Thanks Nik, so I understand that this seems to be an iOS limitation when working with exFAT formatted external disks. (I’m on iPadOS 26.7). Can you think of any workaround other than backing up my SSD on a Mac and reformatting it as APFS? Is there a way to directly delete the images and bypass the .trashes folder? Or move all rejected images to a different folder which I can then delete using the files app? I’ve only got a very old MacBook that’s not my main computer and I’d want to avoid having to use it as a file system bridge.