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Elmeskog
New Participant
January 20, 2020
Question

Lightroom delete source files after canceled import

  • January 20, 2020
  • 11 replies
  • 6019 views

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.

This topic has been closed for replies.

11 replies

kentdesign
kentdesign
Community Expert
May 12, 2022

One of the benefits of digital cameras vs film, is that you have the ability to make duplicates of the original "negative" - so use Copy until you again have two copies somewhere!!

    R
    Russell_Kaye
    Participating Frequently
    May 12, 2022

    And the advantage of film is that one doesn't need to back it up. Or at least it's more difficult to destroy it and back it up.

    kentdesign
    kentdesign
    Community Expert
    May 12, 2022

    Thank you @ Russell Kaye. We as a community and the Lightroom team need to put that info  out because CFExpress cards are showing up everywhere.

    Copy, don't Move your images when importing! that way you still have the ones one the card or even a folder on the computer, if something, like cancel, happens.

     

      DdeGannes
      DdeGannes
      Community Expert
      May 12, 2022

      @kentdesign, so if I understand you correctly when you are doing a move from the flash card to a folder on your computer with LrC and you cancel before the save on the computer. Then there are no images on the Computer and the flash 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,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
      R
      Russell_Kaye
      Participating Frequently
      May 12, 2022

      Depending on teh number of images and when one cancels the import- there are a few on the computer and a few on the memory card but most are gone.

      kentdesign
      kentdesign
      Community Expert
      May 11, 2022

      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!... 

      R
      Russell_Kaye
      Participating Frequently
      May 11, 2022

      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.

      R
      Russell_Kaye
      Participating Frequently
      May 11, 2022

      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


      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

      GoldingD
      GoldingD
      Brainiac
      December 21, 2020

      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.

       

      R
      Russell_Kaye
      Participating Frequently
      May 11, 2022

      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.

      3
      360 Tour5CD2
      New Participant
      December 21, 2020

      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.

      DdeGannes
      DdeGannes
      Community Expert
      December 21, 2020

      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,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
      kentdesign
      kentdesign
      Community Expert
      August 30, 2020

      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!

      E
      ElmeskogAuthor
      New Participant
      August 31, 2020
      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
        Jenn_MariePhotography
        Jenn_MariePhotography
        New Participant
        August 30, 2020

        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. 

        GoldingD
        GoldingD
        Brainiac
        January 20, 2020

        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

         

        GoldingD
        GoldingD
        Brainiac
        January 20, 2020

        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

         

        GoldingD
        GoldingD
        Brainiac
        January 20, 2020

         

        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.

         

         

        E
        ElmeskogAuthor
        New Participant
        January 20, 2020

        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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