Deleting photos from Lightroom BEFORE they sync

Question

I need help undertsanding how Lr deletes photos. Basically I want to simply permantenly delete all photos from the Deleted folder. When I try do this, the photos still show greyed out Thumbnails. I can't make them just disappear.

In a little more detail...

I have to work quite a lot offline. I import new photos to Lightroom, select the few keepers and move the rest to the trash. When I get online, Lr seems to want to sync all the photos, including those in the trash, before I deletes them. Right now I have over 1600 photos in Lr's Deleted Folder. I have Permanently Deleted them all, and yet the thumbnails are still there, greyed out, with the little blue sync circle showing in the corner. With my crappy internet connection, it will take forever. I don't understand why Lr seems to be syncing photos I have already told it to delete... permanently.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

selondon · Answer

I've just tested (albeit on v3.4) and yes, when I import with WiFi off, delete the photo and then try to permanently delete, it just stays greyed out. When WiFi is turned back on, it has to sync to the Cloud before permanently deleting.

However, if you Pause Syncing previous to the Import it deletes permanently before syncing to the Cloud.

Also, and maybe even better for you. With Wifi off, if you select delete permanently then Pause Syncing, any photos that haven't commenced syncing to the Cloud permanently deleted. At least in my testing.

Give it a try!

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