Deleting Folders Completely

[georgem60500387]

Hi I am using Lightroom 6 on a Mac OS 10.9.5. I am trying to delete a folder by highlighting the folder and clicking on the minus symbol directly above. A dialog box appears saying Remove the folder xxxxxx 100 photos etc.

If you continue, these photos will be removed from the Lightroom catalog but the folder and files will remain on disk.

I want the photos, folder and everything completely removed from Lightroom and totally deleted. I do not want the folder and files to remain on the disk. I have no need for these photos so I do not want them to take up space on my disk. Not sure why Lightroom does not give you that option

Not sure why Lightroom does not give you that option.

Thanks for your help.

[Just Shoot Me · Accepted solution]

In my opinion the reason LR doesn't give you that option is it is Not a File Manager.

Also if that was an option I can only guess how many people would be posting about how LR deleted images when all they wanted was to remove the folder, and thew images contained in that folder, from the catalog file.

If you have a folder that has images in it all you need to do is select that folder in the Grid view select all images (Ctrl + a) and hit the delete key. In the dialog that comes up select Delete from Disk and all the images will be placed in the Recycle Bin. Then right  click on the folder and select Remove.

You can also right click on that folder and select Show in Explorer from the pop up menu then in Explorer delete the folder, which will also delete all the images in it, then back in LR right click again and select remove.

The dialog that appears in LR states the folder and images will remain on disk but they are already gone so that dialog can be ignored.

[georgem60500387]

It worked. Thanks to you both.

[Dick_Davis]

New guy here ... so much to learn here. Tried your suggestion, "Show in Explorer."  Worked like a charm ! 

Deleting the folder in Explorer also deleted it in LR. Went back into LR but folder was also deleted

Thank you. Beers on me !

[dj_paige]

Lightroom doesn't remove the folder because there might be other files not imported into LR in that folder.

You can eliminate the folder from LR and then eliminate it from your hard disk as well.

Or you could remove the photos from Lightroom and select to remove the photos from your hard disk from within Lightroom. This leaves the folder on your hard disk, but it is empty (or it still contains files not imported into LR).