Today’s Question: Is there any situation where removing a photo from a collection in Lightroom Classic will cause the source image in the folder to be deleted?
Tim’s Quick Answer: No, removing a photo from a collection in the Collections section will not delete the source photo in Lightroom Classic. However, removing from certain collections in the Catalog section will cause source images to be deleted. It is also possible to remove a photo from the Lightroom Classic catalog while browsing a collection, though that won’t delete the source file on the hard drive.
More Detail: If you’re working with a “normal” collection in the Collections section of the left panel in the Library module, removing a photo will not delete the source photo. In this context it is impossible to delete a source image by removing a photo from a collection. The photo will remain in the applicable folder even if it is removed from a collection.
However, the situation is different for some of the collections in the Catalog section of the left panel. If you’re browsing the “All Photographs” collection, for example, then deleting a photo will indeed involve deleting the file from the hard drive. So it is important to maintain an awareness of what source you’re browsing when you use the Remove Photo command.
If you use the Remove Photo command in a situation where the source file can be deleted, you’ll see a “Delete from Disk” button in the confirmation dialog. This is an indication that the source file will be deleted if you click the “Delete from Disk” button.
It is worth noting that there is also a “Remove Photo from Catalog” command on the Photo menu. Using this command will cause the selected photo to be removed from the Lightroom Classic catalog, even if you’re browsing a collection. Note that there won’t be a confirmation dialog when you use this command, but rather the image will be removed immediately from the catalog. However, this command won’t cause the source file to be deleted.
