Removing a image from a collection folder, but not from the hard drive

[Gray Drake]

My process for years and several thousand images has been to load them into an "edit file" out of the camera.  I edit and delete in this fiile, then tag the remaining images for placement of the edited version(s) in their permanent folder.

Recently the images in my "edit folder" do not move and remain in the edit folder - so both the permanent folder and my edit folder show the same image.

I was told by a local software store that clicking on remove and then remove again (avoiding remove from disk) would resolve the issue.  This did resolve the issue for several months.

Today, however, when I clicked remove and remove again, the images were removed from my permanent folder on the hard drive.

Recommendations on recovering a dozen valuable images and a process for removing images from my edit folder only.

Gray Drake

[Moved to Lightroom based on previous messages... Mod]

[Nancy OShea]

The Lounge is not a technical forum.  Your question sounds product related to Photoshop Lightroom, Camera Raw, etc...,  Is that correct?

Nancy

[Gray Drake]

Yes this is a LR issue and I have had some responses, but no answers. Thank you for your response. If the responses go no where, I will move to another site.

[dj_paige]

Recently the images in my "edit folder" do not move and remain in the edit folder - so both the permanent folder and my edit folder show the same image.

Please describe, step-by-step, how you move these images from one folder to another. Leave nothing out. Also describe what happens, and if there is an error message, please quote the exact word-for-word error message.

it would also help if you stated the version number of your Lightroom, and the version number of your operating system. I want the version NUMBER and not words like "up-to-date".

If I could suggest a simpler workflow that might avoid these problems, just put the photos in their permanent folder straight out of the camera, and then most of these problems would go away.

[Gray Drake]

Thank you for your response.

My LR version is “Lightroom version: 6.0 ”

I have had some suggestions to change my work flow, but I have been using this workflow in lightroom back to 3, have over 30,000 edited images saved and have always used the same workflow. Could change, but my habits are ingrained over all these years, so I strongly prefer not to change, since his has not been a problem in some 30,000 image moves. I have never lost images until this week and this has occurred in a couple of experiments, so I am sure the process shown below is being used. Also, I can not put the images into a permanent folder immediately, because the folder is only determined after the editing is completed and the quality’personality of the image is determined.

My workflow:

a.. Transfer from camera all images into a folder titled “2017 Images for Editing” using Lightroom, a folder that was created in Lightroom.

b.. I delete 80 to 90%,

c.. I transfer or move, the others to any one of 50 folders that are existing, for example “2017 Moods of Lake Michigan”. These permanent folders only get images I intend to save and ones that have been edited.

d.. From either the Loupe or Grid view I simply drag the image from the Edit folder into the Permanent folder.

e.. The image leaves the Edit folder and is relocated to the Permanent folder. After my final editing session the Edit folder is empty.

f.. Remember I have done this thousands of times without an issue.

New intermittent Ppoblem

a.. When dragging the image to the Permanent folder – it arrives in the Permanent folder, but also remains in the Edit Folder. This does not happen every time, but began happening intermittently a couple of months ago.

b.. Now my Edit folder is filled with images that are already processed, and to work around this I Remove them. Right Clicking on an edited image in the Edit folder, I then right click on Remove (removes the image from the Edit location, but not from any other locations). I must not click on Remove from Disk, because the deletes the image from both LR and the Hard Drive.

c.. The Remove Process worked successfully for a few weeks. This week however the Remove action is deleting my image from the Hard Drive as well as from LR.

Hope this helps --- I really need some help, I have deleted quite a number of valuable images this week.

Jerry

[dj_paige]

First, update to Lightroom 6.12, there is a bug fix regarding the moving of photos from folder to folder that is related (but perhaps not exactly the same).

If that doesn't solve the problem, then again I would recommend using a workflow that does not allow this problem to happen, as I explained earlier.

[Gray Drake]

Thank you DJ and Wobert

This is a response to both of you.

• The problem is not workflow driven, since I have been  using it consistently for several years with some 30,000 images and the issue is new
• Collections vs. Folders - my use of the word folder was incorrect.  All the edited images to be saved are moved from my edit collection and placed in a LR collection, titled for example, "2017 Moods of Lake Michigan".  When I print or otherwise want to process a permanent image, I export it to a Hard Drive Folder
• I will up date to LR 6.12 as soon as I am back home with a faster internet connection
• My process for moving an image from the edit collection to the permanent collection --, simply dragging the image from the Grid or Loupe view for the edit collection to the permanent collection.  100% of all of my moves until recently were successfully completed with this process.  For the past few months, periodically, following the drag move, the image shows up in the permanent collection, but also remains in the original edit collection.  Not practical for me, because the number of extra images in the edit collection grow over time and screws up my workflow.
• To remove the file from the edit collection, while keeping it in the permanent collection, I right click on the image in the Grid or Loupe view, then click on Remove Photo, and in the next pop up window, click on Remove , not ON DELETE FROM DISK.  This worked successfully - leaves image in the hard drive, leaves it in the permanent folder and removes it from the edit folder.
• Recently, the Remove action, in several confirming trails, deleted the image from the edit collection, from the permanent collection and from the hard drive.  Now the image is no longer in LR.

Hope this helps explain my process.  I will let you know when I am updated to 6.12.  Thanks again!

Jerry

[Bob Somrak]

If you are right clicking a photo and get REMOVE PHOTO than you are in a folder, not a collection.  Also, you can not DELETE FROM  DISK when in a collection.

I use your method a lot by copying all my photos to a temporary folder and having Lightroom import from that folder.  I then MOVE the photos to the correct place after culling and DELETE FROM DISK the culled photos.  It works as it should for  me.  Lr 2015.12 and OS X 10.11.6.

[Rob_Cullen]

+1 to Bob's Post#7

"Remove" from a Collection,  and "Remove or Delete from Disk" from a folder.

Also you can drag a photo to any number of Collections, from both views-   Folder>Collection  OR Collection>Collection.

Dragging Collection1>Collection2 will mean that the photo remains in both Collections.

[Gray Drake]

Bob

My terminology is a big part of the confusion here.  I use LR a lot but am self taught, so some proper technical jargon is not meaningful to me - and I have certainly misused some.

EVERYONE - use this as my work flow. All these actions are taken within LR.  Please note that the only time I go into my hard drive to to capture images that have been exported for printing, recording on a cd, etc.

1. Import using LR from camera to "2017 Edit Folder" that is in my Hard Drive and listed as a LR Folder.  Note - all folders have been created from within LR.
2. Using LR - I edit or delete all images in the "2017 Edit Folder"
3. To locate images in their proper Permanent Folder - In Grid View of "2017 Edit Folder", drag all edited images to any one of 50 Permanent Folders, such as "2017 Moods of Lake Michigan".  This meant that "2017 Edit Folder" was empty, for many hundreds of this sequence, until recently.  I do not plan on describing the process for completing prints or other further processing of edited images.  Normally, the image has just disappeared in the Edit folder when this move is completed.
4. Recently, on some occasions, some images that have been dragged to a Permanent Folder do no leave "2017 Edit Folder" - this is LR information.  The "2017 Edit Folder", is not empty as intended.  Attempting another drag does not work, since the image is already in the destination folder. 
5. When the problem in 4 occurred originally, I successfully removed it only from the Edit Folder - thereby eliminating duplication.  I right clicked on the image and then clicked on Remove Photo, then in the drop down menu clicked on Remove, but not DELETE PHOTO FROM DISK.  This removed the image from "2017 Edit Folder", but left it in the Permanent Folder.  This worked  successfully for several weeks on a few 100 images.
6. More recently, when attempt to eliminate a duplicated image from the Edit Folder by right clicking on the image and then on Remove Photo, and then on Remove -- the image is removed from the Edit Folder, the Permanent Folder - so it is gone from the hard drive.  Please note - I am not clicking on REMOVE FROM DISK, and this has been confirmed in several trials.

I will up grade to LR 6.12 in the next few days.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your interest and time.

Jerry

[JP Hess]

There really isn't any need to move the image around because that image isn't modified by Lightroom. All of the adjustments that you make are simply stored in the catalog. The image is always left in its pristine state as it was downloaded from the camera. So it's best to just download it and place it in its intended folder and leave it there.

[Rob_Cullen]

The title of your post gives me cause to wonder-

"...from a collection folder..."

Do you understand that Collections are not folders.  (And folders are not collections)

You can delete photos from collections and they are not removed from Lightroom, or their storage folders.

Placing a photo in a collection also does not move it (or copy it) in any way.

Can you explain in more detail your reference to " a collection folder"..?