removing old files once backed up LR2.5

[david1701]

Right I've managed to fill my laptop hd and already have my sets backed up in two locations but I'm exporting collections and I don't know how to delete them after I have, when I delete the collection I 'think' the images stay where they are which doesn't help me clear hd space at all :bang: I'm not v far at all from just buying a tb lappy drive

I know a lot of guys on here use LR heavily so must clear out old files to backup drives.......

 

[Craikeybaby]

Don't do it from within the collection

 

[Chappers]

If you delete a collection it simply removes the data from Lightroom's database. You have to physically delete the images from the drive. If they are in discreet folders that may be easy, if they are spread all over the you need to select the ones you want to remove and then delete them.

If you have a lot of images I'd suggest you look at storing them all on an external hard drive That's they way I work. Plus the images are available if/when you upgrade your computer.

If you do decide to do this, may I suggest that you COPY the images to the new hard drive, then use the "Update this Folder" option ( Right click on the root folder and it's one up from the bottom) This way if anything goes wrong whilst you are copying the originals are still in place. Once copied and all is OK Delete the orriginals, ( After backing up of course)!

 

[Craikeybaby]

I'll elaborate a bit, since I have a bit more time now.

When you delete a collection, it deletes the collection, the files are still in the library. When you delete from within a collection, it removes the images from that collection, they are still in the library. My advice would be to use the flag system to set the images you want to delete as rejects, then when you have done that use CMD (ctrl) + backspace to delete all rejects. If you are doing this to free up space on your HD, you will need to select the option to remove the images from the HD too. Then go through and delete the empty collections.

My process for keeping my HD empty with Lightroom, is to set a colour to anything that gets used online/printed etc and to give a star rating to anything that I want to keep. I then set up a smart collection to look for all images over 6 months old which have not had a colour or star rating applied, I then have a quick scan through, applying a star rating to anything I want to keep, then setting the rest as rejects and deleting them. However, on import all of my images are copied to an archive disk so I can get back to them if I need to.