Lightroom Just Deleted Original Files Off of SSD

[OverlandInternational]

I just experienced the most curious and concerning bug on Lightroom Classic. We just returned from a commercial shoot and I imported all of my still images into Lightroom from my Sandisk 2TB SSD. Everything imported successfully, but Lightroom DELETED all of the files off of the SSD backup. All of the video files remained untouched (I did not import those), but all of the images were deleted throughout the subfolders. This has never happened before, and is an unnacceptable result. Fortunately, I had the data still on the cards, and Lightroom did successfully import everything, but this bug is new and concerning. 

Has anyone else experienced this failure mode? 

And a reminder to everyone to keep backups, because Adobe appears to be experiencing recuring issues that affect the security of my images (and livelihood). 

[Todd Shaner · Accepted solution]

You most likely had 'Move' selected in the Import module instead 'Copy.' If you were using a memory card it wouldn't allow that, but with an SSD or HD it does.

[OverlandInternational]

Todd,

You are absolutely correct. Thank you for the prompt reply. 

This was the first time I have imported an entire project from a SSD instead of individual cards. 

[Todd Shaner]

Just as a headsup when doing imports I've ocassionally found 'Move' selected in the Import module, but I NEVER use 'Move' so keep an eye out. That setting normally sticks so something may have changed in one of the updates.

[OrchardHillMedia]

Thanks for this. It helped me realized why Lightroom was deleting files off my SD card during import. Apparently it treats the card as an external drive, and if you have move selected, the files are deleted off the card. I've seen people ask for the "delete after import" function, and this would be the way to do that, if you like it. I prefer to make sure everything transferred ok, first, then delete from my card.

[dj_paige]

"Delete after import" has been debated many times here and other places, and many people doubt that this is a good idea, and is probably one of the reason why Adobe hasn't put it into LrC.