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RoBu_51
RoBu_51
Participating Frequently
September 24, 2021
Question

Restoring deleted cloud files

  • September 24, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1123 views

Hi

I'm a basic Lightroom user. I use my Lightroom (this new Desktop thing) on two computers (a Desktop and a Laptop). Because, I had syncing problems with my Desktop, I decided to delete all my photos permanently and reinstalled Lightroom. All files on my Adobe cloud were also deleted. 

My assumption was (which turned out to be wrong) that when I use Lightroom on my laptop, which also holds the entire library, photos will be synced back to the cloud. However, it does the oposit. It deletes all the photos I had on the Laptop too :-(. Luckily, I backup the "Camera Roll" folder which holds all my fotos also on a different place on my hard disk. Hence, I have them still available.

 

Any advise for the next step? Would be highly appreicated!

 

Best, Robert

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2 replies

Y
Yves-CH
Inspiring
September 24, 2021

Salut, désolé, mais je vous répond en français, sachant que ce forum en permet la traduction automatique.
Donc votre catalogue est à ce jour dans l'application LR (donc dans le Cloud).
Le plus simple est d'installer LRC sur un unique ordinateur PC ou Mac.
Sans aucune photo, vous ouvrez LRC, aller dans les Préférences, Lightroom synchronisation et vous définissez :
- sur quel volum/disque vous souhaitez récupérer les fichiers originaux (par exemple D:\Originaux\Photos)
- vous définissez le système de nommage des sous dossiers où seront copiés les fichiers par dte de captur (2021/01/01) ça sera le modèle utilisé.
Ensuite dans LR si vous avez supprimé toutes ls photos, mais pas supprimé définitivement, vous les réactivez toutes. Si les photos sont toujours présentes et classées, C'est tout bon.

Retournez dans LRC est activez la synchronisation.... Dans quelques temps toutes les images seront rapatriées sur votre ordi, le classement par Album sera répétés dans les colections, et si vous souhaitez libérer l'espace sur le Cloud vous pourez supprimer les photos depuis la collection "Toutes les photos synchronisées".
Maintenant pour tout sauvegarder sur un autre disque connecté à votre ordinateur, fermez LRC et sauvegardez les dossiers du catalogue et les fichiers photos pour en avoir une copie de sécurité, à répéter après toutes les modifications faites au catalogue et aux fichiers des photos !

Si la traduction automatique ne suffit pas, merci à un expert de la faire !

 

Yves Crausaz, Suisse, retraité actif dans le monde de la photo et des arts graphiques.
RoBu_51
RoBu_51Author
Participating Frequently
September 29, 2021

Hi Yves. Thank you very much for your help. I also understand French and the translation helped me in addition. Unfortunately, on the cloud I have deleted all my photos permanently. This is not an option anymore. I have saved the Photo Library in a separate location of the hard disk (not connected to LR nor to LRC). The catalogue of LR I failed to update. Hence, I can bring back the photos somehow into LR I guess (import them all over again). But I will loose all the editing which I did because of the catalogue which is now on 0 photos!

Adobe Customer care is impossible to contact. At least I can't figure out any means to send them a message. What a crap product this is for an expensive payment plant. Never ever again Adobe!

Jim Wilde
Community Expert
Jim WildeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 24, 2021

You've probably realised by now that in the Lightroom ecosystem, the data held your cloud server is the "master", i.e. any changes that you make in any of the Lightroom "client" apps (such as adding, editing or deleting images) are synced to the master catalog in the cloud, and from there they will sync down to all the other client apps when they are next launched.

 

So if you did indeed "delete" all the images from one client, those deletions are synced and applied in the cloud, and then also applied to all other clients on next launch....which is indeed what happened. The local copies that you stored on your laptop are NOT a backup.....they are simply an option for the user to have their images stored locally in order to allow the device (such as a laptop) to carry on working when not connected to the web. So deleting the images from the cloud also means delete the local copies on the basis that they are no longer needed.

 

You said that you deleted all the images "permanently"....did you actually do that by first deleting the images in the desktop app, then opening the "Deleted" album and then selected all the images and "permanently" deleted them using the trash can icon? When you delete any image from the cloud, it is held in a trash-can for up to 60 days (to allow for a change of mind or recovery from an error). If you didn't do that, then you should still be able to open that album in any of the client apps and restore them from there, if the 60-day period hasn't elapsed. But if you have permanently erased them via that "Deleted" album, all you can do is re-import them from any backup that you have, though that will lose any work you may have done on them.

    RoBu_51
    RoBu_51Author
    Participating Frequently
    September 24, 2021

    Jim. Thank you so much for your response. Indeed, I did a big mistake. It is a big blow. A deleted all permanently because this syncing problem wouldn't go away. Is there a work around? I was thinking to use my LR library offline and migrate it to a LR Classic catalogue and sync it from there somehow. Would it do the same? Luckily I have still the images but I would loose years of editing work.

     

    Your advise is highly appreciated. Cheers, Robert

    Jim Wilde
    Community Expert
    Jim WildeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 24, 2021

    Unfortunately, you can't "migrate" a Lightroom Library to Lightroom Classic.

     

    But explain a bit more about this "Lr Library offline" what do you mean by that? If you only have the images stored somewhere outside the Lightroom ecosystem, then they'll only be the original files in the unedited state. What you need is a catalog which is associated with those images, either a Classic catalog or even a Lightroom Desktop catalog if that currently has syncing paused. So what have you got?

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