Delete Film Roll

Is there a way in drakatble to delete all of the various film rolls that I have acquired when I’m done editing images? My list is getting long and I would really only like to keep what I am currently working on.

Thank you

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Sorry for the mis-spelling of “darktable”

Using the stable version you need a bit of a workaround:

  • Select the film roll you want to remove
  • select all the images (ctrl-a)
  • using the selected images module use remove (DO NOT USE DELETE!!)

This will remove them from the database and remove the film roll, all your actual edits (xmps) will still be there next to the RAWs. You can always re-import the folder/directory at a later date if needed.

Be warned: If you use delete then the RAWs and xmps will be physically removed and not accessible any longer! As in: Gone.

The latest master/development version has a shortcut: Right click on the film roll and select remove.

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Jacques,

If I decide to do this I will be sure to select remove and not delete. I am using the most current version of darktable which came out December 2020. Does that have the shortcut you refer to below?

Thank you again
John

The latest stable version is 3.4.1 (3.4.1.1 if you are on Windows). If memory serves me right that one was released in February '21.

Nope, that is not yet part of 3.4.0 or 3.4.1.

The shorter right-click method is only available in the development (“3.5.0”) version. It will be part of the upcoming stable version (in June/July if I’m not mistaken).

The right click feature is available in DT 3.6. I actually have so many filmrolls that I would just like to delete them all in one go. Maybe this could be a preset option in the future if the developers agree. Or allow selection of multiple filmrolls and then right click to delete.

Disable collection filters, select all images, click remove.

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Thank you. You are a scholar and a gentleman. That worked a treat. I had over 15,000 images to remove.

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Good Morning:
I have another question regarding removing the film roll. I get very twitchy when I have to remove anything! When you click remove, is that particular film roll, whether a directory or a single image, just removed from darktable but keeping it in place on the drive where the file or directory is stored?
I also have way too many film rolls and would only like to show the 2 or 3 that I am currently working on at a time.
Thank you

Please read the manual, use a search engine, browse the tutorials on Youtube.
https://www.darktable.org/usermanual/3.6/en/module-reference/utility-modules/lighttable/selected-image/
And always check the tooltips – the developers have been increasingly careful to make them informative:
image

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Thank you, I forgot there was a new manual published.
I had asked about this in 3.4 and was afraid to try it until 3.6 came out. With this option, it should be much easier to find the work and not go thorough all of the film rolls to find what I’m working on.

Remove works well, only problem is, when I right click on a film roll and say it has 65 images in it, it will only allow me to remove 1 image at a time. Is there a way I can remove the entire film roll?

Select a film roll:

Right-click:

Click remove:

Click Yes:

If, for some reason, this does not work, you can:

  • select the film roll
  • press Ctrl+A or click select all in the right tab (expand the select module if collapsed)
  • click remove or press the Delete key on your keyboard
    image
  • click Yes
    image

I will have to try the second option. When I right click on any film roll, no matter how many images it shows, the remove images dialog box always asks " do you really want to remove 1 image from darktable…) It never comes up asking do I want to remove the actual number in the film roll.
I assume once I have cleaned up the film roll to just the images I need, I can re-import anything I have removed. Correct?
Thank you

You can always re-import anything; the XMP files will maintain your editing history, even if you made multiple ‘soft’ copies (duplicates).

Good to know.
Thank you

The second option does not work either. I right click on a film roll, then I either do CTRL A or Select All and the dialog box still asks me if I want to remove 1 image. It will still not allow me to remove all of the images in a film roll.
Any other suggestions I can try?
Thank You

Can you post a screenshot of the whole darktable window with that prompt visible?

I will try to do that later when I am at that computer tonight. How do I get a screenshot of that? Should I take a picture and then attach it as a file?

Yes. Windows should also send a copy of the screen to the clipboard when you press Print Screen on the keyboard; you can simply paste that here when composing a response message.