Using LR Classic SDK to remove files from catalog

[Yi250240386n1y]

Hi,

When importing media from mobile devices, I ended up with a lot of files under the wrong folders. I'm creating a Library plugin to relocate them based on capture time. My strategy is to call LrCatalog.addPhoto() on the file path and that has worked nicely in my testing.

Now I have 2 copies of the same file in LR, the original copy in the wrong directory and the new copy. Is there a way to achieve something like LrCatalog.removePhoto() to get rid of the old copy? I know I can remove the file with LrFileUtils, but how to update the catalog?

Thanks

Yi

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

The SDK won't let you remove photos from the catalog proper.  In your case, a script or plugin can use LrFileUtils.delete (photo.path) to remove a photo from disk.  Then when you're done, manually invoke Library > Find All Missing Photos, select the thumbnails marked missing, and remove them from the catalog.  

Alternatively, when your script deletes a photo from disk, it can also add it to a collection "To Be Deleted".  You can then manually remove the photos in that collection from the catalog.

[Yi250240386n1y]

Thanks! The first method worked, although it took quite a while to run since there were a lot of photos.

I don't fully understand the second approach though. If it worked, it'd be a great optimization. I'm able to move the photos to a "To Be Deleted" collection. But removing the photos from that collection afterwards affected only the collection itself. It didn't help remove them from their folders, which is what I tried to achieve. Did I miss anything? 

[johnrellis]

"But removing the photos from that collection afterwards affected only the collection itself. It didn't help remove them from their folders, which is what I tried to achieve. Did I miss anything?"

You'll need to use the menu command Photo > Remove Photos From Catalog (see the menu item for the keyboard shortcut).  When in a collection, Delete / Backspace just removes the photo from the collection.

[Yi250240386n1y]

Worked beautifully! Thanks!

[Yi250240386n1y]

In case anyone's interested https://github.com/jiaxuan/fixfolders.lrdevplugin

[C.Cella]

Resurrecting this discussion a sec.

Recurrently I get a bug and can't trash my files:https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-lr-cannot-delete-files-from-a-drive-t...

Today I have explored the alternative of using the the SDK in attempt to skip this bug.


LrFileUtils.moveToTrash( path ) can be used BUT as @johnrellis said LrC is not automatically removing the photos form the catalog AND I discovered that those file can't be "put back" (on Mac) form the trash.

Not as dangerous as deleting immediately but still I fid this dangerous.

These API are pretty inferior compared to built in Delete or Remove.

We have catalog:addPhoto so to me it would make sense to have also catalog:removePhoto.

.