Easy way to remove untagged photos from SD card

[Victoria S]

Hi,
Is there an easy/fast way to delete untagged photos from the SD card? After I cull the photos in photomechanic using the tagging system I want to permanently delete all untagged photos from the SD card (not only from my computer). Looking in the SD card, it's hard to know which photos I tagged and which are untagged. That is, without painstakingly noting the file names and manually deleting the ones I don't want one by one. Is it possible to select all the photos I want deleted in photomechanic and have them be deleted from both my computer and the SD card?

Thank you in advance.

Version 6.0, Build no. 6474

[Jeff Vogan]

Once the images are ingested to the computer, I am not sure I understand the value of keeping the images on the SD card afterwards.  After I ingest, I format the memory card.

But you could, in PM, browse the files on the SD card, change the view to tagged images, then delete them.

[Victoria S]

Well, you're right about there not being value in keeping any images on the SD card once they're ingested onto my computer. Me wanting to keep the tagged ones on there stems from my irrational fear of losing the original raw photo since I'm having trouble understanding what to do with the NEF/XMP version. But that's an entirely different can of worms I have dedicated to a separate post.

Not a technical person over here. Just an amateur freelance photographer trying to figure things out (I had to look up what it meant to format the memory card). I appreciate your response.

But you could, in PM, browse the files on the SD card, change the view to tagged images, then delete them.

Couldn't do that because I didn't tag the photos straight off of the card. Maybe I should do that before ingesting? I Tagged the photos as they were being ingested into a folder on my computer and being renamed.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

You should definitely NOT tag the images while you are looking at them on the card in the card reader. If you want to keep secure copies of your images, you could ingest them to your main drive and a backup drive at the same time (That's a feature of Photo Mechanic)  That would be much, much safer than keeping some on the card and deleting some.   When you delete partial contents of a memory card and then shoot more images to that card, you risk corrupting the card. It's a very, very, very small risk, but it does happen. It is by far safest to shoot, ingest and edit on your main drive, backup someplace safe, then format the card and start fresh each time.

Mick

[Bob Russell]

Hi,

  Once you Ingest the locked files from the memory card, you can open a contact sheet on the memory card image folder. The locked files should appear as Tagged images.  Now you can select Tagged from the Edit menu and then use the Select Others from the Edit menu.  Now all of the untagged files will be selected. Delete the selected files. If you have a Mac, then don't forget to empty the trash before you eject the memory card else all of the deleted files will still be in the memory card's trash bin.

--Bob

[Victoria S]

You should definitely NOT tag the images while you are looking at them on the card in the card reader. If you want to keep secure copies of your images, you could ingest them to your main drive and a backup drive at the same time (That's a feature of Photo Mechanic)  That would be much, much safer than keeping some on the card and deleting some.   When you delete partial contents of a memory card and then shoot more images to that card, you risk corrupting the card. It's a very, very, very small risk, but it does happen. It is by far safest to shoot, ingest and edit on your main drive, backup someplace safe, then format the card and start fresh each time.

Mick

Thank you for warning me about that! I had an issue in the past with my card being corrupted but if was for another unknown reason.
I knew that PM has that awesome feature of ingesting to my computer and backup hard drive at the same time, but I can't take advantage of that because both the SD card converter (I don't have an SD port on my computer) and the external hard drive both require USB 3 ports and I only have one of them on my computer. So I can't have the SD card and the external hard drive plugged into my computer at the same time. Sad.

[jwvaughn]

Perhaps something like this would be a solution to your USB problem - https://www.amazon.com/SmartQ-Expander-Charging-Transfer-Compatible/dp/B08MMM7DPW

I'm not saying "buy this one" but it is an example for what is available.


Jerry

[Victoria S]

Definitely, thanks!