Producing a List of Image Filenames

[ChrisLF]

Lightroom Version

Lightroom Classic Version 12

Operating System

1. Windows 11

Hi - when I first starting using Lightroom some years ago I used to import all the photos from my cameras and then edit a small number of them with the result that I have a lot of reject image files in the folders that I use for importing into Lightroom. These folders are held on Drive D and I still have the folders containing the images downloaded from the cameras on my external backup drives.

Anyway, what I'm doing is removing all the unwanted files from my Lightroom folders after identifying the file names of the photos that I want to keep via the Library pane. Obviously this is a lengthy process and wondered if there was a way of doing an export that lists the files in each folder that I could then refer to for culling?

If there is a way of producing a list the actual removal of redundant files won't be too onerous as I don't have a massive number of images.

Thanks, Chris

 

[Gnits]

Check out the plug-ins
1. JB Listview and
2. Lr / Transporter.

I use both regularly and find them extremely useful. There may be other options, but these are so efficient for me I do not need to find any alternatives.

You can create CSV style file lists and/or export to Excel. The advantage of these is you can export the filename, but also export the components, such as folder name, drive, file type, file stub, etc.

 

[ChrisLF]

Thanks, sounds just the job.
Chris

 

[ChrisLF]

Looked at JB Listview first and bought a copy. Brilliant, just what I wanted.
Thanks again.

 

[Califdan]

Of course you could use the Folders Panel in streamline this whole processs.

1. Select a folder and then select the images in the grid you want to keep. (I assume that there are no other images in the folder you want to keep that LrC doesn't know about)
2. Crate a new folder and drag those images to the new folder
3. Remove the original folder from LrC using the Folders Panel
4. Go to Windows File Manager. The original folder should now only contain images that either lightroom didn't know about (perhaps because you previously removed them from LrC) or were never imported. But, either way they are not ones you want to keep. So, delete that folder
5. Now go back to LrC's Folder Panel and rename the "new" folder to what to have the old folders' name.

 

[johnbeardy]

This might work....

Go to a folder in LR, and use Folder Synchronize and import all the files not in LR. Then in the Catalog panel, go to Previous Import, select all, and delete them.

This assumes that the photos which are in these folders but which are not in LR are in fact rejects..... If true, great. If not, it's risky and you may prefer not to select all but to go through deleting one at a time.

 

[ChrisLF]

Thanks for the additional suggestions. I'm preferring to go into each folder to see exactly what I've got and then manually deleting. Some of the folders are a bit of a mess with images that LR doesn't know about/aren't being used.

When I first started using LR some years ago I didn't realise that when importing new photos using the same folders to do so that LR was repeatly importing previously imported photos with the result that in some cases I have multiple duplicates. Once I realised what was happening I started using a folder called For Importing which works fine - once the new photos are imported into an existing folder e.g. Birds, they are deleted from the For Importing Folder.

Using JB Listview exported into Excel is working great as I can have that open in one widow and another alongside containing the images being consolidated and mark them off in Excel as I go along with a green cell. As I said, there aren't a huge number of files to be dealt with as e.g. Birds in LR has 215 editted images in it and so the whole process won't take me too long.

Apart from the housekeeping side of things it's a good process to be going through as there are images that I didn't process first time around and others that might benefit from redoing since upgrading to Classic towards the end of last year.

 

[Califdan]

@johnbeardy
Go to a folder in LR, and use Folder Synchronize and import all the files not in LR. Then in the Catalog panel, go to Previous Import, select all, and delete them.

Good add on.