Ability to remove "lost" images when source file cannot be found

DxO PhotoLab Feature requests
1

This has been mentioned here and there a few times in the forums, but I don’t see an official Feature Request for it.

Basically, if you move or delete any files on your machine that PL has already indexed, any search queries will still include the old locations of those files with a (?) thumbnail.

Of course, you can individually map it back to the moved files and that will also re-map all the files contained in that folder, but if for some reason you need to changes a single higher directory that contains hundreds of folders, this is beyond tedious.

If you’ve somehow had photos deleted, however, trying to remove those thumbnails/ghost files is impossible, because PL will only remove them if it can ALSO remove the associated file on the system (which it can’t, because it does not exist now).

Deleting the DB will “fix” the issue, yes, but it’s less than ideal as a solution since there is some data lost. E.g. I happen to use Projects, and I don’t want those to have to be obliterated just because I accidentally deleted or moved some files on my computer!

A solution to this - which I truly feel couldn’t possibly be very complex for the engineers to implement - is to just allow “lost” files to be purged from the database, either wholesale or individually (user choice).

To me, this issue is especially egregious given that PL is touted many times over (officially) as a RAW editor that doesn’t use a catalog, and so all file management is supposed to be managed by Finder/Explorer. And so far I have seen no mention in any of their tutorials or documents to NOT move or delete files in Finder/Explorer lest one creates this database index issue. So I feel this request is extremely reasonable and, dare I say, required.

Anyway, semi-rant, yet fully-intentioned request for this basic feature to please be added.

Thanks!

1 Like
2

I remember reading that PhotoLab 9 has a new feature that lets you reconcile “lost” folders/files. I don’t know how it works or how limited it is. Hopefully the user guide contains adequate instructions for using it.

3

That is interesting, all I can find in the manual is:

image
image1574×268 41.1 KB

I believe that existed in PL8 as well already?

Otherwise I can’t find anything else.

4

Well, it doesn’t seem there is any new feature; this is the reply I received from support when asking about this:

Currently, DxO PhotoLab does not offer a built-in feature to automatically purge or remove references to missing files (thumbnails with question marks) from its database when images are deleted or moved outside the application. As you have noticed, the “Remove from Disk” option is only available when the original file is still accessible.

If you want to clear all references to missing files, the only way at this time is to reset the DxO PhotoLab database. Please note that this will also remove all your project organization, history, and custom settings stored in the database (but not the .dop sidecar files or your original images)

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5

Good to know - though I’m still unable to figure out what this means from Quoi de neuf dans DxO PhotoLab 9 ? - DxO …

“You can also quickly relocate moved folders or remove missing folders as part of a cleaner, more versatile workspace.”

6

What I just tried …

  • While PL was running I moved a folder with images and it’s dop-files with a file manager to another existing folder, where it became a subfolder … and PL’s library was automatically updated, then showing the new situation.

  • But how do you remove a missing folder? – In the context menu, we have “Refresh,” which sounds to me like reindexing the target folder(s) … I don’t know if that will fix anything.

7

But how do you reset the DxO PhotoLab database

8

@Kim1

But how do you reset the DxO PhotoLab database

… by deleting it (easy on Windows, for Mac I don’t know). Just make sure to have a backup in case you are missing things later as mentioned.

9

If you use Mac:

  1. Close PhotoLab
  2. Navigate to /Users/<YourUser>/Library/DxO PhotoLab <version>/
  3. Delete the database file(s) inside this folder which will start with DOPDatabase

I don’t know where they are on Windows, though.

10

Default:
(Windows): Disk C:\Users[USER NAME]\AppData\Roaming\DxO PhotoLab [VERSION]\DatabasePhotoLab.db

11

You have forgotten two “\”:
(Windows): Disk c:\Users\[USER NAME]\AppData\Roaming\DxO\DxO PhotoLab [Version]\Database\PhotoLab.db

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12

You think that you really want it this way? Sure?
Not ever happen like: ‘but i re-copy or re-connect external drive where the photos exist’? No exception? No ‘special cases’?

individually (user choice)

Like individually click 1000 times ‘Yes’?

as a RAW editor that doesn’t use a catalog, and so all file management is supposed to be managed by Finder/Explorer.

I’m not quite sure about supposed ‘Finder/Explorer’. For example ExposureX more like if do copy/cut/paste files inside of ExposureX.

13

@andras.csore I don’t think you carefully read what I was actually saying.

If you re-read what I wrote, I said allow them to be purged (as in, a user option) from the database, whereas it sounds like maybe you took my sentence to mean that it would automatically do that.

Again, re-read my sentence. I said either wholesale or individually (user choice).
If I had 1000 images to remove, I would choose the “wholesale” option, either for the entire database or perhaps specific to one folder which I knew had images removed.

Perhaps “supposed to” is too strong of a statement. But with software advertised as “catalog free,” as PhotoLab is, and with such limited file-management capabilities (such as, you can’t even move a folder using the Photo Library functions), how else are they expecting things like that to be accomplished? The engineers obviously know that you cannot do such actions within PhotoLab, yet if you perform that action outside PhotoLab, it breaks things (e.g. litters searches with these “lost” files), and they don’t provide the means to clean it up.

As I’m sitting here typing this, another simple solution came to mind:
If I make changes to my folders, just let me reindex them. If there are images in those folders that don’t exist anymore, purge those from the database so that they don’t appear as missing images in my searches.

14

I read it, i read it! The main point why i write/question, may its ad a push (trigger) to refine the idea. And yes, you refined in some details, what may obviously for you, but not specified (written), like:

or perhaps specific to one folder

So, now also ‘folder’ based come up! Good! Logical.
May some additional can come up, like:

  • May include also: ‘and in all subfolders’.
  • Folder name pattern? Only do folders where: folder name pattern like: temporary_2025
  • Selection for multiply folder (not just one (1) folder).

(such as, you can’t even move a folder using the Photo Library functions)

Yeah, its pity why no ‘move’ (‘cut’)… I agree.

But with software advertised as “catalog free,” as PhotoLab is, and with such limited file-management capabilities

Yep, its not so advanced in this point.

However, some ‘catalogue free’ photo app use a bit different approach than PL. Not so much, but different, like: ‘Move’ implemented, ‘.dop’ alike folders exists inside for each folder, etc.

As I’m sitting here typing this, another simple solution came to mind:
If I make changes to my folders, just let me reindex them.

Yeah, that’s can be a nice (or may even nicer than previous).

May a few feature add-on:

  • Re-Index only for missing folder(s)
  • Re-index for missing photos only (in all existing folder), but not-reindex missing folder cases.
  • Re-index for Missing folder + Missing photos
  • Re-index pre-defined folder(s) → to not select manually everytime the folders (like: d:\photos\temp), but just runs on pre-defined folders.
  • Warning ‘pre-check’ like: Do you really want to ‘re-index’ expected 1456 folder with 136742 photos? → And after that: ‘Do you really want remove 23 folder and 2437 photos?’
  • An dof course ‘And also-re index for new photos and folders’

I wonder on few things, what can be some on the over the top of this:

  • ‘Re-connect’ also can be nice feature, like when you rename/move folder, like: ‘c:\photos\work\2025_12_25_Christmas’ → ‘d:\photos_finished\2025\2025_12_25_Christmas_at Grandpa’ in nice and easy way.
  • ‘Re-connect’ renamed files like: c:\photos\christmas_0001.raw → d:\photos\Christmas_Grandpa.raw in photo date/time order based or similars.
  • ‘Flag’ the folder for ‘off-line’ state. Like its metadata stay in database, preview images, etc. → But the main ‘raw’ and ‘.dop’ is ‘disconnected’ and its cant ‘re-index’ or delete from database. Like you have external (USB) drive, what sometimes connected, sometimes not.
  • ‘Auto-reconnect’ for the previous point. May dialogue box for ‘Auto-reconnect?’, ‘Reconnect and Re-index?’
  • ‘Flag’ the folder for limited access, like ‘Cloud drive folder’ → To not re-read by default for RAW/dop, only when ‘forced’. Not exactly similar handling than ‘Off-line’ flag - but more aware of Cloud bandwidth / transfer cost.
  • Flag for ‘never re-index/remove’ in ‘wholesale’, only if i choose folder manually’