[Codazzle]

Quick question maybe someone more experienced with Lightroom can help me with. I tried to google it but couldn't come up with anything...

I have some photos I don't want imported into Lightroom, but I do want to keep on my hard drive. Is there a way to permanently remove them from the "import" screen (IE so they don't show up anymore)?

Thanks!

[alijafary509]

I think LR import pictures without changing their location on HDD. However, if pics are on memory card then you can import the pictures using LR onto your HDD. In any case your HDD will be the final destination to save the pictures. Once you are done with your editing, you can remove the folder from LR after exporting the edited pictures.

[jatrax]

Are you importing from a card? If so then once the images are deleted from the card they will not show up again. If you want to keep the images, just not in LR, then manually copy them to the destination directory and LR will not know about them.

If you are importing from a hard drive directory, and that is where you want the images to stay, then no I don't think there is a way to do that. LR will try to import anything in the directory you point it to, either HD or memory card. So the answer is to put the images in a directory that LR is not looking at.

I have my import set to copy files from the memory card onto the HD into a directory structure. But if I copy a file into that directory manually LR does not know it exists.

Hope that helps, and that I understoof your question correctly.

[camerons]

Where are you importing from? If you are importing from somewhere on your hard drive continuously I don't think there is a way around it. Unless you import them without moving them then tick the "don't import duplicates" option for future imports.

I don't quite understand the situation that you'd be getting this problem though.

[Codazzle]

Thanks guys.

If you are importing from a hard drive directory, and that is where you want the images to stay, then no I don't think there is a way to do that. LR will try to import anything in the directory you point it to, either HD or memory card. So the answer is to put the images in a directory that LR is not looking at.

Pretty sure that's my answer! Haha



To answer the question of why, my girlfriend has her pictures on my computer. I don't want them on my lightroom, but don't want to delete them

[jatrax]

I have my images in a directory structure like this: Pictures>"year">"day" So every day that has images has it's own directory. I've done that from way before LR so just kept going with it. LR knows where to put the images and will create a directory automatically if needed as it imports.

My wife uses the exact same directory structure for her images. So mine and hers are in the same directories on the computer but in LR only mine are in my LR catalog and only her's are in her LR catalog. So what you want can be done as long as you do not import from that directory.

So if you are trying to load existing images into LR (just guessing here) then go to the directory the images are in select 'add' from the import menu and then uncheck all the ones you don't want. Now, never import from that directory again. If you are importing going forward from a memory card it should not be a problem.

Do try and put together some structure to how your images files are organized. LR makes it easy to work with them in LR, but if you need to move to a new computer, restore a backup, or if LR fails for some reason it is a good idea to have an organized structure to the files themselves. Sorry if you already knew all that.

[nosliwmit]

Hi all,

I know everyone has their preferred methods for importing and managing photos in LR, but I started something new about six months ago and I'm still happy with it. It would address the OP's question too...

I use a year / month folder-subfolder structure. In my 2013 folder I created a sub-folder called New Photos. I set Lightroom up to auto-import from that folder. Any photos I want to import into Lightroom I drag into that folder and Lightroom does the rest. Then, in LR, I can cull, modify etc. and, finally, drag the photo from that temporary folder into its final destination (from within LR). If I wanted to put photos into any of the year/month folders outside of LR it would be seamless...

Generally speaking, I find the Auto-import function to be a huge time-saver. I wish it was a little more agile, but if you set it up with a static folder you never have to mess with import settings again and there's very little chance of importing something you didn't want to or not importing something you did want to. Of course, that's with a single catalog, but I imagine you could modify the scheme for multiple catalogs...

[Just1MoreDave]

If they get imported anyway, select them and hit the delete key. LR will ask you if you want them deleted from the catalog or the disk. If you choose catalog, Lightroom can't see the files unless you reimport them somehow.