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MKT-Community-Wade Chiu
Apr 15, 2026 5:06 PM UTC
Question

accidentally deleted all photos on Lightroom

Accidentally deleted all photos in Lightroom.

I deleted on one device and sync to all other devices, then all devices can’t see the photos. Any way to recover all deleted photos? I really need all the edit history and those photos.

    10 replies

    Steven Whitea
    Participating Frequently
    Apr 17, 2026 12:44 AM UTC

    check your "Deleted" folder immediately; Adobe usually retains files and their non-destructive edit metadata for 60 days before permanent purging. If they were deleted from Lightroom Classic and the disk, your best technical bet is a local system backup (Time Machine/Windows Backup) to restore the .lrcat catalog file, which contains all your edit history. Log in to the Lightroom web portal as well, as sometimes the sync latency leaves a "ghost" copy of the assets in the cloud even after a local deletion.

     

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    Rikk Flohr-Retired
    Adobe Employee
    Apr 16, 2026 1:02 PM UTC

    Unfortunately, recovery does not appear to be possible. 

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    Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org
    MKT-Community-Wade Chiu
    Apr 16, 2026 1:11 PM UTC

    no other way to recover? :(

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    Rikk Flohr-Retired
    Adobe Employee
    Apr 15, 2026 5:19 PM UTC

    Each device has a “Deleted Items” folder that allows for a 30 day recovery window - unless you also accidentally deleted them from that folder. 

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    Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org
    MKT-Community-Wade Chiu
    Apr 15, 2026 5:22 PM UTC

    yes, I also accidentally deleted them from that folder. 

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    MKT-Community-Wade Chiu
    Apr 15, 2026 5:23 PM UTC

    Is it still possibles to recover?

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