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georgem60500387
Participant
December 14, 2017
Answered

Deleting Folders Completely

  • December 14, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 12941 views

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.

    Correct answer Just Shoot Me

    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.

    2 replies

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    December 14, 2017

    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).

    Just Shoot Me
    Just Shoot MeCorrect answer
    Legend
    December 14, 2017

    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.

    G
    georgem60500387Author
    Participant
    December 14, 2017

    It worked. Thanks to you both.

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