Unable to delete pictures

[lornet42765951]

Overnight I'm now unable to delete pictures from the latest version of Lightroom Classic, using a Mac. I highlight the picture / pictures, hit the delete key and nothing happens. Right clicking shows the "Remove Photo" greyed out.

Everything was working fine last night, and can't remember hitting anything by mistake! I've reopened LR a couple of times and restarted my Mac, but still the same.

All the pictures are still on LR, as I'm able to export in whatever format I desire, I jut can't get rid of the ones I don't want.

I know I could find the shots in folders on my Mac, and do it that way, But I want to clean up my LR.

Any ideas?

[AxelMatt]

Do you try to delete a photo when you are in a collection or smart collection?

You can only delete a picture from the hard disk when you are in "All pictures"

[lornet42765951]

im trying in All Pictures. As I said, was working fine last night, so no idea why I have the issue today.

Thanks anyway.

[cmgap]

Have you quit and reopened Lightroom? Are the images you are trying to delete Smart Previews?

Can you post a screen shot of just one image that you would like to delete? Are you getting an error message? Please show the entire screen.

[lornet42765951]

Thanks for the reply. As mentioned I've reopened LR a couple of times  (more since the op) and restarted my Mac, with no joy. Re smart previews, not sure what the difference is, it's as the pictures are just as I use them as normal. Highlighting one or more , then clicking on the delete button, does nothing except getting the Mac sort of drum sound!

A picture on it's own looks like....

And right clicked...

I've used LR for years, and it was working fine last night, so no real idea why I've got this issue. I may have clicked something by mistake, but it seems unlikely.

[cmgap]

please expand the side panels... you cannot delete a photo if it is a Smart Preview. If the originals are stored on an external drive - plug the drive in and try again. As I mentioned before if you're originals are on an external drive and that drive is not connected or there has been a change like a power outage you may need to reconnect it. In the case of a NAS like a Synology diskstation that could be the problem.

Nice shoot!

Note- the drum sound is Lightroom's feedback that it can't delete the file because it's not connected to the original - are you getting an error message?

[lornet42765951]

Thanks folks.

I thought that's what a smart preview was, but wasn't sure. All the pics I want to delete are there. I just checked, and the Jenny Lewis shots shown are all where they are meant to be, and as mentioned originally, I can export them in whatever format I need, and actually downloaded the Raw files to an external hd this morning, before attempting to delete them. I could do it that way, but I'd just end up with an LR full of unusable smart previews that can't be deleted.

No external HD's involved as far as pictures on LR are concerned. Originals are stored on my Mac HD. I rarely touch the LR folders, only checking them every few months for a clean up.

I've not touched anything outside LR since last night, when it was working. Closed my MacBook lid and reopened this morning, getting the problem.

Pretty sure the side panels won't show anything that will solve this...

[cmgap]

It would be helpful to know if you are getting a message when you tap the delete button.

Are you able to delete any images at all? Have you tried to Right-Click and Remove rather than tap the delete button?

[lornet42765951]

No message, and as shown and mentioned, the remove photo section is greyed out when right clicked.

[cmgap]

Okay - the Remove button is grayed out... have you tried to reset your preferences?

This catalog has relatively few photos in it (445). Do you have another catalog?

[lornet42765951]

Re the catalogue question. I don't actually use LR to catalogue. I just use it to process. Although I've thousands of pictures from a 12 year period, they're all from gigs or festivals so label folders and pictures well ,so very easy to find.

Sometimes my LR has nothing in it bar the show I've just shot.

[lornet42765951]

I've solved it!!!!

Although showing as zero pictures "All Photographs" seem to have got linked somehow with an old empty collection that I hadn't deleted.

No idea how that happened, as it was one from June, which only gets used at the time, as I occasionally edit my pictures on LR mobile on my iPad on the way home from a gig, syncing with LR when in the house, and never using after that.

I hadn't gone anywhere near it anyway, except obviously by mistake!!

Deleting all my unused collections seemed to free it up as I can now use the delete button.

Strange!

Thanks folks for your help anyway.

[Just Shoot Me]

lornet42765951  wrote

I've used LR for years, and it was working fine last night, so no real idea why I've got this issue. I may have clicked something by mistake, but it seems unlikely.

When all else fails (or at the outset of any problem) Reboot your system and test.

[Tony_See]

Lorne

Can you enlighten us as to your storage system for your image files?

Could a permission have changed?