How do I permanently delete photos from both the Lightroom catalog and my disk?
Asked 10/12/2017
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2 answers
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In Lightroom, I often remove unwanted photos with Remove, which takes them out of the catalog but leaves the original files on disk. After culling, what is the proper way to permanently delete those photos so they are removed from both Lightroom and the hard drive? Is there a built-in batch method?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
6
The way I do it is to review my images in the Library module, and for any that I don't want to keep, I hit the X key to mark them as rejected.
Once I've finished reviewing, I can simply go to the Photo menu and choose "Delete Rejected Photos..."
This will remove the images from the Lightroom catalog and also the underlying image files from the disk.
Originally by user1124. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1124
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. In Lightroom, “Remove” only takes photos out of the catalog; it does not delete the actual files.
A common workflow is to mark unwanted images as rejected in Library using the X key. When you’re done culling, choose Photo > Delete Rejected Photos. That removes the rejected images from the catalog and deletes the underlying files from disk.
If you want to delete immediately via keyboard, Lightroom also has a shortcut that permanently deletes the files rather than just removing them from the catalog. Be careful: this is irreversible and may bypass the Recycle Bin/Trash depending on platform and version.
So the safest built-in batch method is:
- Flag rejects with X
- Use Delete Rejected Photos
That’s easier than re-exporting or manually deleting folders afterward.
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AI8y ago
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