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Participating Frequently
November 3, 2020
Answered

All pictures from HD are erased!

  • November 3, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 820 views

Hi, I had an incredible problem last Saturday: I'm a travel photographer and in the end of my last press trip when I started to import the pictures in Lightroom, I stopped the import because I only needed one image. however, when I went to reopen the folder with all the images on the hard disk, they were missing. Lightroom had deleted all the images, I only had 2 Lightroom backup folders which contained only 30 images imported into the program before I stopped importing.

what a incredible bug is this? I lost all my work…

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer dj_paige

No, I never use "move". All my settings are every time the same. I just import pictures... I use Lightroom and Photoshop from a long long time 


You may never use MOVE intentionally, but you may have used it accidentally... and not even realized it

3 replies

JP Hess
Inspiring
November 3, 2020

How many images in total did you have in Lightroom before this last debacle?

LeonowrdoAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 4, 2020

I don't know... tons

JP Hess
Inspiring
November 3, 2020

When you indicate that all images are missing, are they missing in Lightroom? In other words, can you use Finder or Windows Explorer and find the images on your hard drive, or do you think Lightroom deleted them from the hard drive? Are they in the trash or recycle bin. What you are describing is a phenomenon that I have never experienced or read about, and can't imagine how Lightroom could possibly have accomplished such a task.

LeonowrdoAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 3, 2020

the photos are disappeared. They are not on the hard drive, they are not in the recycle bin. In the original folder there are only the 30 backup photos created by lightroom, the only thirty imported before canceling the import.

 

Just Shoot Me
Legend
November 3, 2020

Quote:

In the original folder there are only the 30 backup photos created by lightroom

End Quote:

 

Ah LrC does Not Create backups of images it imported or backups of images in any way.

 

You say you have used Lr Classis (traditional version) for a long time. Sorry it doesn't sound like you have or you have never actually learned how LrC works and how to properly work with LrC.

 

In all honesty one of the worst things you can do is Cancel an import.

 

In the import dialog windows there is an options to Select All, Check All, or Deselect All, Un-check all. And then you can Deselect images one by one you don't want to import and or Uncheck All then Select just the number of images you actually do want to import.

 

Hopefully you still have those images on the card from the camera. 

 

Also what exact option do you select at the top of the import dialog window when you are importing images from your hard disk?

As noted in another reply the Move Option at the top of the import window might of been selected without you realizing it.

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 3, 2020

I have never heard of such bug and I doubt it exists. You are not the only one who ever stopped an import...

 

Can you explain exactly how you did the import? Did you import from a memory card? Did you first copy images to your hard disk and then imported those images from the hard disk? You posted this in the Lightroom forum, but are you using Lightroom or Lightroom Classic? Mac or Windows? Version numbers?

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
LeonowrdoAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 3, 2020

Yes, sorry...
First step, I copied images from memory card to my hard disk, then I started to import images from Hard disk folder to Lightroom Classic, version 10.0, I use macOS Catalina 10.15.7

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 3, 2020

Perhaps you chose 'Move' when you imported. That means Lightroom moved the images to another folder, but because you stopped the import they were not yet added to the catalog.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga