot desire an easier workflow until the point Lightroom supports your camera, endeavor shooting in RAW+JPEG. This will allow you to import your JPEG files — just be certain to save your RAW files manually to your reckoner.

You need a newer version of Lightroom

If you've been property off as long as possible to invest in the Creative Cloud ecosystem … you'll soon realize that you lot might non have much of a choice. If you lot're on Lightroom version half-dozen (the last perpetual version of Lightroom), your camera might be newer to where it'due south not supported. For a complete list of supported cameras, visit the Adobe website.

And if you are a Creative Cloud subscriber, yous still might non have the most recent version of your Lightroom software. If y'all're having problem, bank check for updates in the Artistic Cloud app on your computer. Or, in Lightroom, go to Help > Updates …

If yous're ready to upgrade, you can get the Creative Cloud Photography Program, which comes with Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, for just $ix.99/calendar month. That also comes with 20GB of cloud storage for whatever photos you desire to sync to your account.

Past subscribing to Creative Cloud, you non only ensure support for your camera, simply yous'll get new features every bit soon as they're released.

Your file format might non exist supported

Depending on what you're photographing, the format your photographic camera generates might not be supported by Lightroom or Lightroom Archetype. For instance, when I plough on Tripod or Handheld Loftier Res on my Olympus OM-D Due east-M1X, I always get an fault that states it can't import the .ORI files (which, equally Bob points out in the comments, are the standard resolution version of the photograph). In this instance though, the photographic camera also creates a .ORF file, which is supported by Adobe fully (and in this case, the high-resolution version I desire).

While this tin be confusing, yous shouldn't worry about this error. Information technology's best to bank check your camera'south manual to see what file formats it saves special types of photographs in, so you tin can be prepared.