Select and select all in Lightroom 2.1

[OldMan]

Hi all,

I am from the beginning an ACDSee Pro guy but am trying to get used to Lightroom since I like a lot of the editing functionality, especially the RAW functions. I realize that the price I have to pay is that everything is running at half speed compared to ACDSee but I can live with that.

But today I managed to delete a complete folder from Lightroom including all settings made. I could of course import it again but with all settings gone. How did I manage to do that?

I had all files in the folder selected for a reason but then I decided that I wanted to delete one of them from the folder and the hard drive and therefore selected that specific picture. The picture was slightly more highlighted then the rest of the pictures and I assumed that I was working on that picture. But when I said confirmed the delete all files was deleted from Lightroom.

Is this how it works or did I screw things up? Happens all the time according to my wife but this time Lightroom really scared me.

Grateful for your comments. Right now I am on my way back to ACDSee but maybe you could convince me that I acted as a fool.

/Bjorn

 

[ernie]

The slightly more hightlighted file was what what's called the "most selected". The other files that were somewhat highlighted were still selected, therefore when you deleted what you thought was one, they all went.
A purpose of this method of doing things is, let's say, you want to apply some settings to a bunch of files. You select them all and apply the settings to the most selected one. Then you can paste or sync those settings to all the others. There are other ways of applying settings to a group of files too, but that gives you an idea.
The problem is, if you selected to delete from disc then you also deleted those files from your computer drive also. I can't remember if they go to recycle bin or not. Maybe someone else can answer that and give you some other info.
Don't give up on LR. It has its quirks like any other program, it just takes a little while to learn them.

 

[OldMan]

Thanks for a quick reply Ernie, now I know how Lightroom manages selections. Feels a bit non standard but as you say it takes a little while to figure these things out.

I learned a lesson the hard way. I will hang in for a while but be more careful and make sure I know how things work the next time. And hope that in the future there will be more speed in this application that actually looks very good.

Thanks,
Bjorn

 

[paul_w]

If you haven't emptied your Recycle Bin yet the files should still be in there for you to restore.
I made the same mistake recently but was able to recover the files from the recycle bin. including the changes I'd made.

 

[OldMan]

Paul, they were never deleted from the hard drive, just from Lightroom. But I had quit a lot of changes applied that were lost. I could import the pictures again but with out the applied changes of course.

It will not happen again

Thanks,
Bjorn

 

[Denis Pagé]

Paul, they were never deleted from the hard drive, just from Lightroom. But I had quit a lot of changes applied that were lost. I could import the pictures again but with out the applied changes of course.

It will not happen again

Thanks,
Bjorn

Or, one thing you can do to prevent any loss in the future is to turn on "Automatically Write Changes to XMP" and/or select all and hit Ctrl-S to save changes manually. Some find that 'Auto' is slowing Lightroom too much and others do not want sidecar files so it is an option. Doing so manually will just take a little time when needed. If you had done so, reimporting would just loose history and such but not the ratings, keywords and adjustments...

 

[OldMan]

If you had done so, reimporting would just loose history and such but not the ratings, keywords and adjustments...

I was not aware that also adjustments were saved in XMP. Apologize if this has been discussed before but what exactly is stored in XMP?

Thanks,
Bjorn

 

[Denis Pagé]

I was not aware that also adjustments were saved in XMP. Apologize if this has been discussed before but what exactly is stored in XMP?

Thanks,
Bjorn

Everything needed to come back with what you did and more exactly the last state of the image when you pressed Ctrl-S. EXCEPT: History as it is "last state" and in which collection the image was because an image do not kow in what collection it is; It is the collection knowing what images it is pointing to. Also probably keep/reject flags as they are folder/collection specific and I may forget a little thing. But mostly, you save your life if you loose a catalog or... the Catalog's hard drive!

 

[Brad Snyder]

Following up on Denis' comments:

XMP doesn't save:
Virtual Copies (so use Snapshots instead)
Pick Flags
Collection Membership
Stacks
Develop History (only the final state is saved)
also a couple of User Interface items, not important in this context.

 

[Denis Pagé]

Thanks Brad! I really wish this turned into a T&T that may be titled: "What XMP won't save" or for a longer writing, "What XMP will and will not save". This is frequently coming back on the forums so, having a link to point to would be GREAT! Isn't it?

 

[Brad Snyder]

I've written a blog post for O'Reillys Inside Lightroom, on that very subject, for next week, so I don't want to shoot myself in the foot. I'll post it in Tips after that.

 

[OldMan]

Thanks, I really appreciate your commitment.

Regards,
Bjorn