rbmitch123

I have photos in two different FOLDERS (don't ask). One on my Mac Hard-drive the other, indicates iPhone(imported photos). Not all of the iPhone
photos are duplicates. How do I eliminate the picture from one folder (Imported Photo folder) without deleting it from the other?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

There's a few ways to address this. One way might be:

1. Decide where all your images belong on your computer long-term following any corrective actions you take in this exercise.
2. Merge, via copy, the images from the "wrong" place into the "right" place. Don't overwrite any existing files in the "right" place when merging the two folders.
3. Allow LR to scan and import images from the "right" place, following the merge steps, and indicate LR should avoid importing any suspected duplicates.
4. When satisfied with the results, use your operating system to delete the images from the "wrong" folder as they now should all be copied into the "right" places as well as successfully imported into LR.
5. Ask LR to search and verify the integrity of the catalog and that no images are now missing from where the image was imported into LR.
6. If needed, take the corrective actions that prevent new files from escaping into the "wrong" places on your computer.

whitehall Loc: Canada

Very helpful, but I do have a follow up question - sorry to chine in nn someone else’s posts) If you end up with a bunch of duplicates, including virtual copies, is there a quick way of removing them ( ie not by image by image). At times when I try to remove duplicates ( and I do have do not import duplicates checked) I get a message that the image is on a server, eg smug mug. Thanks.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

There's a third-party free piece of plug-in software that I've seen references to use. I haven't used it myself. But, an image on a server (example smug mug), are you saying that's an error Lightroom on your computer is messaging? That doesn't sound right.

In Lightroom you could use stacking. There's an autostack option that stacks by capture time. Set the difference to 0:00 and if the files have the proper capture times, they'll stack. This automatically groups them. If you collapse the stack, you've hidden the duplicate, in a sense.

I think I saw another process a few days / weeks ago that dealt with some custom metadata filters, but I don't remember. The problem with trying an automated selection of what to delete, how do you tell the computer which to select in an automated fashion? I would think that if you can start with stacking so you know the images have the same capture date/time, you then could filter based on source folder, or added date, or some other metadata aspect that lets you sort the "new" from the "old" where all images in the given population are known to be duplicates of another image. Then, you could delete the newer files (or those from a certain source) with a mass select / mass delete.

Best approach is not to let duplicates into your Lightroom catalog.

whitehall Loc: Canada

Thanks, again, as usual, very helpful.

IGW

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

Are you using LR? Do the pictures in the two folders have exactly the same file number? Are the two folders on the same drive? Are the two folders separate, or are they together under a master folder? There are a lot of possibilities for how to approach your issue, but they depend on things that have to do with the questions I have posed.

whitehall Loc: Canada

Along the way I likely confused matters. For reasons that are not obvious to me, what appear to be identical images are in seprate folders, and when I attempt to stack them, the compoter gods tell me that it cannot be done. My general process is to put my card into an external slot, hit import, select me external HD, open create a new folder and then chose that folder before I start importing. I make a second copy also on an external HD, but that should not matter. So, I remain puzzled. Thanks for all the help.

rbmitch123

Susan
Yes, using LR.
Yes, same file number.
Onefolder indicates Macintosh HD, the other iPhone.
They are separate. Not in a master folder.
Thanks for your input.

rbmitch123

Susan
Yes, using LR.
Yes, same file number.
Onefolder indicates Macintosh HD, the other iPhone.
They are separate. Not in a master folder.
Thanks for your input.

rbmitch123

Susan
More info. When I drag the Picture from the iPhone Folder to the a Macintosh HD subfolder, instead of saying the picture already exists, it imports its as
APC_1234-hdr. Does that help?

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

If the duplicate images have exactly the same file number, that indicates that one is a copy of the other. However, they are in separate folders and there is the strong possibility that deleting one would not delete the other. If you have a picture that you would not mind if both copies were removed, you can try it and see what happens. When deleting from one folder [from within LR], choose "remove from LR", NOT "delete from disk". Then it would be retrievable because it is still in the photos folder on your hard drive. It's connection to LR has been broken, but it can always be imported back into LR. When you have done that, look in both folders from within LR and see if the one in the folder from which you did not remove the photo is still there.

The folder names suggest to me that one folder name is to indicate it is on the Mac's HD, the other indicates the photos are imported from your iPhone. So if both files contain the same photos, then the purpose of having separate folders is defeated. If separate folders is what you want to maintain, then removing the iPhone images from the Mac HD folder and then removing the Mac HD images from the iPhone folder is how you want to proceed. If the procedure I suggested above works as planned, and only one copy is removed, then you can go through each folder and choose the images that do not belong using a flag or stars - whatever works for you. As long as the same image is in each folder, then the one you remove from the incorrect folder will still be in the proper folder where it belongs.

I do not know what your experience level with LR is, so forgive if I tell you something you already know! The way to remove all of the chosen images at once is to highlight all of them [made easier because you went through and marked them with a flag or stars]. Then choose "remove" from the dialogue that comes up when right-clicking on one of the images highlighted. Do this one folder at a time so you don't get confused. And check yourself at every step to make sure you are removing the right photos. Choosing the right photos should be easy because the camera's file number will be in a different format from the phone's format. Saves a lot of trouble! Hovering over each to figure it out would be a pain...

Are both folders on your computer's hard drive, or is one [or both] of them on an external hard drive?

Do you have any kind of system for organizing the photos within their main folder? If you do, that is good. If not, it would be a good idea to choose a way to keep them in some kind of order. Even if you do not have a lot of photos now, as long as you keep taking pictures, eventually you will have a huge number! I've got over 17,000 on my computer and backup drives, and I am an amateur doing it mostly for my own satisfaction. If you need help with that, let me know, I can make several suggestions from which you could choose.

Once you have the images in the folders where you want them, I suggest re-naming them. Something appropriate to what you have in each. For instance, My DSLR Photos and My iPhone Photos.

Next, click on "Import". This is where you can check on things that are instructions for what to do with the photos when they are imported. I mention this because there is a possibility some instruction is there that has been responsible for the duplication. Best to make sure whatever you do here is mostly things that can be applied to all photos imported. If something is not appropriate for the next group and you forget to change it, it will make those changes/additions to that next batch and you may be very unhappy!

The first part is "File Handling" which indicates what you want to do with previews, next is "Don't import suspected duplicates" which you should check but you can choose to leave unchecked. After that you can choose whether to import a second copy to another destination besides the one where you usually send images. You can also choose whether to put these photos into a collection. The second section is titled "Apply during import". There are "Develop Settings" to choose from [I leave it on 'None"], "Metadata" which is where I designate my copyright, and "Keywords". If all photos can be tagged with the same selection of keywords, you can do it here and they will be imported with the photos. If you have a variety of images that will require a different set of keywords, then leave it blank and then put the keywords on the proper groups of photos when in LR. I usually leave that blank.

Make sure you do the test I described in the first paragraph. Just to be sure you will not be removing both copies!

If any of this is not clear let me know. If any of this is not working, let me know and I can re-think the problem. It is long-winded, but hopefully well-written!
Susan

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

I just saw this after finishing my response! I am not sure what that means.

Are you doing this from within LR? When you do that, is the image in the iPhone folder removed from that folder? Or is it copied? Is the photo you dragged from the iPhone folder one that also was already present in the Mac folder? If so, do you now have two copies of that image in the Mac folder?

This is something that does not apply to my system of organizing the photos. All of my photos are in one master folder with multiple sub-folders. If I want to move an image from one sub-folder to another, it is not moving between completely different folders/Catalogs. From what you have described, in your system it seems that you have two separate "master" folders on the same hard drive. That may be why it does that.

rbmitch123

Thank you for your time and effort on my behalf. I'll let you know if questions arise as I proceed. Again, thank you.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

You are welcome. There are always possibilities of being wrong when not there with the computer! But I hope I correctly analyzed what is going on.