Lightroom deleting question

[james_tigerwoods]

This is going to sound like a really stupid question but I'm stumped.

In my library, which is aligned to my windows explorer file structure, I have about 4500 photos that I've not edited. And, having scanned them, I probably never will as they're ones to bin.

I've been good and backed it all up but now I want to delete them - So I've created a smart collection and set it up to look at photos that haven't been edited. When I select some to be deleted, however, it tells me that I can't from the smart collection.

So, my question is this - How can I delete the 4500 odd photos (probably less in reality) easily?

Thanks

JTW

[Morbid]

Can't you just delete them using Windows Explorer rather than trying to use Lightroom (or am I missing something obvious??).

[james_tigerwoods]

Morbid said:

Can't you just delete them using Windows Explorer rather than trying to use Lightroom (or am I missing something obvious??).

Because the photos I've edited have "tags" on them from lightroom - I can create a collection based on those that haven't been edited. It's pretty hard to pick those up from explorer.

I could do it in explorer, but I've got about 150 directories and 4000 jpg to pick on - And the RAW files don't preview. On top of that, the files won't show up edited.

The alternative of deleting the lot and starting again doesn't appeal...

[Gad-Westy]

This little feature infuriates me about lightroom. You always have to do everything on its own quirky terms. (like only being able to do multi deletes from grid view, grrrrr)

Something you could maybe try. With all photos in your delete collection highlighted, can you right click and select 'locate in folder' or something like that. I think I'm right in saying that it will change to folder view but keep your selections highlighted so you can hit backspace and delete them. Only thing I'm unsure of is how it deals with the fact that presumably they're located in many different folders. Only one way to find out!

[james_tigerwoods]

Gad-Westy said:

This little feature infuriates me about lightroom. You always have to do everything on its own quirky terms. (like only being able to do multi deletes from grid view, grrrrr)

Something you could maybe try. With all photos in your delete collection highlighted, can you right click and select 'locate in folder' or something like that. I think I'm right in saying that it will change to folder view but keep your selections highlighted so you can hit backspace and delete them. Only thing I'm unsure of is how it deals with the fact that presumably they're located in many different folders. Only one way to find out!

I'm just having lunch and on a different laptop - I will see how that ends.

Not well I imagine

[Morbid]

james_tigerwoods said:

Morbid said:

Can't you just delete them using Windows Explorer rather than trying to use Lightroom (or am I missing something obvious??).

Because the photos I've edited have "tags" on them from lightroom - I can create a collection based on those that haven't been edited. It's pretty hard to pick those up from explorer.

I could do it in explorer, but I've got about 150 directories and 4000 jpg to pick on - And the RAW files don't preview. On top of that, the files won't show up edited.

The alternative of deleting the lot and starting again doesn't appeal...

[Craikeybaby]

I usually set them as rejects, then delete rejects (CMD + Del) before I exit Lightroom.

[Gad-Westy]

Craikeybaby said:

I usually set them as rejects, then delete rejects (CMD + Del) before I exit Lightroom.

Sounds like that should work.

[rottie102]

Craikeybaby said:

I usually set them as rejects, then delete rejects (CMD + Del) before I exit Lightroom.

+1