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Lightroom delete source files after canceled import

Community Beginner ,
Jan 20, 2020 Jan 20, 2020

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I am almost to upset to even write this. 

 

I was looking over soem old images and wanted to do some edits. First I see that for some reason lightroom thinks that my older imports are no longer in the catalog. I was a bit tired so I just pressed import for the images. I realize I dont have to do that, I can just add the catalog again. So I press cancel to do an add instead. I go to the folder and Lightroom have deleted all images in that catalog!!! How can this be? A full day of images from my trip in Africa, gone! Is this really how this works. In that case no more lightroom. 

 

Update: So I recreated the issue by doing a copy of a folder and then did the same procedure again and indeed it deletes all images. No questions asked just got rid of them. No move to bin nothing like it, just gone.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 20, 2020 Jan 20, 2020

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No that's not how it works, it doesn't work that way for anyone else; and so I assume there was some user mistake. In Lightroom, please click on All Photographs, turn off all filters and using the Lightroom Filter Bar, search by file name for one of these photos.

 

Also use your operating system's search feature to search by file name to find the location of the photos on your hard disk.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 20, 2020 Jan 20, 2020

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I have done that. They do not exist in any catalog, I have used Terminal to check hidden files. I have seacherd for the files. They are gone. They did exist before the canceled import, I even looked them through with Finder. They are on a separate server, they are not there. 

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 20, 2020 Jan 20, 2020

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To add is that the three images that was imported are there. Rest is gone.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 20, 2020 Jan 20, 2020

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I have done that. They do not exist in any catalog, I have used Terminal to check hidden files. I have seacherd for the files. They are gone. They did exist before the canceled import, I even looked them through with Finder. They are on a separate server, they are not there. 

 

Photos do not exist in catalogs. The catalogg is a database, not a repository.

 

Question is, where are your photos on your hard drives and/or NAS (if any)

 

When you imported the photos into your catalog, where did you select the photos to be placed? What folder on your hard drive(s) ?

 

Use your Operating Systems file manager to look for them.

 

 

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 20, 2020 Jan 20, 2020

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They were on a NAS and I selected the same folder but import to subfolder. 

 

I realize that the bin was not setup for my Archive folder on my NAS so that was my mistake probably. I have looked for them with finder and through Synology webbased interface. 

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LEGEND ,
Jan 20, 2020 Jan 20, 2020

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My suspicion is that you are opening the wrong catalog.

 

Use your Operating system file manager to look for other catalogs, look for files ending with .lrcat

 

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LEGEND ,
Jan 20, 2020 Jan 20, 2020

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Several occurrences that can result in a new catalog being created and opened instead of the previous opened catalog being launched.

 

Updated version of Lightroom Classic, that had some odd issue. Very rare, very adnormal

 

Resetting the preference file. Common, if not absolute

 

Corrupt preference file

 

User error in preferences settings, general

 

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New Here ,
Aug 30, 2020 Aug 30, 2020

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I just had this happen to me! I realized I was putting them in the wrong place, canceled the import, and all the files that were already imported changed to .xmp fiels and are gone. 

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Community Expert ,
Aug 30, 2020 Aug 30, 2020

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As the others have said, your Photo Files are not stored in Lightroom. So if they are not showing in Lightroom, they are simply not referenced in the catalog.  

The photofiles themselves should still be on your NAS or wherever you store them.

 

The only way to delete them from Lightroom catalog AND where they are, is to select Delete, and then you have to select delete from catalog or delete from disk. Deleting from disk puts the photo files into your computer's trash or trashcan on a Mac. And Lightroom even asks you if you are sure that you wan the photo files completely deleted from the disk. Even then, the photo files are not deleted and lost, until you physically empty the trash!

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 30, 2020 Aug 30, 2020

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What you are saying is not true. They were permanent deleted after a canceled reimport. That is why I say it’s a bug. They have shown lately that Lightroom is well capable to do this. The use case is a corner case and maybe not how you are suppose to do that is why I was canceling the reimport. And there are ways to delete without going to thrash, of course I was looking. I spent a day to find them!

Sent from my iPhone

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New Here ,
Dec 21, 2020 Dec 21, 2020

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My workaround- I was able to succesfully recover my original photos by using a free file recovery software (recuva) from my original memory card.  Though I had deleted them from my memory card, I had not overwritten the files and I was able to recover them.  

My problem- same as the thread.  As I was Copying files into lightroom I hit cancel on the import and lost my originals. No where to be found on my computer. While it might be user error to hit cancel mid import, it is extremely frustrating for Lightroom to delete your originals.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 21, 2020 Dec 21, 2020

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At 360 Tour5CD2, " My problem- same as the thread.  As I was Copying files into lightroom I hit cancel on the import and lost my originals. No where to be found on my computer. While it might be user error to hit cancel mid import, it is extremely frustrating for Lightroom to delete your originals."

O k so you cancelled the import so guess what no image files were copied to your computer. The files would have remained on your memory card, there is no feature avalilable in Lightroom  Classic to remove files from a memory card.

 

Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5, Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; Camera OM-D E-M1

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LEGEND ,
Dec 21, 2020 Dec 21, 2020

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Sounds like something went wrong with the card.

 

If it was in a card reader, internal or external, did you perhaps pull it out without ejecting it?

 

Be aware, if you are depending upon the option in LrC to eject the card after import, you should double check that it is set as such. And not sure if a cancel triggers eject.

 

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Community Beginner ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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If this is still a mystery to anyone here, this is the result of using the "move" command in LR and not the "copy" command. There's a big difference between "move" and "copy" in programming syntax. Hope this helps.

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Community Expert ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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There is also the possibility that there was a glitch in the cable connecting the card reader to the computer, or in the card reader itself!

During an early presentation of Lightroom 1, the Adobe presenter satated that to be extra safe and avoid hardware or software issues when importing images, she always drag copied (COPIED) the images from the card to a folder on the desktop. Then disconnected the card - which thus still has ALL the originals on it. Then she used the import command with COpy or Copy as DNG from the folder into Lightroom and the desired destination , like an external drive. With this set up, you has the originals on the card, the originals in a folder on the desktop, AND the ones imported to LR and copied to the final destination. Once you check to see that the originals are in there desired location, then you can erase the card, and even delete the folder on the desktop, once you have verified the originals located on an external and backed up that external drive.

Extra step true - however, I have followed that advice since LR version1 and have never, ever had any of my originals lost,not even with beta Lightroom software.

 

LR cannot delte your photos unless you directly tell it to!... 

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LEGEND ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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Since Lightroom and Lightroom Classic use operating system calls to handle files, there is no difference in safety between letting Lightroom copy the files, and doing it via the operating system. Files will get corrupted not because of Lightroom doing the copying, but because of hardware errors, which will affect both methods of copying.

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Community Beginner ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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LR can remove the files from your memory card. IMHO, that is the same as deleting them. Try it. Go to import and select "move" to a new location and then after they are imported, check your memory card and they are gone.

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LEGEND ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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LR can remove the files from your memory card. IMHO, that is the same as deleting them. Try it. Go to import and select "move" to a new location and then after they are imported, check your memory card and they are gone.

 

Sorry, no. Not for this user, Move is never an option:

Move.jpg

As you can clearly see, this is a Memory card from the camera, the only option is Copy OR Copy as DNG. The Move is never accessible (always grayed out). 

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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LEGEND ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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The Add and Move options are not available when importing from a camera or a camera memory card.

 

see: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/how-to/import-photos.html

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Community Beginner ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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Here's a fresh screengrab of the import window (LrC 11.3.1) with my memory card used in a Canon R5 (Angelbird AVPro CFexpress Type B 512GB)

 

It lets me select move or copy. 

 

best - Russell

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LEGEND ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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The card is outside the camera and inserted into a card reader? 

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Community Beginner ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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Yes. In a CFExpress card reader. 

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LEGEND ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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CFExpress is treated in LrC as a hard drive.  regular CF card or a SD card is not. Has something to do with the OS.

 

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Community Expert ,
May 11, 2022 May 11, 2022

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Yes you can "Move" photos when using CFExpress memory cards!

All the more reason NOT to use the move command but rather the copy or copy as DNG command.

If you MOVE them off the card and onto the computer and during that process there is some hardware glitch, you can lose your photos.

Using Copy or Copy as DNG, is safer. When you know you have a copy (and better with a second copy somewhere else as a back up) then you can reformat or delete the images on the card.

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