Recovering images from LrC

[angie_0302]

I am having trouble recovering images deleted from Lightroom Classic. All the recovery info I can find seems to pertain to Lr for mobile, etc. Can anyone help?

[dj_paige]

I am having trouble recovering images deleted from Lightroom Classic.

By @angie_0302

What trouble are you having? Please explain in detail.

When you delete from LrC, you have the option of removing from LrC only, or deleting the photo file from you computer's disk. Which did you choose?

Also, if you chose to delete the photo from the disk, did you look in the Trash/Recycle Bin?

[angie_0302]

I always just remove from Lightroom - I'll look for the recycle bin...

[dj_paige]

I always just remove from Lightroom - I'll look for the recycle bin...

By @angie_0302

So what is the problem?

[angie_0302]

I am trying to find a deleted image to recovery and add to the gallery. I'm not sure how to find it or where to look. 

[dj_paige]

If you just did a remove from the catalog then the file is still on your hard disk somewhere. Did you use your operating systems search feature to find the actual photo file? Once you find the photo file, then you have to import it. If you do this, LrC thinks the photo is an entirely new photo, you possibly could  lose all of your work on this photo.

ALTERNATIVE

Restore a recent backup of your catalog file, and it should show the photo in the catalog. In this case, you lose none of your work on this photo.

[angie_0302]

I looked in Recycle Bin and photos are not there.... 😞 Any other ideas?

[JohanElzenga]

Lightroom Classic does not have a recovery option, because the images are not stored in Lightroom Classic. They are stored in a folder on your hard drive. Lightroom Classic is a database, the catalog is like an address book. It contains information about the images (where they are located, keywords, edits), but not the images themselves. If you remove an image from the catalog, then that is like removing a friend from your address book. That friend will still live in the same house after he was removed from your address book.

Removing an image from the catalog does mean you will remove the info as well, so you've lost the edits by doing so. You should be able the find the images by searching for them in Windows Explorer, and you can then import them again (meaning adding them again to the database), but you will have to redo all the edits, unless you can find a catalog backup from before you removed them.

BTW, if you remove an image from the catalog, you may be asked if you want to delete the image from disk as well. If you say yes to that, then the image is moved to the recycle bin, and if you emptied the bin at some point, your image is lost...

[angie_0302]

Thank you for the info - much appreciated!