Remove photos and undo changes

Removing a photo from the catalog does not delete its file unless you ask. And most catalog changes can be undone.

Remove photos from the catalog

1. Select photos in the grid.
2. Choose Image › Remove from Catalog…, or press Delete or Backspace (in the grid, by default).
3. Confirm. The dialog counts what goes, for example “Remove 3 photos and 2 virtual copies from the catalog?”.

Their ratings, labels, edits and collection membership go with them. Undo brings them back.

Virtual copies on their own are removed without a dialog. A master takes its copies with it.

Also move the files to the Recycle Bin

The dialog has a checkbox, off by default: Also move the files to the Recycle Bin (Trash on Mac and Linux). With it on, the button reads Remove and Move to Recycle Bin and each photo’s file goes to the bin, together with its .xmp and .merge.json files. You can restore them from the bin yourself. Files that can’t be moved are listed.

Caution

A removal that also trashes the files can’t be undone with Undo. The photos’ edits and ratings are gone from the catalog; only the files remain in the bin.

Undo and Redo

Image › Undo (Ctrl+Z by default) and Redo (Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z) work on two things, depending on where you are:

• In the Loupe and Edit, on the edits to the photo you are working on.
• Everywhere else (the grid, Survey, Compare), on catalog changes.

The menu names the step: Undo Rating, Undo Remove 2 Virtual Copies, Undo Add to Collection. DarkRay keeps the last 50 catalog changes, and forgets them when you switch catalogs or quit.

Catalog changes you can undo:

• Ratings, color labels, flags, captions and Quick Collection changes
• Adding, removing and suggesting keywords
• Making a virtual copy
• Removing photos (without trashing their files)
• Creating or renaming a collection, and adding photos to or removing them from one

Not undoable: deleting a collection or set, moving or renaming files and folders, Remove from Library on a folder, and a removal that trashes files.

After an undo, the photos it brought back are selected, and any stacks they were in open. If a removed photo’s file now belongs to another photo, it stays out and the status bar says how many couldn’t come back.

Technical details: what removing and undoing restores

Before a removal, DarkRay saves any edits still waiting to be written. It records every row connected to the photo (edits, keywords, collection links, stack order, thumbnails) under the same ids, so Undo restores them exactly. Previews, prepared files and AI masks stay on disk while the removal can still be undone, and are cleaned up once it can’t: when the entry is forgotten, or at the next launch.