I have a template I use to make image collages, and typically I drag and drop 4-16 PNG images from my file manager straigh onto the canvas and they import immediatly as separate objects I can easily drag around and resize. I've created several dozen images this way over a few months.

Suddenly today, instead of just importing the stack of images, now it is opening each image in a separate document, which takes ages and pretty much freezes my system whilst it happens. I've tried this a few times with different images, tried closing and restarting, even reset my settings (though I'm not sure that actually did anything because pressing the button gives no feedback and nothing visually changed with the program).

I tried using the import function but that only lets you import one thing at a time, for some reason.

I have not updated the program or made any changes to the config or even installed any windows updates recently. The only change to my setup was resetting settings which I tried after testing this a few times and it has made no difference.

Why this sudden change in behaviour and how can I fix it. Or if I cannot fix it, how can I import a stack of images in one operation because using the import menu over and over again to import one image at a time is just not a viable workflow.

Running on Windows 10, using Inkscape 1.4 (86a8ad7, 2024-10-11)

FWIW resetting the settings did fix the problem, but I had to restart the program. I have no idea what setting got changed to mess this up, but it was nothing I changed. I would suggest to the developers that pressing the settings reset button needs to provide some feedback to the user, and if the only way to refresh the settings is to restart, then there should be some indication of that in the UI.