Skip to main content
ssaibal
ssaibal
Participant
June 22, 2026
Question

Accidentally deleted the whole library, stopped before completion, 12K of 47K photos in Trash folder

  • June 22, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 24 views

Here is a case of not being careful and dumb! Wondering if there is an well defined way for recovery instead of doing this manually for recovering 12K photos. The following steps got me into problem:

 

  1. I am using a Macbook Pro M5 with LRC. I import the raw files from the Compact Flash card into a local catalog on the internal SSD. Process them. In this case, I had 51 files after processing a day of birding.
  2. Then I open the large 47K files catalog on my external 4TB SSD and import all the files from the “local” catalog.
  3. Then I switch back to the “local” catalog and delete all the files, keeping it ready for next set of raw image imports. However, this time, I accidentally opened the 47K catalog, flagged all the files “Rejected” and then deleted the files from the drive. I realized the blunder in a few seconds and force closed the app. By that time, the Trash folder had 12K files and all those images have an “!” sign indicating missing files.

I have made a second copy of the 330GB of files and haven’t messed with the trash folder. Also, I had run the LRC backup during exit the previous day. Is there a way to recover from that backup? My sense tell me “no” as the backup size is tiny compared to my 47K database.

Appreciate any suggestions of help. Thanks.

 

1 reply

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 22, 2026

It depends on what you did with the “second copy” of files.

If you had simply restored files from the Trash (placing them back in their previous folder locations) then opening the most recent catalog backup (from before your error) would be your best bet.

You backup catalog from the ‘previous day’ would need to be extracted from the ZIP file and copied to the folder containing the now damaged catalog (move the damaged catalog to another location first.).

With the camera files back in their previous folder locations, and the catalog (from the backup) open, you should have only to redo recent work (done since the backup), and I presume that includes re-importing the “Local Catalog”.

If your “second copy  of the 330GB ” did not replicate exactly how the files existed previously then you will need more advice.

You would save yourself a lot of bother if you only used one catalog to import (and cull) photos. A 47K catalog is ‘small’ by any standard and does not warrant having two split catalogs.

 

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.4.1, Photoshop 27.8, ACR 18.4, Lightroom 9.4, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.3 .
ssaibal
ssaibalAuthor
Participant
June 22, 2026

Thanks for your suggestions, Rob. I looked for the “restore/put back” option in my trash folder and it wasn’t available. When I googled for it, I was told that MacOS will not show that option if the delete was performed by an application instead of delete operation from the finder. Having said that, my Trash is still left in that condition with 12K files.

For the restore from backup, I had unzipped it, but I didn’t do anything after that as I didn’t expect the tiny backup to contain the files, maybe just the metadata. Is that assumption correct? If yes, then I would still move each of these deleted files back to the date based folders where they are linked to in LRC. Right? Is that the only way?

Splitting up of the catalog was to help in processing my files while on the move without having to connect my external SSD. I usually shoot 2-5K shots in a day (and I am a complete amateur), but I process my photos at the end of the same day. 

Jim Wilde
Community Expert
Jim WildeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 22, 2026

One thing that is imperative to understand is that the LrC backup process only backups up the catalog databases, it does NOT backup your image library. The images need to be backed up separately by the user.

That suggests that you do not in fact have an up-to-date backup copy of the image library? If you do, great…..just restore it back to the original location (just the 12k images need to be restored, if you are able to easily isolate them), then open the restored backup catalog. But if you don’t have a backup of the image library which includes the now-deleted 12k images, you will in fact have to manually restore the deleted images before opening the restored catalog.

Firefly Community Gallery
Adobe Firefly

Remix with Firefly Community Gallery

Thousands of free creations to fall in love with and remix in Firefly.

Explore now
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices