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robertv86033157
robertv86033157
Participating Frequently
October 7, 2023
Question

"Delete From Disk" Bypasses Trash Now

  • October 7, 2023
  • 9 replies
  • 13193 views

Hi, 

I recently upgraded my MacOS to Sonoma (23A344). My Lightroom Classic version is up to date, version 12.5.

Up until this point, my workflow for culling or deleting photos was to go through and reject the ones that I didn't want to keep. Next, I would select all rejected photos and "delete from disk," at which point the photos would appear in the trash. I could then recover any inadvertently deleted photos or empty the trash. 

However, I noticed today that when I am selecting the "delete from disk" option, the files disappear from lightroom and the folder (as expected) but they are NOT appearing in the trash. 

I tried restarting the computer and deleting other items, none of which have any issue, but those deleted files are not showing up in the trash. 

I am working directly from my computer and there is no shortage of free space. When I drag and drop files from the folders to the trash, they appear in the trash. The issue only occurs when deleting via Lightroom.

 

How do I get items deleted via Lightroom to show up in the Trash again before deleting permanently so I have the safety net of being able to recover them?

    9 replies

    R
    Richard Karash
    Participating Frequently
    November 19, 2025

    Here's a workaround:

     - Create a new folder near top of folder hierarchy, I call it "To Be Trashed"

     - In any folder, select photo(s) to be trashed

     - Right-click on the "To Be Trashed" folder, "Move Selected Images to this Folder"

     

    Then periodically:

     - Open "To Be Trashed" folder

     - Mark images for deletion, then "Remove from Catalog"

     - In Finder, open "To Be Trashed" fodler, use Finder tools to trash files in this folder

     

    Whenever ready, use Mac commands to "Empty Trash"

    Techie... Bird Photography... Digitizing old film.
    F
    Flor1n
    Participant
    May 9, 2025

    Same issue here, using Lightroom on MacBook Pro M1 - macOS Sequoia 15.4.1

    Quite sketchy that a lot of community members ask Adobe to fix a bug and get actually nothing... for such a long time!
    Asking myself if I really should renew my subscription... 

    Adobe, SOS!

    J
    johnp17654037
    Known Participant
    May 9, 2025

    I fixed it by creating - and never using - a new cat, using default settings. After that, trash worked on my original cat

    L
    Liliana256662166oem
    Participant
    December 9, 2024

    I am experiencing the same problem here: files deleted from the disk are not appearing in the Trash. I’m using MacOS 13.4 (22F66) and Lightroom Classic version 14.0.1., photos stored in local disk.  I need to recover a photo that I accidentally deleted. I was under the impression that deleted photos would go to the Trash, as indicated by the pop-up window that appears when selecting options. After reviewing various threads, it seems that this issue is a bug, but I haven’t been able to find a solution in the responses. I should probably just accept that I’ve lost the photo, but it is very frustrating that the software is misleading.

    Adobe, please resolve this issue! Is there a way to get one-on-one support to recover the photo? Alternatively, could you at least correct the information in the pop-up window? Incidents like this significantly are very disruptive  : (

    J
    johnp17654037
    Known Participant
    April 19, 2024

    This issue just started with my system yesterday. Here is what I did:

    Mac OS and LRC, up to date, 2 identical external drives (their serial numbers are 1 digit apart 19A and 19B. Never had the issue with 19A.. Both had been recently formatted.

    1. I verified it had disk access permission
    2. I removed the permissions
    3. I reinstated the permissions
    4. along the way, I rebooted several times.
    5. no improvement, 
    6. I moved all the files off of the hard drive 19A (7 hours!!!)
    7. I uniinstalled LRC
    8. I formated 19B again, with default settings
    9. I copied a few folders onto 19B.
    10. I reinstalled LRC
    11. I created a new cat, , but did not agree to use the Location finder / GPS feature.
    12. Still could not use the Trash bin for 19B.
    13. I created a new cat in LRC's default location, and voila, it now uses the trash bin, regardless if I use a new or old cat!

    So, the remedy for me was to create a new cat in the default location (/Pictures), whether I used that cat or not. The only other difference I can think of is not accepting the Location services.

     

    I hope this helps everyone!

    Mark Graf
    Mark Graf
    Participant
    April 20, 2024
    quoteI created a new cat in LRC's default location, and voila, it now uses the trash bin, regardless if I use a new or old cat!

    So, the remedy for me was to create a new cat in the default location (/Pictures), whether I used that cat or not. The only other difference I can think of is not accepting the Location services.

     

    I hope this helps everyone!


    By @johnp17654037

     

    I tried this and it didn't work (ultimately).   But I only created a new empty catalog in the default location, so then I figured, I'll try to import an image.  (Then I was able to deny the location services to replicate your process).    So I imported the image I was trying to move to the trash bin in my master catalog.   Since I did not import it as leaving it in its current location (a separate drive than where my catalog is), the new LR catalog moved the image to a new folder on my primary drive (Internal SSD / Mac Studio, BTW) - (eg. same drive as the catalog.)

     

    Therefore, when I opened my master catalog, I had an exclamation point for that image indicating it couldn't be found.   I clicked that to locate the image, and imported it from its location on the primary drive (without moving it).    Then, I tried to move that image to the trash from my master catalog (where I could only permanently delete it before) - and it worked as expected.  Moved to Trash!    HOWEVER!

     

    When I selected another image in the master catalog (an image on a separate drive) - and tried to delete that one  ... I was back to the original problem - unable to move to trash, only option is to permanently delete.

     

    So could you clarify the location of the images and catalogs where you got the trash bin to work?

    Mark Graf
    Mark Graf
    Participant
    April 20, 2024

    BTW - I also tried to repeat this by importing another image, but this time leaving it at the current location in the new test catalog.   Then I went to the master catalog and tried to delete it, and was not able to move it to the trash either, only permanently delete.

    J
    Community Expert
    Jao vdLCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 28, 2023

    There are several different issues in this thread it appears but one of the issues discussed here is that Lightroom Classic (all versions) really does not work with originals stored in cloud synced folders. The reason for this is that most of these services dynamically offload the files to the cloud and replace them with empty (zero bytes) placeholders. This strategy does not work with programs that need direct access such as Classic (and classic is not the only one for which you don't want to do this). So you really should not put your Classic originals in a cloud synced folder as you will almost certainly get catalog corruption and other problems. There are many threads on this in the last many years. It is not specific to the last version. Some cloud services allow you to mark certain folders as always available offline (meaning they keep a full copy instead of offloading the files automatically) and that should help but I would still advice strongly against having your classic catalog(s) refer to files in these folders. It is asking for trouble.

    The problem is that these cloud services (including iCloud and Microsoft's OneDrive) rely on a hack to make it appear that files are there when they really aren't. iCloud drive is the worst of the bunch since you can't specify by folder that it should keep the actual files locally. You can only do that globally. 

    I actually think Adobe should be much clearer about this in its documentation. Many people are tempted by the ease of iCloud and OneDrive to put their images and catalogs there to have automatic backups and such but this is not a good idea.

    M
    MBeckerAC
    Participating Frequently
    December 17, 2023

    So, in a way, you are recommending "Don't use a computer, then you don't suffer from computer problems" ...

    I know that cloud services must be used with care, especially how/when/whether local copies are available or not.

    I know that LrC requires that the image folders are local.

    I have configured iCloud such that all files are local.

    LrC is working without any problems with this, since years.

    LrC MUST delete to trash bin. JUST DO IT.

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 17, 2023

    Have you tried this already? Go to System Settings - Privacy and Security - Full Disk Access. Disable full disk access and then restart your computer. Then go to System Settings - Privacy and Security - Full Disk Access again and enable it again.

     

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
      M
      MBeckerAC
      Participating Frequently
      November 10, 2023

      Hi all.

      Any idea, how to push this bug to higher higher attention at Adobe?

      Especially since it can be reproduced easily:

      • If the image folder is within "Documents"
      • and "Documents" is synced with iCloud Drive
      • Then LrC does not move to trash bin.

      If not syncec ... LrC works as it should.

      Any idea?

        JohanElzenga
        Community Expert
        JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        November 10, 2023

        Do not assume that it is not high enough on Adobe's list, just because there is no fix yet. This is a problem that is clearly caused by syncing (like you just confirmed again), so this could mean that Apple needs to solve it, not Adobe. Most likely Lightroom is just reporting what MacOS is telling it, namely that it can't move the image to the trash and so it will be deleted right away.

         

        -- Johan W. Elzenga
          N
          neverds
          Inspiring
          October 25, 2023

          I have the same issue--LRC 13.01, Mac Sonoma 14.  No shortage of disk space.  Images on an external HD formatted as APFS.  Whenever I delete, I am told that images will not go to trash.  This is new in the last week or so.  Not sure if due to LR upgrade or mac upgrade.

            N
            neverds
            Inspiring
            October 28, 2023

            I closed lightroom classic, rebooted my mac, opened and closed cloud-based apps, and now deleted files go to trash.  I don't know if it's something I did or the issue was fixed.  Maybe this will work for someone else.  

            M
            MBeckerAC
            Participating Frequently
            November 8, 2023

            Hi neverds

            which are the "cloud-based apps".
            Other than iCloud I have Dropbox and (possibly) OneDrive, because Office365 is installed.

            Do you mean to disconnect from iCloud? I do not want to disconnect from iCloud, as all my documents (which includes the Lightroom image folder) is in iCloud ... and I do not want to resync all this data.

            What are the names of the apps you have "opened and closed" (--> I guess, you mean closed and re-opened again?)

            Thank you.

            GoldingD
            GoldingD
            Legend
            October 7, 2023

            For MACOS photos deleted from/via LrC not showing up in Trash, is not unique to Sonoma, nor to LrC v12.5.And it is not unique to LrC. It is an issue in the users MACOS.

             

            You might want to google on something like  "MACOS Deleted Files Do Not Go to Trash Bin", You should find some results like:

            https://softwaretested.com/mac/deleted-files-do-not-go-to-trash-bin-get-deleted-instantly-what-should-you-do/

            and

            https://www.easeus.com/mac-file-recovery/how-can-i-stop-trash-deleting-files-immediately-on-mac.html

             

            You might also what to search in this community for the same search text, I am fairly sure other postings exist going back years.

             

            like:

            https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/files-deleted-from-disk-not-in-recycle-bin/m-p/11894295

             

            https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/deleting-files-issue/m-p/10429959

             

             

             

             

             

             

            robertv86033157
            robertv86033157Author
            Participating Frequently
            October 8, 2023

            @GoldingD thanks for the reply. However, this is not relevant as the suggestions in previous threads do not work. The files never appear, even after deleting other items or restarting the computer. There is no lack of storage that would cause the trash to need to be bypassed. I created this thread because I have not seen any suggestions from previous threads that worked. 

            JohanElzenga
            Community Expert
            JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            October 7, 2023

            The current version of Lightroom Classic (12.5) is not officially compatible with MacOS Sonoma.

             

            -- Johan W. Elzenga
              robertv86033157
              robertv86033157Author
              Participating Frequently
              October 8, 2023

              Are others having the same issue? Can this bug be reported to Adobe so they fix it in an update?

                JohanElzenga
                Community Expert
                JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                October 8, 2023
                quote

                Are others having the same issue? Can this bug be reported to Adobe so they fix it in an update?


                By @robertv86033157

                 

                Adobe reads these forums, so there is no need to file a special bug report (which won't be accepted because version 12.5 is not supported on MacOS Sanoma). If this is a general issue and not an issue with your drive, then I assume Adobe knows about it (or does now).

                 

                -- Johan W. Elzenga
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