Remove the selected photo from Lightroom?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
February 19, 2019
3 replies
1386 views

Hi,

I just downloaded pictures from my memory card and as I tried to delete one of them from the Previous Import folder, I got the message below.

I then realized that every newly downloaded picture responded the same way if I tried to delete it.

There are 94 frames, most of which I want to delete. But apparently I can only "remove" them.

a) How do I proceed not knowing where the originals went?

b) How do I keep the ones I want?

Thanks a lot,

Raphael

..................................................................................................................

Remove the selected photo from Lightroom?

The original file can not be deleted because it is missing or on a volume that is offline.

delete pics

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Jao vdL

In the import screen you get several options at the top. You should always

choose “copy” there or “copy as dng” if you are importing from a card or

camera. Pay attention to the destination folder on the right hand side of

the import pane so that it is a location where you want your images to

live. Typically this is in a folder structure segregated by date inside

your pictures folder. Do NOT choose add in the import panel which is highly

likely what you had selected by accident. Choosing add will leave the

images in their original location and just add references to these

locations in the Lightroom catalog database.

On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 8:36 PM raphaels28255986 <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

If you just want to get rid of the image references in Lightroom just choose remove. No need to physically delete these. The only difference between remove and delete is that delete in addition to removing them from the catalog also deletes them from the disk they are on. That is impossible here since Lightroom has no clue where they are so remove is what you want to do. In this case they are on your memory card which because for some strange reason Lightroom is treating as an external disk is showing up in lightroom. As Just shoot me notes, you should not add files from a memory card. They need to be copied to a location on your hard disk in the import process.

R

raphaels28255986Author

Inspiring

Thank you Jao. Good advice.

I do not add files from a memory card, I import them. Theses were imported.

BTW, if I just import new images, these will automatically be removed without doing anything additional, right?

Thanks a lot for you help.

Just Shoot Me

Legend

raphaels28255986 wrote
Thank you Jao. Good advice.
I do not add files from a memory card, I import them. Theses were imported.
BTW, if I just import new images, these will automatically be removed without doing anything additional, right?
Thanks a lot for you help.

In the import dialog window there are 4 option at the top. Copy as DNG, Copy, Move and Add. If you had Add chosen or as it might happen LR Defaulted to Add because it is seeing the SD/CF/Whatever Type memory card in the camera as an External drive then those images never got copied to the REAL hard drives connected to your system.

Importing new images does not remove any image from the LR catalog file or from your hard drives.

That just ADDS those new images to the catalog.

Please note that there are never any images INSIDE LR. LR is a Database program and the catalog is a Database file. When you import images all that is happening is a Reference in the database is being created that points to where the images are stored on your hard drives and it also keep track of the edits you might do to some or all of those images.

Just Shoot Me

Legend

raphaels28255986 wrote

There are 94 frames, most of which I want to delete. But apparently I can only "remove" them.
a) How do I proceed not knowing where the originals went?
b) How do I keep the ones I want?
Thanks a lot,
Raphael
.......................................................................................... ........................
Remove the selected photo from Lightroom?
The original file can not be deleted because it is missing or on a volume that is offline.

You are in a Collection. Select All of those images then go to the All Photographs link in the Catalog section of the left hand column in the Library module. Hold down the Ctrl key, Windows, or Command key (??), Mac and Click on the ones you want to keep to De-Select those then Right click on one of the selected images and select Remove Photo. you will get a dialog box to Delete from Disk as one of the options.