Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

Recently, I've been dealing with a lens that was repaired. That is a whole other topic. But, in testing the lens and setting the front/back focus adjustments, I have noticed some odd behavior... Some how, some where, when I import images into Lightroom Classic CC, I get random duplicate images. Sometimes one, and rarely two duplicates. Most are the single shots, as expected. In other words, some small percentage of the shots come into LR with duplicates. Not all, just some.

So, I am trying to sort out the source of the problem... is it the camera, or, LR that is producing the extra copies? When I look at the images in the camera, there are no duplicates.

The camera is running the most current firmware. And, LR is part of my Adobe subscription, so that is always current. And, if it mattters, I do the conversion to DNG format on import. And, the camera has just under 10,000 clicks.

Any ideas? Is the camera losing its mind? Has LR gone rogue? Or, do I have another issue yet to be identified?

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA

Between us, my wife and I have three (3) D7100s; one was purchased new and the others were bought used. I don't have a shutter count on any of them, but I can tell you my two cameras get a workout! No problems such as you describe. Sorry - wish I could help.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Can you more exactly define "duplicates"?

Do you have the LR import set-up to skip suspected duplicates?

What file types are duplicates? Are you possibly recording both RAW and JPEG versions of these images?

Files with same name cannot exist at the same location, not on the camera memory card nor on your computer's harddrive. So, what do you mean by duplicate? Say you've observed Pic_A.jpg as a "duplicate". When you ask LR to show the individual images in Explorer, do these duplicate have the same name in different locations or the same location with slightly but unique files names?

Assuming same file name in different folders, what do those folder names tell you? Did you import earlier and forget about it? If the file names are slightly different in the same location, what do the file names tell you? Did you import earlier and forget about it?

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

Q1: Yes... duplicates are files coming into LR as (example): DSC_9153-1.dng where the original is DSC_9153.dng. I have also seen a second copy, DSC_9153-2.dng. The images are shown side-by-side next to the original image.
Q2: Yes, skip duplicates is set
Q3: These are Nikon RAW imported as DNG files
Q4: No, the camera is set to do card 1 as RAW and card 2 as the backup. Perhaps I should change to "Overflow"? I do not capture anything as a JPG.
Q5: These problems are happening upon import from the camera. They are all done at one time and go to only the specified file location. There is no duplicate location. I bring them into a temporary directory, do my sort/purge/tune, then export to external storage. The temporary directory is the only directory where these photos reside.
Q6: No, the files names are not duplicates, unless the camera is doing that. When I look at the images in the camera, there are only the original shots, no duplicates.
Q7: The images are exact duplicates of the original.
Q8: No, I did not import earlier and forget. I was doing some testing and used LR to import, which shows me which images had already been imported. These were duplicates that happened at the exact same time.

Hope these answers help... Thank you for posing them.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You should look closer at your import processing and whether you should be importing from both cards in the camera if you're writing duplicate files to both. The -# identifier in the DNG files are a result of Lightroom achieving unique names.

Assume you have Pic_A.RAW on card1 and card2. I don't have the same set-up to test, but I believe the Import processing is not very sophisticated. Even though the humans can recognize Pic_A.RAW is the same file on both cards 1 and 2, I believe LR treats these as unique.

As the Import operates, the first version of Pic_A.RAW is converted to a DNG and stored on your computer. When LR later finds another file will result in being named Pic_A.DNG, the unique identifier is added to the file name such as Pic_A-1.DNG.

Are you connecting the camera to the computer via USB or placing the SD into the computer? Putting card1 into the cardreader should avoid the processing duplicate files that exist on Card2. You might need to remove card2 from the camera if using the USB connection. Those would be the things I'd test / investigate.

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

You may have hit on the problem... The camera is set to get images and use the second card as back-up. And, they are all there (I just checked) on both cards. And, OK, I'm lazy... most of the time, I transfer images from the camera to the PC using the cable. Sometimes, but not as a regular routine, I remove the card and put it into a reader. Perhaps I should "change my ways"?

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

There is duplicate remover soft ware!

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

Good idea... Thanks for the suggestion. I am also going to see if LR has a command to "ignore duplicates" or something similar.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I think it's in the preferences... you can set Lightroom to "stack" duplicates and versions of an image. That way you only see one, but still have access to various versions of it.

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

Good idea... I'll check that out. Thanks!