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FeedbackCommunityMember
Inspiring
June 4, 2011
Not Prioritized

P: Delete Images on Card after Import

  • June 4, 2011
  • 113 replies
  • 5652 views

I would love to get an option to let LR automatically delete images from the card after they have been successfully imported. Images on the card that have not been imported, are let alone, of course.

It would serve two purposes for me:
1. It would save me deleting the images manually.
2. It would dramatically improve the experience of importing images from one card into different catalogs.

An incremental import of subsets of images on one card into a single catalog (but e.g., different folders) is well supported by the "New Photos" filter in the import dialog. However, when I switch catalogs while downloading images from a card -- because some subset of images on the card needs to go into a different catalog -- the "New Photos" filter no longer works. As a result, I have to remember and wade through a lot of images I already imported into a different catalog.

I realise that deleting images from the card is a sensitive issue. It must not happen prior to having verified that the image indeed has been copied (or converted) to a new location. Picasa supports this double checking.

As a safety net, Lightroom could offer a "restore deleted images" feature that would resurrect deleted files from cards. Users will find such a feature tremendously useful for other occasions as well.

I'd be happy with the following compromises as well:

* The option to delete images after import is available only if one activates a second backup location.

* Images are not deleted but the tracking of which images have already been imported is extended to work across catalogs. A record of what images still need to be imported could be associated with a currently inserted card.

    113 replies

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    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    February 17, 2012
    Can not move from Camera during import with Lightroom 3.2. Feature? I submit that it is not! Please add this to improve workflow!

    areohbee
    areohbee
    Legend
    September 25, 2011
    I've recently switched to a delete-after-import workflow (using an import plugin instead of Lightroom's native import dialog box), and in my case, following a confirmation prompt, and I *really* like it. Its sorta like getting a tiny pebble out of your shoe - ya don't always realize how much its been bothering you until you get it out ;-}

    I assume TK is correct - that it won't cause any technical problems.

    If TK is not correct, I sure hope Adobe comments somehow somewhere: "We don't support delete-after-import due to risk of increased problems / decreased reliability...". As it stands, its hard for me to imagine any other explanation for not supporting this feature other than "we just haven't gotten around to it yet...".

    Personally, I see this feature coupled with another feature: image validity checking.

    Here's how I would like it to work:
    - Lightroom imports files and checks validity as best it can (which in the case of some faulty cards/readers, may be less than perfect), and notifies user.
    - User double-checks that all imported images are acceptable (don't have tell-tale signs of image corruption), and provides his-or-her (retractable) stamp of approval.
    - Lightroom deletes all images from card that have been approved by both software and user, *and* stores check-codes for those images (in the catalog, if not DNG).
    - Any image corruption in the future will be detected.

    This would be optimal for me. TK probably wants the intermediate prompt to be optional. And, of course, nobody would have to use this feature if they did not want to.

    -R
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    September 25, 2011
    With all due respect, but the idea that file deletion necessarily requires card corruption is nonsense.

    Maybe your users were pulling cards out of readers without properly ejecting them, I don't know.

    In two years of card usage, I've never formatted the card once in the camera. I only delete files using Windows Explorer. I have, of course, never had a problem, and, of course, still have access to the full capacity of the card.
    A
    Anonymous
    September 25, 2011
    Presumably Adobe engineers could get the deletion process done right - as Mark Sirota notes above. Properly done, file systems should NOT consume an ever growing portion of a disk drive.

    I recently had a card with issues reading. If Lightroom woudl have marked the properly read images as deleted would have been super helpful - now I have another 20-30 minute project to do a manual compare process. Life is too short!
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    September 25, 2011
    Popular photo management tools (Picasa, iPhoto, etc.) do this and it actually introduces corruption to the card after a while. After several months, an oft-used 4GB card can be reduced to only a few hundred MB of useable space.

    I'm an IT guy and I've had to train my users to NOT use this function on those applications, but rather get into the practice of formatting the memory card in the camera itself after import. We have not had any issues since implementing this practice.

    I would strongly advise AGAINST implementing this feature. It's unnecessarily introduces problems into the process.
    areohbee
    areohbee
    Legend
    June 24, 2011
    Just a reminder: If ImportActions are implemented, a simple action could be implemented to delete files post import (after thorough validation). Code for deletion would not even exist if user did not explicitly install/wire-up the action. No option, no code, no possibility to oppsidentally authorize deletion, except for people who want it. And, Adobe would not have to do anything more, nor take any responsibility...
    areohbee
    areohbee
    Legend
    June 21, 2011
    John - I sent you an email.

    Be aware: 'RC Importer' does *not* validate imported file nor backup byte-for-byte nor even size-wise before deleting. It *does* check that the photo was successfully copied and imported by Lightroom *and* successfully copied to backup, before deleting. But a successful copy is determined soley by copy status as reported - does not double-check data.

    But, so far in my plugin development career and as plugin user - number of times copy status was good but copy wasn't: zero. - not sayin' it isn't possible, just sayin' it hasn't happened yet...

    For comparison purposes only: number of human errors inadvertently deleting files that shouldn't have been: more than zero ;-}

    Rob
    A
    Anonymous
    June 21, 2011
    I've read many of these discussions on about 9 different threads over the years and understand other's points, but still am looking for a true MOVE (with delete) option in Lightroom.

    Personally I prefer the convenience (and trust automated proceedures) in having LightRoom copy images to two separate drives (with verification) and then mark the source images as deleted (i.e., possible to restore with some hassle) over a manual human process. Provide warnings, sure, but don't prejudge my workflow!

    Manually deleting images and formatting cards is laborious and error prone for me. (I could easily miss partial success, such as a full hard drive, whereas software wouldn't mistake this.)

    Rob Cole, you mentioned a way to create this functionality at the start fo this thread. I'd love to hear more details.
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 10, 2011
    Try importing the card in a single step into a master catalogue and then farm the pictures out to different catalogues. Would that be more work? It seems like it would be exactly the same amount of work but safer.
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMemberAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 9, 2011
    Mark, you write "...he wants to import a subset of the images into one catalog, and a different subset into another. Many photographers solve this by using a different card for each shoot,...".

    It is not always possible to solve this problem by using different cards. Say you have a day out with the family and take photos of family members and also macro shots of flowers for your photography group in an interleaved fashion. It is not practical to change the card every time you see a different photo opportunity.
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