When Lightroom Says, "Preview Unavailable For This File," What's Wrong?
You've purchased the latest and greatest of new digital cameras and have just come back from spending the day enjoying all those new features and taking great photos using Camera Raw. But when you insert the memory card and go to Import Dialog in Lightroom, all your thumbnails say, "Preview Unavailable For This File."
What's wrong?
Don't worry, it's not you. It's the Adobe Camera Raw Plug-In (ACR). Adobe updates the ACR plug-in on a regular basis, but never quite fast enough to keep up with every camera manufacturer's changes to their version of camera raw. So what happens is, Lightroom cannot yet read or see these new camera raw files.
What to do?
It's tricky, but not rocket science. Until Lightroom gets an updated version out that includes your new camera, you can download the Adobe DNG converter from the Adobe website that (hopefully!) includes your camera. The link is here - http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/digital-negative.html#downloads - Yes, it says Photoshop, but the Adobe DNG Converter is a stand-alone application that works without having Photoshop. It's a drag and drop application you should find relatively easy to use. It's Mac and PC.
Once your raw files are converted to DNG (the new name of the files will end in .dng), Lightroom will be able to "see" them. Nothing is lost, and you can work on your files exactly the same way you would as if you had imported them directly from your memory card.