Lost File Icons on Mac with Nikon Transfer

I transfer NEF files (raw images from Nikon D70 and D200 cameras) with a Firewire card reader to my old Mac G4 running OS X 10.4.11. Both cameras are set to raw only (not raw + jpeg). I had ben using Nikon Transfer and NikonView for this for most of the time (after initially trying Nikon Picture Project).

With Picture Project each transfered NEF only showed a generic NEF icon so that when a folder of images was opened in Icon view they all looked identical - just the NEF tag on them. Replacing Picture Project with NikonView gave me file icons that showed the actual image and All Was Good.

Yesterday I replaced NikonView with ViewNX 1.2.1 and I upgraded to Nikon Transfer 1.3.0. And now the imported NEF files show only a blank generic icon (not even the NEF label).

I've uninstalled the new applications, deleted the empty folder from the Applications folder, Applications Support folder, and deleted any plist file with "nikon" in the name from the Preferences folder.

I've reinstalled Transfer and ViewNX.

I was able to get get real icons generated with one card transfer by opening Apple's Image Capture utility and setting a checkbox with the CF card in the reader and attached tot he FW port, but subsequent test transfers have reverted to blank icons.

I may have just found some more plist files to delete in my User folder so that's my next step, along with another uninstall, purge, and reinstall.

Anybody have other suggestions how to fix this?

The included jpeg shows a generic NEF icon (from assigning the file type to PS CS3) as well as the one successful transfer with a proper icon.

For what its worth, Lightroom does the same thing on my G4 Mac when importing files. If I Copy from a memory card, the result is the same for both NEF and JPG files - a generic NEF or JPG icon. If I merely import previously downloaded files (which had image icons), the JPG files lose their image icon and the NEF files retain theirs. I have determined from this that if Lightroom "writes" the files, it places a generic icon in the file. "Copy" from memory card writes the files on the disk. Import existing files on the disk into Lightroom's catalog merely indexes the NEF (or raw) files and writes a sidecar XMP file containing the image's metadata. But it rewrites the JPG files after inserting the metadata into the JPGF file (no sidecar file for JPG's). That tells me Adobe strips off the image icon and substitutes generic (or MAC OS X displays one if none is present in the file, determining which icon to use from the .jpg or .nef extension).

So, since Adobe's Lightroom does the same thing as your Nikon Transfer, it appears to be a vendor software issue rather than a Mac OS problem and there is nothing you can do about it except complain to the software developer. I decided I can live without the image icons since Bridge or Lightroom will display thumbnails. But I miss browsing my files with the Finder file directories.

BTW, I have searched the web for a solution in several forums, and found nothing, not even the initial problem.

Thanks Craig for the related behavior story.

I am able to generate useable substitute icons with good old Graphic Converter by invoking "Create Preview" from the pulldown actions menu on a group of selected NEFs. I've set the preference for that to 128 px and, and if I reopen the folder of "fixed" NEFs with ViewNX they stay put.

I still think there might be an OS X level fix for this involving the Image Capture utility: there's a checkbox a screen or two down from the Options button that should control this.

When I get a chance I'll ask this question on one of the Apple forums and if I get an answer I'll do a follow up here.

Don't know if this will help. I copy my D200 images from card to Mac G4 OSX 10.4.11 as a pure copy function (drag and drop). These are jpg's and they do not have an icon of the actual file...just a generic icon. I then select all those files and hold the control key and click one of the files. This opens up a Macintosh utilities window. At the bottom is a utility I downloaded from somewhere a while ago called Quickimage. It has multiple commands inside of it that you click on. One of the items is "Add Thumbnail Icon". This then goes to all the files I have selected and creates the icon using the image inside the file. I noticed it worked on other files besides jpg's, so they may work on the nefs. Anyway, this at least gives you files at the disk folder level with a view of what the image file actually is. Quickimage was a free utility and has worked wonderfully for me without any interference to anything else on my Mac. I imagine it still can be found on the internet. Hope this helps you.

Troup Nightingale

Troup: thanks for the input and suggestions.

There's an easier way to get the embedded icons at the time of transfer - open Image Capture and check the appropriate box under options with the card reader attached and the card inserted (or the D200 connected by cable). Then just click on the button to begin the transfer. You'll get the image icons revealed in the files and won't need to pull them out afterwards. This is what I did with two cards from this morning's outing. I like the interface of Nikon Transfer and the easy way to skip transferring images I knew I'd delete afterwards, but until/if I resolve this issue I'll skip Nikon Transfer completely and just use Apple's Image Capture to get the icons. I can still review the folder of transfered files using ViewNX.

You can get Quickimage for free HERE
Scroll down and read the feedback - it doesn't work on Intel Macs.

Troup & Craig:

Thanks for suggesting QuickImage. I installed it this morning and am impressed with how slick it works. I've been using it today to add preview icons to NEFs that didn't get them from my early days of the D70 and also for even older stuff scanned from slides. Having clean and useful icons like this makes it a lot faster to find image files in folders just from views in Finder.

I poked around on the Apple forums yesterday and was able to pull up many related questions but no answers so I decided not to bother posting my question and getting the same non answers.

03/18/09 Status:

After a few exchanges on the Nikon product support page, in which the person "answering" my query tried to divert the discussion to whether or not the NEF file would open in Photoshop and then telling me that once a file had been edited in another application it couldn't be edited in Nikon View NX, I managed to get their attention back to my original question about the loss of preview icons.

Here's today's reply from Nikon Support:

[quoteThat would be a bug that we are facing right now with MAC and the latest updates of our software, we apologize, but the minute we receive any info about how to fix this we will contact you.

Again SORRY.

Thank you

The Nikon Team[/quote]

So, I'll be transferring files without icons and using QuickImage to generate them.