Lightroom: Why do I get the "file could not be moved to recycle bin" error message when deleting pictures

My thought would be that LR is currently doing something else with the image, like rendering a preview or checking if the metadata is up-to-date, and so the image is busy and cannot be moved or deleted.

Such is life with a multi-threaded program like LR.

It would be helpful if LR kept track of what it was doing with every image so it could abort less-important operations (preview rendering) in lieu of the more important operations (deletion) or at least wait for itself to finish one operation before attempting another, but it is not easy without having the architecture in place within every part of the program to do such things and I suspect LR was much less multi-threaded originally so may not have had situations like this in mind. With every major update LR has a chance of being rearchitected but if more important fixes require more attention then it may get pushed off to another release.

At least LR should have a retry operation on a failure message like this so it'd be easy to finish things up without re-keying and re-confirming the delete at the risk of having the wrong things selected.

It took Microsoft 25 years to put a retry operation within it's copy/move/delete operations so it seems to be an insignificant error for developers to address unless someone really pushes them to do so.

All software has bugs, but things like this should be fixed, in my opinion - preferably in the next dot release, if possible.

If the reason for the file being locked or whatever has its roots in Lightroom, then it should be fixable enough. If the underlying cause is external, then at least a decent error message (after a retry...).

I'm guessing some users see this problem and others do not(?)

PS - This is probably the same problem as the "file could not be moved" error that sometimes occurs when moving files from one folder to another in Lightroom...

I have this problem too. If I wait the end of rendering, the delete work indeed.
I'm agree with Rob, Adobe should fix this.

Same here - PLEASE fix this basic error.

This has been around for ages.

OR if you can't (for some reason) then please give us the option to RETRY the operation.

Have you tried moving to another image, edit it, then press "G" to get back to the grid, then selecting this image again, then deleting?

Thanks J, I know there are ways to get around it (as you suggest) but this really is something Adobe should address. It's an old problem that they seem content to skip over in favor of more "sexy" features that might drive new sales.

There are many such issues that Adobe just ignores. I do wish they'd tighrn up on what already is in the software before charging ahead with new (and often not core) features.

The OP is aware of how to delete images after an error. Refinding the image can be a problem if scattered images are being deleted from a large number of other images. They are asking for LR to be smarter about a situation where two parts of LR are needing exclusive access to the image at the same time. My vote would be for a Retry button. The program knows what image and what operation was being attempted at the point it shows the error message, so you'd think a Retry would be possible.

It took some decades before Windows added a Retry button to their file-operations errors, so hopefully Adobe doesn't wait that long. I imagine it is a question of priority where new features and show-stopping errors move ahead of the occasional-annoyances and if there are always worse bugs, then this problem will continue to be pushed to the bottom of the heap along with many others.

I have a similar issue.
I store my photos on my server. When I try to delete them I get the following message:
"The files are on a volume that does not support the Recycle Bin. Would you like to delete them immediately?"
When I click on 'Delete files now' it deletes the file. So it's not a critical issue. However, it's a bit annoying.

Every second time when I want to delete a photo in Lightroom, I get the message "could not be moved to the bin" (in German: Papierkorb). What sort of bug is that in a software of the year 2012?

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
LR deletion of photos not possible.

I have the same problem (for a Vista system). When I go to the folder directly in Windows it says another program has the file locked. But, the only program running at a user level is LR4. Is there a fix? Is there a way to find which application has the file open? Thanks

This happens on every PC I ever tried LR on (since LR 3.x). Windows Vista, Windows 7, Desktop, Laptop, Work PC, everywhere.

It is perfectly reproducible.

I'm gonna create a nice "collage of fail" with pictures of these error messages and post it here until somebody fixes the problem.

how hard can it be, Adobe?

Lambert,
Brilliant idea. I just imported another movie from my camera and when I went to delete it, I could not (through LR). So, here is my picture to add to the collection.
G

I see that my workaround is buried away in nested comments, so for those who want a simple workaround, this works on my Vista system:

Locate the Windows folder in which the file is stored (Right click on the image, "Show in Explorer").
Exit LR.
Delete the file.
Bring up LR again.
Synchronize that folder (Library, find the folder and right click on it and then select 'Synchronize').

That's it.
Gary

ENJOY

Still a problem