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hamadahiro
Known Participant
May 16, 2019
Question

Recovering photo adjustments after deleting files

  • May 16, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 789 views

It happened to me numerous times that I don't notice that I have multiple photos selected, in fact, whole folder with dozens of hundreds photos, because it's just one shade of gray lighter when selected and I want to delete one photo but the whole folder goes to trash. After I add them again to the library, all adjustments are gone. Is there any way to recover adjustment or avoid deleting multiple photos - except obviously being very careful?

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    2 replies

    H
    hamadahiroAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 16, 2019

    Hi all,

    I think I wasn't clear in my original post - I do backups once a day, I flag, I reject, I know how Lr works. I delete photos completely by accident. I click the photo, forgetting that I selected all photos for some reason second ago and hit delete, then confirm, thinking I'm gonna delete this one particular photo.

    IMO the problem is in Lr interface design - if you select all photos, they are all light gray, comparing to not selected which is slightly darker gray, but there's still one photo that is even lighter than all selected, one can think it's the only one selected and hit delete by accident, which, btw happened to me couple times.

    It was all minor issues since few days ago when I deleted all photos that I previously spent hours editing - and so this thread comes as a prevention if such ever happen again, will be I able to recover it somehow - but I already got the answer

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    May 16, 2019

    Don't forget the advice by WobertC​ to flag photos for deletion by pressing X, and then delete only the ones so flagged, as this eliminates the problem of confusion by the differenct colors of gray in the Library Module.

    Just Shoot Me
    Just Shoot Me
    Legend
    May 16, 2019

    Only if you open an older, Backed Up, catalog that has that image still in it and all the adjustments made to it.

    Or if you have a backup of the image and, and this is a BIG AND, you had the option to auto write changes to XMP turned on and you have a current backup of the XMP file for that image.

    Otherwise NO there is no way to recover adjustments made to an image you removed from the catalog.

    H
    hamadahiroAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 16, 2019

    Thanks, appreciate your quick reply.

    Bummer! How it's even possible such a risky workflow? Sometimes I spend hours editing photos and then delete them all in one second. Is it just me or there are other people with same experiences?

    Rob_Cullen
    Community Expert
    Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 16, 2019

    Rarely does this "Same experience" happen more than once for most people.

    I prefer the 'Flag' method to mark my unwanted photos with the 'Reject' flag. Then I can later filter for 'Rejected' photos and view them before confidently deleting them permanently.

    Note that the dialog box that opens when you press the [Delete] key always indicates the number of files you intend to Remove or Delete from the Catalog- Maybe take closer scrutiny of the notification.

    Or you could get in the habit of pressing [Ctrl+D] before you then select carefully the photos to delete. ( [Ctrl+D] de-selects ALL files.)

    As advised by Just Shoot Me   Restoring from a backup catalog can be done for selected photos- see info at this link:

    https://www.lightroomqueen.com/partial-restore-backup-catalog/

    Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
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