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Deleting photos easily from external disk drive ?

New Here ,
Nov 25, 2017 Nov 25, 2017

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Older versions of Lightroom did not always delete photos from my external disk drive even if I chose the delete from disk option. The newer Lightroom CC works great as it does delete the photos from my external disk drive. I am stuck with a ton of old photos on my external disk drive which I would like to permanently delete but I can't identify them easily.

Is there a way to go about this ?

thanks

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Nov 27, 2017 Nov 27, 2017
I am stuck with a ton of old photos on my external disk drive which I would like to permanently delete but I can't identify them easily.

Are you asking: how can I identify the photos in my operating system that are no longer in Lightroom?

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Community Expert ,
Nov 25, 2017 Nov 25, 2017

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why don't you group-select them in a file browser and delete them?

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 27, 2017 Nov 27, 2017

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Moving to Lightroom​

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LEGEND ,
Nov 27, 2017 Nov 27, 2017

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I am stuck with a ton of old photos on my external disk drive which I would like to permanently delete but I can't identify them easily.

Are you asking: how can I identify the photos in my operating system that are no longer in Lightroom?

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New Here ,
Nov 27, 2017 Nov 27, 2017

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Yes

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LEGEND ,
Nov 27, 2017 Nov 27, 2017

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This should work, although there might be simpler methods.

Set up a temporary folder somewhere, using the + sign at the top right of the Folder Panel. You now have an empty folder. In Lightroom, move (drag and drop) the photos in a given folder to this temporary folder. Then, in your operating system, the photos that are not in Lightroom will remain in the original folder, but the ones in Lightroom will be gone; so you can use your operating system to delete these photos. Then, in Lightroom, drag the photos from the temporary folder back to the original folder.

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New Here ,
Oct 17, 2021 Oct 17, 2021

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GÃ¥r väl ok med 10-20 bilder men vid flera huindra kanske tusen  , hur gör man dÃ¥ ??????

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Community Expert ,
Oct 17, 2021 Oct 17, 2021

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An old forum thread, but you want to Delete photos on the Hard Drive that are NOT in the LrC Catalog. Correct?

One method is to use Lightroom for this-

1) Import ALL files. (Use Minimal or Embedded Previews for speed. Uncheck "Dont import suspected duplicates")

2) Immediately select the "Previous Import" list in the Catalog panel (This will show only photos that were NOT in the catalog previously)

3) Select all photos shown. Or visually Preview the photos and make selections.

4) Delete selected photos from Disk.

 

You can use this method to Import (& delete) from a single Folder on the Drive, or choose a top Parent folder and [include sub-folders] in the Import dialog.

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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