Quick summary

Imagen couldn't write the XMP sidecar files for your culling results. This is usually caused by one of the following: your photos are on an external drive that isn't connected, the destination folder is on cloud storage, or Imagen doesn't have permission to write to that folder.

How to fix this

Step 1: Check your external drive

If your photos are stored on an external hard drive, make sure it's plugged in and accessible before retrying.

• Mac: Check that the drive appears in the Finder sidebar under Locations.
• Windows: Check that the drive letter is visible in File Explorer under This PC.

Step 2: Check for cloud storage

If your photos are stored in a cloud-synced folder (Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud, Google Drive, etc.), try moving them to a standard local folder — for example, your Desktop or Documents folder — and retry the export. Cloud sync can interfere with file write operations.

Step 3: Check folder permissions

Imagen needs write access to the folder where you're exporting XMP files.

• Mac: Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access and make sure Imagen is listed and enabled.
• Windows: Right-click the destination folder → Properties → make sure the folder is not set to Read-only.

Step 4: Try exporting to a simple local folder

As a test, try exporting to a plain local path with no special characters — for example:

• Mac: /Users/[your name]/Desktop/CullingTest/
• Windows: C:\CullingTest\

If this works, the issue is with the original folder's path or permissions.

Still not working?

If the export fails even for a single photo after the steps above, ask our team for help. Please let us know:

• Whether your photos are on a local drive, external drive, or cloud storage
• The full path of the folder you're exporting to
• How many photos failed to export