Hmm maybe solved?.. I had the same problem, so I started shotwell via console and I got some output there:
<snip> L 20406 2014-09-27 11:55:05 [WRN] Debug.vala:95: Unable to open or create log file /home/dn/.cache/shotwell/shotwell.log L 20406 2014-09-27 11:55:05 [MSG] main.vala:385: Shotwell Photo Manager 0.18.0 L 20406 2014-09-27 11:55:05 [MSG] main.vala:43: Verifying database ... L 20406 2014-09-27 11:55:18 [MSG] LibraryFiles.vala:86: There was a problem copying /mnt/data/data/images/Pictures/Pictures/1948/03/07/2014-03-08 20.04.56.mp4: Error setting owner: Operation not permitted (shotwell-video-thumbnailer:20436): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_structure_new_empty: assertion 'gst_structure_validate_name (name)' failed (shotwell:20406): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_structure_new_empty: assertion 'gst_structure_validate_name (name)' failed L 20406 2014-09-27 11:55:18 [WRN] BatchImport.vala:1118: Failed to import [1] /home/dn/Pictures/2014/03/08/2014-03-08 20.04.56_1.mp4: unable to write thumbnails (File write error) </snip> After fiddling around (also deleting ~/.local/share/shotwell/data) and `chown -R [user]:[group] ~/.local` it was still the same.. But then I observed that my user didn't have the permission to write in ~/.cache/shotwell (see output), very strange. So i deleted ~/.cache/shotwell, restarted Shotwell, did an import again and then it worked successfully. So - Make sure your user *can* write import destination (~/Pictures by default), chown that - Make sure your user *can* write ~/.local/share/shotwell/data AND ~/.cache/shotwell, chown'ing or possibly delete so it gets re-created.. Also LTS 14.04 on AMD64 with Shotwell 0.18.0.. Does that help others maybe? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1287594 Title: Import fail with error message about photo library not being writeable To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/shotwell/+bug/1287594/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs