Today’s Question: I am working on a book in the Book module in Lightroom Classic and when I try to delete a photo from the book page it only removes it from that page and puts it into the filmstrip. When I go to the filmstrip to delete it the popup is grayed out. If I go to the Library Module, I am able to delete any photo as in the past. Any suggestions for this issue would be welcomed.
Tim’s Quick Answer: The Book module in Lightroom Classic is the only module where you’re not able to delete a photo. You can remove a photo from the page layout, remove a photo from a collection if you’re working with a collection, but not delete a photo if you’re working with a folder.
More Detail: In general, you can delete a photo in Lightroom Classic by right-clicking on the photo and choosing “Remove Photo” from the popup menu. However, this command is only available when browsing a folder rather than a collection, and it isn’t available in the Book module.
I recommend using collections to group together the photos you want to include in a book project, in which case the option to delete the source photo wouldn’t be available. Instead, if you right-click on a photo while browsing a collection you’ll have the option to remove the photo from the collection. You would need to go to the source folder (such as by right-clicking on the image and choosing “Go to Folder in Library” from the popup menu) in order to be able to delete the source image.
However, even if you’re working with images in a folder rather than a collection, the “Remove Photo” command is not available in the Book module. The Remove Photo command can be found on the Photo menu on the menu bar, but only when you are in the Library or Develop modules. Right-clicking on a photo in a folder will bring up a popup that includes the “Remove Photo” command, but it will be disabled if you are in the Book module.
I’m not sure why the Book module seems to have a unique status in terms of not being able to access the “Remove Photo” command. But again, I do recommend using a collection to group photos for a project such as for the Book module, rather than working directly with folders.
