Deleted Mobile Downloads file

Forum|Forum|21 days ago
August 26, 2026
24 replies
97 views

I am in the terrible situation, where my dumb a** unintentionally deleted Mobile Downloads file, when trying to clear out space on my macbook. Now my LrC cannot find the files…

I am looking for a way to restore/fix this mistake. Does any one have any tips or ideas? I am not very familiar with the lightroom eco system, as you might’ve guessed already…

Hope any of you know anything of this

Thanks in advance, and kind regards
Anders, a very stressed creative...

A

Anders36002441npigAuthor

Participating Frequently

“The implications of those figures is that you have downloaded 1460 images from the cloud, but have also synced 28 images TO the cloud from LrC. Does that sound right to you?”

This does sound right yes, i have normally used the newer Lightroom (Both on my macbook), and have recently been trying to get more comfortable with LrC. So this might be because of that. I have not really been using LrMobile, but i did download it to check if the photos was still in the cloud from there.

The honest answer about the 27 missing photos, is that i dont really know. If i am able to somewhat safely recover the other 1460 images, im good with that. I might still be able to find the last photos locally on my computer.

My biggest struggle right now, is that i am not really familiar with LrC at all, especially not their catalog/folders system yet..

I would just love to get back to editing photos as soon as possible, with somewhat better understanding of how my photos is stored and accessable.

If i now have all the photos stored locally, but still not able to edit anything in LrC because it cant find the files, how is the easiest/best way for me to get back to work from here? If i will have to rearrange all the folders/catalogs, i will just use that as a way for me to better learn the system.

I have gotten kinda lost, and honestly a bit nervous to proceed because i dont know if i can fuck it up somehow. What would you say, is the easiest or best way for me to get my files in order and recover them in LrC so that i can start editing again?

Bonus question: Do you have a recommendation on how to store files in LrC? Do you do it locally on your PC, an external harddisk or cloud?

Jim Wilde

Community Expert

Dealing with the last question first: LrC only works with files stored locally on hard drives. How to organise them in folders (on disk) is a personal choice, and there are many opposing views. Personally, I use one of the standard LrC date-based systems (i.e. images are stored in dated sub-folders according to their capture date). You can do something similar with images downloaded from the cloud, and I would recommend that.

Now, to deal with the recovery it would be easier to use the Lightroom Desktop app for this, and it sounds as though you do have it installed, yes? If you can get that app running on your desktop (the one with the Lr icon), let me know the exact number for All Photos and can you also tell me if there are any images in the special “Deleted” album.

Next, create a new album (call it something like Originals), then click on All Photos then click on the Filter icon (to the right of the search bar), then select Sync Status, then select “Synced & Backed Up”. That should populate the grid with only those original images - so excluding the smart previews from LrC - and hopefully there should be 1460 of them. If so, select them all (Ctrl or Cmd+A) then add them to that new Originals album.

Let me know when you’ve done that and we can move onto the next step.

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Anders36002441npigAuthor

Participating Frequently

In the Lr Desktop app, All Photos has 1488 photos, while the deleted album has 0.

I have created an album called Originals and moved all fo the photos into that one. Honestly so relieving seeing all the photos accessible here. I guess my mistake haven’t influenced this app, since i am able to edit them through the cloud?

I am ready to move on, and i really do appreciate this help, so so much.

This might be a dumb question, and feel free to ignore this one if so: But would it make any sense, to clean out my LrC app, and instead use the desktop app to manage all the unedited photos, and whenever i have a photo that i want to work on, i move it into LrC for editing? I think my logic is to mostly save space locally on my computer, while keeping it a bit more comprehensible in LrC while i learn the program better?

Jim Wilde

Community Expert

Yes, we can use the images in the cloud to restore, but it’s not straightforward….but I think it’s the best option to take as I’m not sure we can get the downloader files into the relevant sub-folders that they would need to be in to relink them in LrC.

I assume that you don’t have the Lightroom Desktop app installed on your system, as that would probably be easier than using LrMobile? Perhaps it would be better to use the LrWeb app in a browser window, as that’s the most reliable view into the cloud account.

First, I need a bit more information as we first need to be certain what we need to recover. From your screenshots it appears that there were 1460 images in the Mobile Downloads package, but the All Synced Photographs total is 1488. The implications of those figures is that you have downloaded 1460 images from the cloud, but have also synced 28 images TO the cloud from LrC. Does that sound right to you?

But an added complication is that the Missing Photographs total is 1487, so there are 27 other images missing from the catalog but which were not in the Mobile Downloads package. Can you account for that discrepancy?

What’s the All Photos total from LrMobile, and can you confirm that using the LrWeb browser app?

R

Radiant_Spirit81c3

Participating Frequently

If the mobile downloads were deleted but you still need the files, I’d first check the app’s recent files/cloud storage and your device’s recycle bin or recently deleted folder. If they were synced to Creative Cloud, they may still be available there even after the local download was removed.

Jim Wilde

Community Expert

Have you checked the Trash/Recycle Bin? If the Mobile Downloads file is still there, simply restore it back to the original location and that should resolve the issue. If it’s not there, let us know and we’ll try to figure out a recovery plan for you. How many images are we talking about?

In the meantime, don’t do anything else in LrC or LrD until advised.

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Anders36002441npigAuthor

Participating Frequently

The mobile downloads file is not visible in the bin. But i do see a lot of pictures (and video) individually in the bin, which im quite sure i have not actively deleted. I assume that it might be because it erased the mobile downloads file, and put the individual folders and pictures into the bin, but i dont know it thats right.

I can still see the pictures online in the lightroom libraries (the cloud i would assume).

Would it be possible to just restore them from there?

Thank you for responding, i hope that we can fix this..

Jim Wilde

Community Expert

Unfortunately it’s not possible to simply “restore” the missing photos from the cloud, so we’ll need to be a bit creative when trying to resolve the situation. I have two possible methods in mind, but before starting down that route can you first tell me exactly how many images are affected, i.e. are missing from LrC as a result of Mobile Downloads being deleted? Also can you post a screenshot of the Folders Panel in the LrC Library module which includes the folder(s) containing the missing images. I can’t recall if Mobile Downloads is explicitly shown in the Folders Panel, or if the images appear either under an “Imported Photos” folder or are shown under a “Drive” which is actually the name of the mobile device that the images were initially imported into. A screenshot of the relevant part of the Folders Panel would be helpful.

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