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gwendolyn00
Participant
June 3, 2017
Answered

LR deleting original photos automatically

  • June 3, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 2347 views

After I am done with the editing of the imported photos in LR and I 'remove' the edited ones (to clear the photos in LR) , the original photos in my folders are being removed as well. How do I prevent that? Doesn't removing photos in LR only remove photos in LR but not everything on my laptop too??

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer JP Hess

When you make adjustments to an image using Lightroom you are looking at the original image and using it as the source for making the adjustments. But all of those adjustments are being stored in the catalog which is a database. None of those adjustments are being applied to the image file itself. The image is left in its original state. If you then delete that image from Lightroom and choose the option to delete from disk, you completely discard the image as well as all of the adjustments that you have made to the image. If you choose to delete the image and the option to remove from the catalog, the image will be removed from Lightroom, but will remain in the folder and all your adjustments will be discarded. In either case, you want to take care in deciding what happens to the image file. If you want to keep it then deleting is not a good choice.

2 replies

Just Shoot Me
Just Shoot Me
Legend
June 3, 2017

It depends on what option you chose in the Remove Photo/s dialog. Selecting Delete from Disk removes the image both from the LR catalog file and actually Deletes that image or images, depending if you have more than one image selected, from your hard drive.

Selecting Remove just removes it from the catalog file.

But with either option all edits you may have made are gone as those edits are stored in the catalog file and a XMP sidecar file if that option is checked in the LR Catalog Settings dialog.

With that option checked if you Delete from disk LR also deletes the corresponding XMP file. So no matter what option you select all edits are wiped out.

The question I have is why do you feel the need to remove images from the LR catalog file. I have digital images back to 2004 and scanned film images from the 1970's onward in my one LR Catalog file.

J
jude309
Participating Frequently
May 23, 2023

The problem I am having is that after editing my photos in Lightroom I select delete rejected photos from disk but all my files from original folder on my computer are being deleted, this is only a recent problem and so once edited all my originals are deleting.  How do I stop this?

 

JP Hess
JP HessCorrect answer
Inspiring
June 3, 2017

When you make adjustments to an image using Lightroom you are looking at the original image and using it as the source for making the adjustments. But all of those adjustments are being stored in the catalog which is a database. None of those adjustments are being applied to the image file itself. The image is left in its original state. If you then delete that image from Lightroom and choose the option to delete from disk, you completely discard the image as well as all of the adjustments that you have made to the image. If you choose to delete the image and the option to remove from the catalog, the image will be removed from Lightroom, but will remain in the folder and all your adjustments will be discarded. In either case, you want to take care in deciding what happens to the image file. If you want to keep it then deleting is not a good choice.

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