Pics on my iMac

SheffSean

SheffSean

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Name
Sean
Edit My Images
Yes
Hello everyone,

I need some advice about my Mac I recently bought, when I go to Lightroom I get a load of pics in the filmstrip at the bottom of the screen, do I need to keep them or is it best to get rid, there's over 5000 of them and so far since I bought my Mac I've never done anything with them, which brings me to another question, should I have done anything with them as practice, thanks in advance,

Sean.
 
If you look in the Library module and the Folders section and then highlight a folder on your Mac any images in that folder will appear in the filmstrip enabling you to select and edit them. They won't appear in your catalogue unless you import them into Lightroom.
I would recommend that you have a look at some of these tutorials for a better explanation.
http://jkost.com/lightroom.html
 
SheffSean said:
Hello everyone,

I need some advice about my Mac I recently bought, when I go to Lightroom I get a load of pics in the filmstrip at the bottom of the screen, do I need to keep them or is it best to get rid, there's over 5000 of them and so far since I bought my Mac I've never done anything with them, which brings me to another question, should I have done anything with them as practice, thanks in advance,

Sean.
Click to expand...
So are you saying they aren't your photos since you bought the Mac recently? I mean surely if I had 5,000 photos on a computer I would remember whether they are mine or not and whether I would want to keep them or not.

Likewise if I sold my computer I would wipe it and not leave all my photos on it for the next owner.

Where did you get it from?
 
I'll try to get this right, when I clicked on Lightroom, I opened the library module and at the bottom of the screen in the film strip there's thousands of pictures, non of these are my pics, they're not on my Mac they're on Lightroom, I hope this is helpful.

Sean.
 
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SheffSean said:
I'll try to get this right, when I clicked on Lightroom, I opened the library module and at the bottom of the screen in the film strip there's thousands of pictures, non of these are my pics, they're not on my Mac they're on Lightroom, I hope this is helpful.

Sean.
Click to expand...
Question is, are they your pictures? You may just be viewing your entire collection in which case it's absolutely normal as it will essentially show you your entire lightroom catalogue (or potentially a smaller selection of that catalogue such as the last import etc).

You can either hide it or delete photos you don't need in which case you can either delete them from the lightroom catalogue alone or from your computer altogether.
 
SheffSean said:
I'll try to get this right, when I clicked on Lightroom, I opened the library module and at the bottom of the screen in the film strip there's thousands of pictures, non of these are my pics, they're not on my Mac they're on Lightroom, I hope this is helpful.

Sean.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by they are not on my Mac they are on Lightroom?

Surely Lightroom is on your Mac therefore your pictures are on your Mac.

I'm getting really lost as to what the issue is?
 
what we are asking is, is the Mac brand new, unopened from the shop or have you bought a second hand one?

If its brand new, then i don't know where they have come from. If its second hand, then i suggest the previous owner has left their catalogue on there.

You need to clarify this before we can offer any assistance.
 
I'm wondering if it's a used iMac and the copy of Lightroom is retrieving the images from the cloud. Is it your own login details or was it already installed and logged in? That way the images wouldn't need to be on your computer, they could just be in the cloud. In which case log out and login with your own Adobe details and they should disappear.

Or I'm wrong, that's always a possibility of course!
 
It's a refurbished iMac, I downloaded the free months trial of Lightroom and the pics, well when I say pics, some are pics, some are more like funny squiggles or symbols but there's loads of them and they're all in the filmstrip, I wondered if they are some kind of images that can be altered in some way, sorry I can't be more specific but I'll try to get a screen shot on my iPhone, I would get a pic on my iPad but for some reason each time I try to take a pic it comes out upside down, bear with me guys.

Sean.
 
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If you are starting from scratch, and have not imported your images yet, just delete the Lightroom catalogue. Better still, personally I'd be tempted to wipe the whole Mac and start from a brand new install of the OS. This will cause you less problems in the long run. It just depends on how much you have loaded into it already as to whether you think that is worth your while.
 
Yes agree with gremlin16 wipe it all and do a clean install. Someone before you don't clean it well.
 
It sounds like they are the images of whoever owned it before you. As suggested, unless you have a good reason not to, re-install OSX and all software from scratch.
 
image.jpeg.
Here you are guys, sorry but a scrub isn't an option, too much stuff loaded, i think Gremlin could be right, looks like the Lightroom catalogue, question is, how do I get rid of them all, can it be done as a block delete guys.

Sean.
 
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Looks like a collection that has been made by a scan of your hard drive that has picked up all image files.

In any case, as has been said, just delete the catalogue. Doing this won't wipe or remove any of your images.
 
There aren't any other pics on my hard drive, it was clean scrubbed when I bought it, the seller made a point of letting me know of this, anyway, can one of you guys tell me how to delete this catalogue please.

Sean.
 
Sorry guys but could someone please help me with some advice on deleting this catalogue, please make it easy to follow though, i'm a complete numpty with this sort of stuff.

Sean.
 
Move to grid layout in the library, select all, hit delete?
 
Take a look using Finder inside your Pictures folder. If it was created using the defaults you should see he file there. Just delete it in you finder window.
 
The Lightroom catalogue is in your Pictures Folder. It will be a second folder labelled Lightroom. Delete it. I would then empty the trash. Restarting Lightroom will force it to build a new catalogue. If you get an option to scan your hard drive say NO. I suspect what's happened is that when Lightroom started initially it scanned the hard drive and found icons and other image files used by the OS and loaded hem into the catalogue. Must say that's an extraordinary action by Lightroom. However this should solve the problem. Go to Adobe TV for some helpful videos on starting with Lightroom
 
Sorry for late reply, I'll have a go at all the above advice and see what happens, I didn't know about Adobe tv on YouTube, thanks guys, atb.

Sean.
 
At last I've sussed it out, so I've been processing images like a man possessed, thanks again guys, your help and advice has been great.

Sean.
 
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