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Preventing accidental deleting of images in Lightroom Classic

Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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is there a command to be used to block an image from accidental deleting ?

if not how can we tell Adobe to make such a command ?

thank you all

giancarlo

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LEGEND ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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You can't do this in Lightroom Classic. Lightroom Classic presents the usual (that most programs have) dialog box cuasing you to take another action (click a buttom) if you really want to delete the photo. But if you do accidentally delete a photo, then Ctrl-Z undoes the deletion. So you have plenty of protection.

 

You can make regular and automated backups of your photos and of your catalog file, so if you later discover something has been deleted, then you can go back. So you have plenty of protection. (In fact, you should be doing this for all of your important work and documents, and if you're not, then you need to start immediately, no excuses, no delaying)

 

In your operating system, you can change the folder(s) to have only read permission (not write permission) and then you can't delete the photo at all (but you could still remove it from Lightroom Classic).

 

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Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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thank you for your reply.

I do backups daily. I know I can block in the operating system files from deleting.

but I would love to have a blocking command in Lr classic to prevent accidental deletion.

example: I make a book with a few hundreds of images in Lr.

months later l happen to accidentally delete some images while not beeing on the book module. 

this should not be possible as long as my book is still kept in Lr. 

or l mark some images one day for ever to be kept and months later l accidentally delete some of them while cleaning up my forlders. should be blocked by Lr as I am working in Lr.

btw: I am a professional photographer serving media with images.

I am cleaning up my Lr images of over 300'000 saved during 10 years of working with Lightroom.

I would really love Adobe making this little command for me...

ciao

Giancarlo Cattaneo, Switzerland

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Enthusiast ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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"I make a book with a few hundreds of images in Lr.

months later l happen to accidentally delete some images while not beeing on the book module. 

this should not be possible as long as my book is still kept in Lr."

 

So,  if I can offer an intepretation, what you would really like is to be able to flag images as "Do Not Delete". As someone suggested, you would need to make this suggestion to Adobe. It sounds like you want LrC to determine something should not be deleted as opposed to you flagging it, do not delete

 

Making deletion a two step process may help. Flag the images that you want to delete as REJECTED. Then review  those before deleting. It will give you a chance to visually see if they are in a collection.

 

Personally, when I create someting like a book or slideshow, I create an off-line back of the artifacts as a separate backup.

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Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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thank you DS256

I do flag images for pick and for deleting. l use this command actively.

yes a flag "do not delete" could help and Lr should just not delete it if l accidentally select it in some way while browsing through my files. blocked files should first be "unblocked" by the flag before beeing able to delete. this would help to avoid deleting old images I am not so aware of anymore of the importance to keep them.

I do not think this is a complicated wish to programm by adobe.

ciao

giancarlo

 

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Community Expert ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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As dj_paige says, you can store the image source file in a folder which has read-only permissions (for the particular user account you are using) but this will then impair your ability to write external metadata to the file and also your ability to generate new derived files into the same folder (e.g. with Edit in Photoshop). An intermediate position may be to mark a particular important Raw file as read-only at the file level, which will then block deletion of that individual file - while permitting continued updating of XMP sidecar as well as creation of derived files alongside. This seems laborious to me, better to just concentrate on good file backup.

 

So far as being imported to the Catalog, there is no way to block removal of an image instance - however if you make use of virtual copies then that does offer some protection in that deleting one of several image versions referring to a given imported original, retains those other versions still in place. When you work on an image in the context of a Collection, pressing Delete in error does not risk removing the image entirely from the Catalog - it will only withdraw its membership in that particular Collection. So it can be added back into this Collection once you have found it again, e.g. in its folder, with nothing otherwise lost.

 

Also if you have LrC set to automatically write changes to external XMP as you work, then in the event that you do remove an image from the Catalog, then presuming the source file and external XMP are still there on disk / if deleted, that these can be retrieved back onto disk from regular backup - then on reimporting this image, that previous editing saved in the external XMP is read back in. You will only have lost Collection memberships, virtual copies and a few other such issues.

 

A Catalog backup offers a separate way to recover fully from accidental deletion / removal, given that the source file is there or still retrievable. External XMP can offer a separate opportunity, to then bring back in even image edits that happened subsequent to your latest available Catalog backup. Or, to recall the last written-out editing state for any images that were only imported subsequent to that Catalog backup, on importing those afresh. 

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Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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thank you Richard.

I know all this.

I still would like such a Block from deleting command in Lightroom. my wish.

ciao

Giancarlo

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LEGEND ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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You need to tell Adobe, because we do not work for Adobe (we are just other Lightroom Classic users) and cannot add features. You can make a formal feature request at https://feedback.photoshop.com/topics/lightroom-classic/5f5f2093785c1f1e6cc40872

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Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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thank you 

I know we are all users.

I checked your link but it is another forum ... or do l miss the link to put my wish directly to Adobe ?

anyhow it should be more easy to transmit a wish..

ciao

giancarlo

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Community Expert ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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That link is to a "feedback" website at Adobe, which is different from this "community" website. There you can review other people's feedback to Adobe and (once signed in yourself) you can add your own feature request or suggestion. It is a good idea to first search whether this same suggestion has been made before - adding your own vote there to increase its weight. Also read whatever discussion already exists, including any response from an Adobe employee.

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Community Expert ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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By all means submit a request to Adobe - this user forum can only discuss the program as it currently exists.

 

My own mitigations of these risks are: to be as selective as possible before/during import so that there is then less occasion to engage in culling later; to exercise particular care during deletion after import - e.g. using the Reject and then Review method rather than deleting images directly; and a good backup regime for both Catalog and files.

 

I doubt that if there was a locking option for images, either from deletion or from alteration, I personally would ever use it. I do sometimes want to retain and protect a particular editing state regardless of subsequent changes, and even if History were to be cleared. I do that by saving this particular editing state as a named Snapshot.

 

Backup is necessary regardless since having an image locked by Lightroom from deletion, will not insure against losing the image anyway if the physical storage ever became unusable somehow. And that same backup is also your protection against unintended deletions, as a side benefit.

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Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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thank you Richard

l will try to submit my wish.

fyi: I have 3 Drobos 5D units, 1 WD PR4100 5 disks

l bakcup with CC Carbon Copy Cloner  and Timemachine see screenshot. 25TB of images on my main disk.

in Lr only 319'000 images and monthly clean up. accidental deletin can happen...

point of my wish is iages l want to keep for certain reasons l should be able to block inside Lr to avoid in case of accidental deletin o lot of recovery work from my backups.

ciao

giancarlo

 

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Community Expert ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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In view of your further explanation I'll revisit my first answer. Your issue is not really accidental deletion, it is deleting an image intentionally, when unaware that there was a reason to keep it - such as membership in a particular valued set of images. So that is a matter of labelling the individual image somehow, to make you aware, or of making use of this set of images to do the same thing. A simple "do not delete me" status would not be informative about WHY something should not be deleted.

 

But a colour flag or a keyword, denoting e.g. that a given image participates in a Book project, can be informative. Alternatively if images for each Book project are gathered into a dedicated collection for the purpose, perhaps that collection's name could include the word "book".  

 

What I have in mind is something like this:

Use X key ("reject") to flag some candidates for potential deletion. Either use the standard LrC feature of reviewing rejected images, or use a Smart Collection, to present these images together. Then un-reject any images that show a reason for being kept - as above. Then those that are still rejected are approved safe to delete. 

 

Alternatively a special Smart Collection can select only for those images that do have a Reject flag, but that also fail to meet a series of tests on whether they should be preserved nonetheless.

 

In other words this SC inclusion criteria might look something like:

must meet  ALL of -

does show Reject flag; is not a member of any collection that includes the word "book"; does not have a green colour flag; lacks a certain keyword; whatever.

 

The consequent list of images in the SC can be safely highlighted en-masse and deleted, knowing that nothing worthy of preservation will be included. Other images that you do want preserved will still show their Reject flag, but will have been spared from deletion.

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Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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Richard thanks for your thoughts

quote

So that is a matter of labelling the individual image somehow, to make you aware, or of making use of this set of images to do the same thing. A simple "do not delete me" status would not be informative about WHY something should not be deleted.

But a colour flag or a keyword, denoting e.g. that a given image participates in a Book project, can be informative. Alternatively if images for each Book project are gathered into a dedicated collection for the purpose, perhaps that collection's name could include the word "book".  

unquote

see screenshot all flagged and color 

but still it can happen to unintentionally deleting togethter with other images an intentional delete procedure...

l think best idea today was Adobe to make a FLAG "do not delete" and blocking this images. only after unblocking images can be deleted....

for me it should be easy to handle during my workflow. same as flagging to keep or xx to delete.

the keep flag is only a visual help. if I do delete images of 8 years ago l may not be very attentiv to what l delete if l am not fully concentrate on old images. this is may thinking. l am not perfect. l make errors.

ciao and thanks again

giancarlo

 

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Community Expert ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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Assuming the metadata labelling of the images or else their membership in particular kinds of Collection - which might happen anyway as part of workflow - are of the sort that would identify them as needing to be kept: then the inclusion rules of the Smart Collection which I recommended, would do that checking for you. You would not need to carry out any separate step yourself.

 

Images will automatically escape deletion, in other words - if they possess any attributes which you have decided mean that they should be protected. The difference being, there may be many possible reasons for protecting an image. Taking the example of belonging to a collection that includes the word "book" in its name: if you are finished with a particular such collection you can just delete that and the images involved will instantly stop qualifying for protection on that basis (although some may still possess other, unrelated reasons for protection: for example, a colour flag or keyword or whatever). Only when an image possesses nothing which would prevent it from being deleted, would it be deleted, if this particularly protective workflow was followed. But this would not prevent you from still deleting in the ordinary way.

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LEGEND ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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Being able to lock images is a fairly popular feature request:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/lightroom-ability-to-lock-photos-plea...

 

Please add your constructive opinion to this feature requestand be sure to click Like and Follow at the bottom of the first post.  Even though this request is longstanding, Adobe sometimes does act on older requests, and adding your and opinion will make it a little more likely that Adobe will consider implementing the feature and you'll be notified when they do. Product developers rarely participate in this forum and won't see your feedback.

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Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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thanks good of you to show me in the right direction to add my wish there. 

I will edit my text and then post it maybe tomorrow as now l have dinner ready ...

ciao

 

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Explorer ,
May 16, 2021 May 16, 2021

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posted now

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Community Expert ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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The simple answer is no. However, this is no problem because you should back up your images, and back up the Lightroom catalogue. If you ever make any kind of mistake, you can then recover your pictures and any work you've done on them.

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Explorer ,
May 15, 2021 May 15, 2021

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please read all text. thanks

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New Here ,
Feb 27, 2023 Feb 27, 2023

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Have you considered setting up a Smart Folder that collects either rated (e.g. 5-stars) or keyworded (color coded or text, even combined with keystroke command), that copies the original into another different folder that you maintain solely for archival?  You'd lose some disk space in duplication but they could be on separate volumes and it'd give you more long term control anyway. 

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LEGEND ,
Feb 27, 2023 Feb 27, 2023

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LATEST

What is a "Smart Folder"?

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