Deleting a virgin duplicate with XMP creation 'after edit' triggers trashing error

[Thanatomanic]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I checked and did not find my issue in the already reported ones

Describe the bug

If XMP's are only created after an edit (set in preference), deleting a virgin duplicate of an image triggers a trashing error instead.

Steps to reproduce

1. Set preference to create an XMP after edit
2. Create a virgin duplicate of a file
3. Delete the duplicate
4. A dialog pops up to confirm deletion, press Yes
5. A second dialog pops up with a trashing error (leaving the user confused)

Expected behavior

If there is no XMP yet, the duplicate deletion should not try to delete it

Logfile | Screenshot | Screencast

No response

Commit

No response

Where did you obtain darktable from?

darktable.org / GitHub release

darktable version

current master

What OS are you using?

Windows

What is the version of your OS?

Windows 11 Pro

Describe your system

No response

Are you using OpenCL GPU in darktable?

Yes

If yes, what is the GPU card and driver?

No response

Please provide additional context if applicable. You can attach files too, but might need to rename to .txt or .zip

No response

[Thanatomanic]

A screencast showing what happens. Windows Explorer confirms that no XMP file is created when creating the virgin duplicate.

2026-09-05.12-23-06.mp4

[Thanatomanic]

This behavior was probably introduced already way back with #9681.
@masterpiga, since you've recently authored #21399, you might want to take a look at this one.

[masterpiga]

@Thanatomanic here is a tentative fix #22228, but I cannot test it because I don't have access to a windows machine.