Comment 6 for bug 797117

This behavior is expected if the photos you're importing are already in the library directory: in that case Shotwell won't copy them (and, in recent versions of Shotwell, won't ask you whether you want the photos copied). So if Shotwell doesn't seem to be copying your photos, you should check your library directory setting in Shotwell's Preferences dialog. Perhaps it's mistakenly set to your home directory, in which case Shotwell will never copy photos imported from your home directory or any of its subdirectories.