Deleted photos (SHOULD be deleted) returning with Exclamation Point?

Question

Hundreds of deleted photos have returned to my LR catalog with the exclamation point indicator. These are NOT photos I am trying to find - they are photos that were purposefully deleted and should remain deleted.   How do I get rid of them without going through and manually doing it again?  Can I sort to "exclamation point" photos in my catalog?  Why are they back?

Rob_Cullen · Accepted Answer

First question- How did you delete them?

If you deleted them from File Explorer/Mac Finder, then you have deleted the original files BUT the previews in the Catalog will remain showing the '!'.

To remove "Missing" preview thumbnails from the Catalog go- Menu > Library > Find all missing photos.

(One precaution- If you have Smart Previews and original files are not connected, these will also show as "missing".)

When the menu finds the 'missing' photos, select all [Ctrl+A] (note precaution above) and press [Delete], select [Remove].

johnrellis · Answer

Did you delete the photos from within the LR program or outside of LR (e.g. with Finder or File Explorer)?

You can find all of these photos by doing the menu command Library > Find All Missing Photos. Select all of them and then do Photo > Remove Photo to delete them from your catalog also. (See the menu for the keyboard shortcut.)

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