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Participant
August 22, 2025
Question

Remove Photo from Lightroom Catalog query

  • August 22, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 188 views

Hi,

I'm confused about the remove photo from Lightroom process, which has changed from how I remeber it. The message used to say "Remove from catalog but it will remain on disk" but now the following message is displayed...

Remove Photo from Lightroom Catalog
This photo will be removed from your Lightroom Catalog and any synced Lightroom Client. Select "Delete from Disk" to also move the selected photos on your computer to the Finder''s trash

 

I guess it's something to do with "any synced Lightroom Client", which I didn't even knwo you could do!! I need to unassociate the client maybe?


Has this change been rolled out across Lightroom CC or have I inadverently changed something? I do have Lightroom CC running on a desktop Mac and a Macbook Pro but obviously different catalogs and the Macbook LrCC keep asking "Sync this catalog instead?" to sync to the Mac catalog, which it never used to do?

I just want to keep the Mac (for office work) and Macbook (for field work) catalogs separate with no sync between them (one day Adobe, please!!!), so how can I revert this please?

Any knowledge out there would be welcomed.

Many thanks,

Marlon

1 reply

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 22, 2025

Nothing changed, but perhaps the text was updated to warn people that removing a synced image from your Lightroom Classic catalog will also delete it from the cloud. A 'Lightroom client' is just another version of Lightroom using the same cloud account, such as Lightroom Mobile on your phone or tablet.

 

"Has this change been rolled out across Lightroom CC or have I inadverently changed something? I do have Lightroom CC running on a desktop Mac and a Macbook Pro but obviously different catalogs and the Macbook LrCC keep asking "Sync this catalog instead?" to sync to the Mac catalog, which it never used to do?"

 

Delete 'Catalogname Sync.lrdata' from the catalog folder that you do not wish to sync. That should stop this question coming up each time you use this catalog.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
Participant
August 22, 2025

Hi Johan,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I just want to point out that this is for Lightroom Classic, not Lightroom "Cloud" (why isn't just named that, would simplify things!). As such, my Classic catalog isn't synced to any cloud storage (other than the "Cloud" synced files), all stored locally, so the local storage isn't in the cloud and technically shouldn't have any associated Lightroom Client?

Previously, when a photo was deleted from Classic on local storage, the option would be "Remove Photo from Lightroom Catalog" with options to "Remove from catalog" which would keep the file locally or "Delete From Disk" which delete but also send to trash (if not stored on NAS storage).

Now, the option is "Remove from Lightroom" which permanantly deletes the photo OR "Delete from Disk" which moves it to the local trash. Seems like this message is confusing and I just lost a whoile aftnoon's work as I wanted to delete photos from catalog but keep on disk but when I did, the photos were permanantly deleted (luckily, I still had them on SD card).

I did remove the *Sync.lrdata file and that has stopped the Macbook trying to sync/replace the main catalog, so thanks for that.

Marlon