Why not just import separately? I wrote a little importer script on linux which uses exiftool to copy the photos into directories based on dates. I don’t know how applicable it is on macOS, but you could probably just change the way it detects the date the photo was taken if you don’t have it (since that’s all exiftool is used for):
#!/bin/bash
COPY_DIR="$1"
PHOTOS_DIR=/home/chiraag/Pictures/Canon/
for i in `ls $COPY_DIR/*.CR2`
do
day=`exiftool $i | grep -m1 'Create Date' | sed 's/.*: //g' | awk -F" " '{print $1}' | sed 's/:/-/g'`
mkdir -p $PHOTOS_DIR/$day
rsync -avuz $i $PHOTOS_DIR/$day/
done
Note that you may have to change the files the for loop iterates over as well depending on the way your images are named (and their format). Also note that you could just switch to using cp for copying the file, but that risks either copying files even when they already exist (without using -u) or accidentally skipping a couple (if you use -u and abort in the middle for whatever reason). Hence I switched to using rsync.
[Edit] I realize that this is useless if you are storing your photos on an external drive as the OP seems to be doing. In that case, I’m not quite sure what you can do. But if you’re just looking to import the files, something like the above might help?
Dear, many thanks for your help and message.
However, and assuming it works, this is way too complicated for me. Really. Thanks.
I really cannot believe such simple functions does not work; it is primordial, vital, essential, in order to use the program. Without importing from external disks all sense gets lost to me.
I have been googling for hours, but nothing. Amazing. And sad.
I wish I could find a way to solve this.
By the way, I am running DarkTable 2.4.0, and iMac 10.12.6
Anyway, it seems strange that this is happening only to me and not to thousands of others users.
Yeah, I don’t know why it’s happening. Then again, I don’t think I’ve ever tried darktable’s import functionality from an SD card. Do you (or @fernandoj) get any errors if you launch it from the terminal? It could be a permissions issue.
Thanks you so much.
I just found the folder within the “volumes” folder.
Weird indeed. But hey, it works.
I still don’t get why I can`t simply see the volume where it is supposed to be, that is to say, by hitting “other locations”, close to the main internal disk.
Anyway, solved, I guess. It must be part of my learning process, but this is a very crucial part of the workflow, at the root of it all. No import, no editing, as simple as that.
Nice I can move on!
Hope this could be useful to others, and if not, sorry to bother.
And many thanks for your help, much appreciated.
I don’t know on macOS, but on linux, it’s stored in ~/.config/darktable/. You could also do a spotlight search for darktablerc, which should lead you to the proper location.
As @chiraag said. .config is a hidden folder in your home directory, inside there you should have darktable. There you have library.db with the list of imported images, their editing steps, ratings, metadata, … Then there is data.db with styles, presets and tags. And darktablerc with your settings. There is also a file for keyboard shortcuts and maybe some other stuff.