I Accidentally Deleted Photos in Picasa

There are several possible reasons why photos may appear deleted from Picasa. One broad reason is that this program's user interface is similar in appearance to that of Windows Explorer. If you don't see a file in Windows Explorer, it's natural to think the file has been deleted. But the photos Picasa displays are not always in sync with what you see in Windows Explorer. Keeps that in mind as you troubleshoot problems of photos missing from Picasa's gallery.

Hidden Photos

If a photo isn't showing up in Picasa's gallery, it may be because you've hidden it. You can reveal the photos you've hidden by clicking the "Hidden" item of the "View" menu. Picasa will show a faint thumbnail for each photo you've hidden with the "Hide" command. To unhide a particular photo, right-click its faint thumbnail, then click "Unhide" from the menu that appears. Picasa will turn the faint thumbnail into a fully saturated one, indicating the photo is fully visible.

Hidden Folders

You may have hidden the folder containing the photo. If you have, none of the photos in the folder will be visible. You can see a list of hidden folders by clicking the "View" menu, then clicking the "Folder view" submenu, which pops up a list of several commands for viewing your photo folders in different ways. One way is called "Flat folder view." Click that option to display a list of all folders in Picasa's left pane. You may have to drag the pane's right slider to see all the folders. One subheading in the left pane is "Hidden." That subheading will list all your hidden folders. Unhide a folder in that subheading by right-clicking the folder, then clicking "Unhide." All the photos within the folder will be visible once again.

Folder Manager

Picasa will only display those photos on your hard drive that the folder manager has scanned. You may have removed the photo's folder from the folder manager. To make the folder manager, scan the folder containing your photo that appears deleted, first click the "Add folder" command of the "File" menu. Picasa displays a file navigation dialog box you can use to move to any folder on your hard drive. The dialog box will display a red "X" for any folder that it's not scanning for photos. Navigate to the folder you want the folder manager to scan, then click either the "Scan once" or "Scan always" options in the dialog box's right side. Click "OK" to make Picasa display any photos within your chosen folder in the Picasa gallery.

Deleted

You may have used Picasa's "Delete from disk" command to send a photo to the Recycle Bin. To determine if you've done this, click the Window's "Start" button, then click "Documents" to open Windows Explorer. Right-click the "Recycle bin" icon in the left pane, then click "Open." Right-click your photo if it appears in the new window, then click "Restore" to undelete the photo. Return to Picasa to see the restored photo.

References

• "Organizing and Editing Your Photos with Picasa"; Steve Schwartz; 2005