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Known Participant
November 5, 2025
Answered

Is there a way to recover a photo after "Delete from Disk"?

  • November 5, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 472 views

I keep seeing information online in various sources, including Adobe, about recovering deleted photos such as the info here:

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/restore-deleted-photos.html#view_deleted_photos

 

It starts by telling the user to "Select Photos" but I have no idea where that is 🙂

 

I tend to think of user error to begin with and assume there is something I'm missing.

 

The above Adobe page doesn't seem to indicate, but can someone help clarify if the ability to actually recover deleted photos applies to photos after "Delete from Disk" vs "Remove from Lightroom"?

 

If so, how?

 

Thanks.

Correct answer Conrad_C

This question is posted in the Lightroom Classic community, but the Adobe help link there is for cloud Lightroom which works differently. Because cloud Lightroom stores images on cloud servers, it’s possible to hold “deleted” images (images marked as deleted) on those servers for 30 days before they’re actually permanently deleted. That’s how cloud Lightroom can have a “Deleted” album. But even in cloud Lightroom, after it’s permanently deleted, that’s it, it’s gone forever.

 

The directions in that link don’t apply to Lightroom Classic, where file availability doesn’t depend on the cloud at all because Lightroom Classic stores originals locally, on your computer. With Lightroom Classic, if a file itself is actually deleted from the OS file system (Delete from Disk), not just removed from that one catalog (Remove from Lightroom), including emptying the Trash (Mac) or Recycle Bin (Windows),  then there is nothing Lightroom Classic can do to bring it back because the OS itself has deleted the file.

 

That means the deleted file has to be restored at the OS level. Your post is labeled macOS, so, if the volume storing your photos is backed up using any Mac backup software, such as Apple Time Machine, the way to get back that photo is to restore it from any backup that it’s on, such as the last backup before the file was deleted.

 

You could then import the restored photo back into the catalog. However, it would be starting over; it wouldn’t have the edits, metadata, history, etc. that it had before, because Lightroom Classic deleted that from the catalog at the same time Lightroom Classic asked the OS to delete the file. If it’s important to restore that metadata, that could be possible from a backup of the catalog.

2 replies

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
November 5, 2025

This question is posted in the Lightroom Classic community, but the Adobe help link there is for cloud Lightroom which works differently. Because cloud Lightroom stores images on cloud servers, it’s possible to hold “deleted” images (images marked as deleted) on those servers for 30 days before they’re actually permanently deleted. That’s how cloud Lightroom can have a “Deleted” album. But even in cloud Lightroom, after it’s permanently deleted, that’s it, it’s gone forever.

 

The directions in that link don’t apply to Lightroom Classic, where file availability doesn’t depend on the cloud at all because Lightroom Classic stores originals locally, on your computer. With Lightroom Classic, if a file itself is actually deleted from the OS file system (Delete from Disk), not just removed from that one catalog (Remove from Lightroom), including emptying the Trash (Mac) or Recycle Bin (Windows),  then there is nothing Lightroom Classic can do to bring it back because the OS itself has deleted the file.

 

That means the deleted file has to be restored at the OS level. Your post is labeled macOS, so, if the volume storing your photos is backed up using any Mac backup software, such as Apple Time Machine, the way to get back that photo is to restore it from any backup that it’s on, such as the last backup before the file was deleted.

 

You could then import the restored photo back into the catalog. However, it would be starting over; it wouldn’t have the edits, metadata, history, etc. that it had before, because Lightroom Classic deleted that from the catalog at the same time Lightroom Classic asked the OS to delete the file. If it’s important to restore that metadata, that could be possible from a backup of the catalog.

jmorg65Author
Known Participant
November 5, 2025

Conrad, the intro paragraph at the link I provided specifically states "Photos deleted and synced from Lightroom Classic can be accessed in the same place."

 

I think that language would lead most readers to believe that the processes described on the page should, indeed, apply to Lightroom Classic, in addition to the exclusively web-based versions.

Known Participant
November 15, 2025

Thank you. The table is very helpful. Disappointing that the ability to undelete doesn't exist in any simple fashion in LrC. I am still quite baffled at the lack of a built in "trash" for LrC that maintains all associated changes etc but moves the photo out of the catalog completely. Aperture for Mac had this feature more than a decade ago and it seems peculiar that it has not been implemented in LrC. 


@jmorg65 you can use 'reject' flag instead of delete from lighroom catalog.  most comfortable way, but If you make a mistake there, there's still the OS trash can.

easyly reloadable, If you still want to empty the trash and then restore it, several disk sector scan tool has possibility to restore images but very hard way.

With so many tools, why would you want a fourth?

DdeGannes
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 5, 2025

I you have selected "Delete from disk" check in the Trash/ Bin. If they have been deleted there you will fave to recover from a back up source.

 

Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
jmorg65Author
Known Participant
November 5, 2025

Thanks.