How can I permanently delete photos I removed from Lightroom without deleting from disk?
Asked 11/13/2013
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2 answers
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In Lightroom 5 on Mac, I imported about 2,000 photos, then culled them down to around 40 by pressing Delete and choosing Remove rather than Delete from Disk. The removed files are still on my drive, but Lightroom no longer shows them.
How can I now move those removed files to the Mac Trash and permanently delete them? Does Lightroom have any way to find them again, or a better workflow for this in the future so I can review images, undo mistakes, and only delete the rejects once I’m sure?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
5
The problem is that Lightroom does not know about these images, so it cannot do anything about it. Essentially you want to know which photos are not in Lightroom. I have no idea how to do that but I think this will work:
From Lightroom, select the folder or tree where these photos are and synchronize it. It will popup the import dialog, just continue the import as usual. As an extra precaution add a keyword during import, something like "DELETE_ME_AGAIN".
Once done, all these photos should appear under the Previous Import folder. From there see if you can do a Delete From Disk. If not, go to the library view and do it from there by selecting all images matching the "DELETE_ME_AGAIN" keyword.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Lightroom has no trash for images you chose to Remove. That command only removes the catalog reference, so Lightroom no longer knows those files exist and can’t delete them afterward.
To delete them now, you need to identify the files on disk and remove them manually, or re-import/synchronize the folder so Lightroom sees them again, then use Delete from Disk.
Two workable approaches from the folder containing those photos:
- Synchronize/re-import the folder in Lightroom so the untracked files appear again. You can optionally tag them during import, then select them and choose Delete from Disk.
- If the folder contains only those original imports, move the 40 keepers into a new folder from Lightroom’s Library view, confirm they moved successfully, then delete the remaining files in the old folder in Finder.
For future culling, use Delete from Disk when you’re sure you want files trashed. If you want a safety step, first move keepers to a separate folder, then delete what’s left.
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