Recovering a deleted photo?

[StanWelks]

I accidentally deleted some files from my Library by choosing the Delete from Disk option. My Library is on an external drive and after deleting them there was no undo option and nothing shows in my trash on my Mac. I did a quick search and there is some script that might be able to help with this, though I just want to check to see if there is anything built into LR to recover a photo that is deleted after it is done? I do have a backup, though it will be difficult to figure out which files were deleted without restoring the entire catalog and I have made some changes since the last backup.

Thanks.

[dj_paige]

I guess the first step is to identify the photos (by name and/or by folder) that have been accidentally deleted.

Next, you need to restore the photos from your backups to the exact same location they were in before the accidental deletion.

Next, you need to open a backup catalog, select those photos in the backup, and then export AS A CATALOG.

Then you can open your original catalog and import the catalog just created by following the instructions in my previous sentence.

[StanWelks]

Thanks, but to clarify, there is nothing built into LR to recover or undo a deleted file after it is done?

[JP Hess]

The file Lightroom opens is the catalog, which is a database. If you delete a record from the database it is gone. If you choose in Lightroom to delete an image file, you have a choice to remove it from the database or to delete it from the disk. If you choose to delete it from the disk Lightroom send it to the trash or to the recycle bin. There is no undo option to reverse that. You can recover the image from the trash if you chose that option. Then you can reimport the image. Lightroom will treat it as a newly imported image and you will have to start over on the editing.

[StanWelks]

I'm on a Mac and my photos are on an external drive. Interestingly, there is nothing in my trash after deleting the files. I can try to pull the file from my backup, I was just hoping there might be another option.

Thanks

[JP Hess]

In it is been a long time since I worked with images on an external hard drive. I'm using Windows 10 and have two additional internal hard drives. Whenever I delete images from Lightroom on those drives they always appear in the recycle bin. I'll have to try the external hard drive and see what happens.

Added later: I tried deleting an image (in Lightroom) from a folder on an external hard drive, and the image still ended up in the recycle bin.

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

StanWelks  wrote

Thanks, but to clarify, there is nothing built into LR to recover or undo a deleted file after it is done?

Correct.

[Kyrazoe]

Hello, maybe trying a third party to recover your deleted photo is a quick and easy way. Many tools can recover deleted files as long as you have not overwritten the data. I prefer a recovery tool called Bitwar Data Recovery, which helped me a lot when data loss occurred to me. It is safe and easy to use.

Anyway, you can have a try. Have a nice day!