# Help - Canon DPP Issue - cannot access file - sometimes.



## Jack Douglas (Aug 14, 2019)

Please, any ideas since this is driving me nuts. I use DPP for minimal editing and like it a lot. Newest version DPP 4 , Windows 10. Very randomly as far as I can tell, when I've edited a RAW file and close DPP of course I get, *OK to save edited image*. 

When I click yes, or yes to all, if I'm unlucky I get, *cannot access file*. Then there is no way I can shut DPP down except to select, NO and lose the editing I've done. At first I thought his might be caused by me having changed a RAW file name, but it seems not. I've moved files to my C drive SSD and that makes no difference. I've shut down and restarted and still had the problem.

It also seems more likely if I've been editing in one folder and then decide to move on to another folder. It's heartbreaking if I happen to have done some tricky edits that were tedious!!

Any suggestions? I have an older computer with 8GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 4TB D drive both which seem fine, and overall the performance is quite good. One thing I did was break very large folders of one day of shooting into separate folders, maybe 250 shots/folder but that only helped with the speed of DPP opening thumbnails. My compile and save operations always work so I get my JPGs but when I return to the RAW file all the editing is gone.

Jack


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## AaronT (Aug 14, 2019)

Jack Douglas said:


> Please, any ideas since this is driving me nuts. I use DPP for minimal editing and like it a lot. Newest version DPP 4 , Windows 10. Very randomly as far as I can tell, when I've edited a RAW file and close DPP of course I get, *OK to save edited image*.
> 
> When I click yes, or yes to all, if I'm unlucky I get, *cannot access file*. Then there is no way I can shut DPP down except to select, NO and lose the editing I've done. At first I thought his might be caused by me having changed a RAW file name, but it seems not. I've moved files to my C drive SSD and that makes no difference. I've shut down and restarted and still had the problem.
> 
> ...


Good Morning Jack. DPP saves the changes in the metadata of the raw file. It does not affect the actual RAW data itself. My only idea is that somehow the raw file has had a read only tag put on it somehow. If that is the case it cannot be overwritten and the edits cannot be saved. I use Capture One and it adds a separate folder where it stores the changes and does not overwrite the original file. I hope this helps.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 14, 2019)

Thanks Aaron. I have a friend that works as a programmer and this suggestion may be helpful if I engage him. Myself, I don't know how I could verify the read only characteristic. What's so strange is that initially it appears to happen randomly and only after I've been successfully editing probably with one successful shut down of DPP but if I change folders, thus provoking a save activity that way, then I'm almost certainly trapped. 

I've now played around a bit with different activities and one was to start fresh with just a single edit and save, again it was hit and miss. One file was refusing to edit-save and so I copied the RAW to my desktop and then started over with a simple edit such as crop and then shut down - it would not save that change - cannot access file. Seems that file is now "marked".

Since I have ON1, I should bite the bullet and switch over but I have some immediate health issues and am trying to get through my spring Costa Rica shots before surgery and don't have the mental/physical fortitude to dive into that software - maybe that's a lame excuse but I know DPP very well.

Jack


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## AaronT (Aug 14, 2019)

Jack Douglas said:


> Thanks Aaron. I have a friend that works as a programmer and this suggestion may be helpful if I engage him. Myself, I don't know how I could verify the read only characteristic. What's so strange is that initially it appears to happen randomly and only after I've been successfully editing probably with one successful shut down of DPP but if I change folders, thus provoking a save activity that way, then I'm almost certainly trapped.
> 
> I've now played around a bit with different activities and one was to start fresh with just a single edit and save, again it was hit and miss. One file was refusing to edit-save and so I copied the RAW to my desktop and then started over with a simple edit such as crop and then shut down - it would not save that change - cannot access file. Seems that file is now "marked".
> 
> ...


Hi Jack. If you go to the *.CR2 (or any file) using "Computer" and right click on the file and go down and left click on Properties. A box will pop up and at the bottom of it will be Attributes. If the Read Only box is "checked" then you can't write to it.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 14, 2019)

Thanks I can try that for sure.

Jack


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 14, 2019)

Sure enough the file I could definitely recall that was giving me problems was checked, Read Only. Now how does that happen as a part of the DPP use scenario when it never was ... oh boy ... maybe I had protected it in camera??!! That would do it right? I think you have solved my problem! Thanks!!

Jack


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 14, 2019)

Jack Douglas said:


> Sure enough the file I could definitely recall that was giving me problems was checked, Read Only. Now how does that happen as a part of the DPP use scenario when it never was ... oh boy ... maybe I had protected it in camera??!! That would do it right? I think you have solved my problem! Thanks!!
> 
> Jack


DPP reads the write protection flags set in the camera but other software probably does not read them.

I don't like software that creates sidecar files, DPP can write to the original raw, so it can change the original file by embedding edit data, or it can produce a sidecar depending on settings. Other software will not see the DPP raw edits.

Lightroom has the option of a database, a sidecar, or even creating a dng file. Then, saves to DNG have options as to how edits are saved. Nothing is very compatible from editor to editor, but there is occasionally some limited compatibility.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 15, 2019)

I was ready to throw out DPP and wade into ON1, since I own it, but now my lazy nature will have me back at my Costa Rica Birds using DPP again. The trouble is that DPP is doing the basic stuff I need well enough and quickly although it's clumsy for selective brightening/darkening. However, I often do just a small tweak to the eye. What I really need is someone behind me to give a swift kick.

CR folk are great for helping out!

Jack


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## AaronT (Aug 15, 2019)

Jack Douglas said:


> Thanks I can try that for sure.
> 
> Jack


And good luck with your surgery.


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## Jack Douglas (Aug 15, 2019)

Thanks Aaron, you're my hero today! 

Jack


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## Maximilian (Aug 15, 2019)

Thanks to both of you, Jack and Aaron, for sorting that out. 
I use DPP, too, but never ran into this problem as I seldom protect pics in camera. 
I was almost about to reply, thinking that the reason could be if one acesses the file with two programs. But now it seems clear.


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## MartinF. (Oct 27, 2019)

Jack Douglas said:


> I was ready to throw out DPP and wade into ON1, since I own it, but now my lazy nature will have me back at my Costa Rica Birds using DPP again. The trouble is that DPP is doing the basic stuff I need well enough and quickly although it's clumsy for selective brightening/darkening. However, I often do just a small tweak to the eye. What I really need is someone behind me to give a swift kick.
> 
> CR folk are great for helping out!
> 
> Jack


I say with DPP for the same reason: I know it - I have been using DPP since vers 3. I do not fin LR very userfriendly, and I do not like LR databases "customer lock-in". But I miss more DPP community. (I have created a "Canon DPP4 users" facebook group. Please join.... 
I dont fint DPP clumsy, and it is only a few features i miss, and DPP is getting better slowly but surely.....


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## Jack Douglas (Oct 27, 2019)

MartinF. said:


> I say with DPP for the same reason: I know it - I have been using DPP since vers 3. I do not fin LR very userfriendly, and I do not like LR databases "customer lock-in". But I miss more DPP community. (I have created a "Canon DPP4 users" facebook group. Please join....
> I dont fint DPP clumsy, and it is only a few features i miss, and DPP is getting better slowly but surely.....



I agree and am willing to share what I know of DPP with anyone. I feel badly when someone is knocking DPP because it does the typical things just fine and for me it is very fast. One thing, just recently I built a new computer with almost the very top specs and it is so nice to have DPP operations that were sometimes into minutes down to tolerable seconds.

And, yes DPP has been getting better with things like just pointing to a button is enough to allow you to move it with the mouse wheel, no click required. However, so far I'm not much of a landscape person, where I suspect DPP would quickly be recognized as inadequate.

I'm also not a Canon basher; in fact I'm pretty happy being a Canonite!  Unfortunately, I'm not a Facebook person.

Jack


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