Robg

I took some photos on July 25 that got file names that were numbered 1160394.jpg through 1160408.jpg.

Later on the 25th I placed the SD card into my computer and moved the files to a folder on my hard drive. I moved (not copied) so that the originals were removed from the SD card. I then ejected the SD card, being careful to instruct the PC to eject it rather than just manually pulling it, and put it back into the camera. This is the procedure I have been using ever since I got the camera years ago.

Several days later, when I started to download the next set of photos using the same procedure as above, I noticed that the images taken from 7/26 through 8/1 also had file names numbered from 1160394.jpg through 1160408.jpg. Had I not noticed that and ignored any kind of warning that I would have gotten, I could have overwritten the images from 7/25. Luckily I didn't and renamed the files before placing them into the same folder.

But this should not have happened. The camera retains the last used file name number and automatically starts incrementing from that on the next shot. There is a way on the camera to reset that number, or at least parts of it, but I most certainly did not do that.

Has anyone had this happen to them? Any idea what caused it?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

First off, you should be placing your images into date-stamped folders on your computer, so file0001 on July 25 doesn't collide with file0001 on July 26. This is just basic digital photography best practice.

Next, you should be copying not moving your images from the camera card to your computer. What if you discovered some error later and wanted to recopy (recover) those images, like an accidental delete? This is just basic digital photography best practice.

Finally, you should be deleting-all or reformatting your card in the camera after confirming and backing-up images from any prior shoot on your computer. This is just basic digital photography best practice.

Your situation, although hard to explain, is easily avoided by industry-proven basic digital photography best practices, such as all those above.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I do not have a camera like yours, but all of my Nikon cameras give me an option (the menu calls it File Number Sequence) of how the camera assigns the numerical part of the file name for each image. The two choices are to assign a number one greater than the last one assigned by the camera or one greater than the last file saved to the card. Check and see if your camera offers this choice. If it does, and if you think you are likely to operate in this same manner in the future, change to other option.

By the way, use of this option can be very helpful if your camera has to go for service and everything gets reset. You can use these choices to get your camera set to pick up file numbering right where it was before the reset.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Nope.

Maybe moving files off the SD using the computer is what caused it. I think if you just copy them, that won't happen.

Robg

CHG_CANON, I have a lot of respect for your posts, particularly those dealing with how to use Lightroom and have frequently found your suggestions to be of use to me. And I appreciate that you responded to my post.

However, the best practices you suggest have costs associated with them and as a result, for some people, like me, they may not be best practices. Had I used your best practices the outcome would have been no different than what actually happened. Using your new folder for every download best practice would have accommodated the repeated file name but it would also have shielded me from the information that there was a repeated file name, which might have been useful to know.

Let me address your best practices one by one. As we shall see, the first two have accompanying costs that I don't want to incur and so they are not for me. I'm not sure why you listed a third best practice (deleting all files from the SD card) as I am, in effect, doing exactly that.

Best practice #1: Creating time stamped folders. This is certainly not a bad idea and will work well for some, but not for me. It results in the creation of a large number of folders which I don't want. It also does not fit how my photos have been organized since before I started using Lightroom and I'm not about to reorganize them all. So this best practice has some trade-off costs and people (like me) might choose a different practice because the trade off is not worth it to them.

Computer software has been my business for nearly 60 years. Some of my best practices are based on my computer experience, not just on my photographer-using-a-computer experience. When files are spread across many, many folders, they become much more difficult to manage. For someone who sees the whole world through Lightroom this might not matter so much because in Lightroom you have lots of other tools that allow you to organize and find photo files. But I don't use only Lightroom to manage my files. I expect you may also find that to not be a best practice, but as I said, best practices have costs and aren't necessarily "best" for everyone.

Best practice #2: Copying vs Moving. There is a reason that I move instead of copy and that's because when you copy the file gets a new "date created" time stamp which is the date and time when the file was copied, not when it was originally created (photographed). I recognize that the date and time when the photo was photographed is still conserved in other time stamps and in the EXIF data, but I want that date created time stamp to reflect the time when the photo was taken. Also, I have a recollection that at one time I was using some photo software that incorrectly used the file's "date created" time stamp as the date and time that the photo was taken. That may have been an early edition of Google.Photos or Picasa. You are correct that copying is (or better, can be) safer than moving, but I know that when Windows moves a file from one device to another, internally it uses a copy/delete and checks that the copy is successful before doing the delete. There is a small possibility that Windows falsely determines that the copy was successful, but that is an extremely rare failure. Of course that possibility, of a false or corrupt copy, also exists if you copy and then delete on your own. The only way to eliminate that possibility would be to test every file you copied before you delete the original. So the only thing that makes copying and deleting yourself safer than having Windows do it for you in one step as a move is that you get an opportunity to check the files yourself before you delete them. That's a lot of work, against an extremely small probability, so again we have a trade-off.

Best practice #3. Delete all or reformat. I don't understand why you included this. Moving (what I do) results in the same end-state as deleting all.

Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

There is a setting in your camera menu that allows you to set the file numbering to start from 1 or to continue from the previous file number. You seem to have numbering starting from 1 set.
I made this mistakes once and lost a lot of photos because they first set was over written by a later set.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Since you have never given us the specific camera model you are using, here is the link to the support page where any of a whole host of manuals can be downloaded. Pick the one that matches your camera, read or download it, and find the answer to the question of how to set up your camera so this will not happen. Note that even though the fields are pre-filled to find manuals for the DC-GX9, there is a drop-down that will let you specify whichever camera you need a manual for.

https://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/dsc/oi/index.html?model=DC-GX9&dest=EG

Robg

My camera is LUMIX DMC-FZ300. Apologies for forgetting to include that in the original post.

Why is it that all respondents so far seem to think that I made some kind of mistake to cause this to happen either by moving rather than copying or because I don't understand camera settings? Neither is the case. Again, and this is somewhat redundant, but here is the sequence of file names that the camera generated with the date of each image in parenthesis:
1160393.jpg (7/21)
1160394.jpg (7/21)
... numbers ending in 95, 96 through 407 all on 7/21
1160408.jpg (7/21)
sometime between 7/21 and 7/26 I moved the preceding files from the SD card to my main drive,
leaving no files on the SD card
1160394.jpg (7/26) The first reuse of a number already used. The camera should have named it 1160409.jpg
1160395.jpg (7/26)
1160396.jpg (7/26)
1160397.jpg (8/1)
... numbers ending in 98, 99, etc., through 407 all on 8/1
1160408.jpg (8/1)
... and on and on after with no more repeated uses of file names

As you can see, there is no issue of the camera restarting at 1, it reused a number starting at 394.

The only numbering option that my camera has is a reset, that sets the next number to 1.

The only hypothesis that I have for this is that I downloaded images between 1160392.jpg and 1160393.jpg. That would have left the camera memory containing the next number to be used set at 394. Somehow that number did not get updated when I took the next batch of photos between 7/21 and 7/26, and was still set at that value rather than 409 when I inserted the clean SD card on 7/26. If that number did not get updated it seems that the camera software has a bug.

My post was asking if anyone had experienced this or had an idea as to what caused it. It's pretty clear to me that there is nothing that I could have done to cause it.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I do not believe that you have made some sort of mistake. I do believe that the behavior of the camera is consistent with a commonly available file sequence option available via setup options for digital cameras having nothing whatever to do with starting over at zero. I do not believe that there is anything at all wrong with your camera. But you are either going to have to be open to reviewing setup options and adjusting them to provide your desired behavior (which is another commonly available choice) or you are going to have to call Panasonic's support number to either have them guide you through what is going on or arrange for a return for factory service.

If you are not willing to do that, then we have reached the limit of what we can do to help you identify and perhaps correct what is going on.

Robg

Larry,
Thank you for your help.

In my most recent post I stated that the only control over file numbering offered by my camera is to reset to 001. That's clearly not what happened here.

The link you provided does not include the DMC-FZ300 in its list of available documentation. However, that doesn't matter because one of the first things I did when I bought the camera several years ago was to download the manual in pdf format so that I could search it.

So, to double check my assertion that the only control over file number is the reset, I searched the PDF for "file number" and confirmed that the only control over the file number is a reset (to 001). There is no other setup option to specify a number other than 001.

However, I did turn up the following in the appendix under trouble shooting, which explains it all:
File numbers have jumped backwards.
••If you insert or remove the battery before turning off the camera, the folder and file numbers for the
pictures taken will not be stored in the memory. Therefore, when the camera is turned on again and
pictures are taken, they may be stored under file numbers which should have been assigned to
previous pictures

This does sort of fit with my hypothesis. The camera remembered the penultimate next number not the current next number, apparently because it had no power when the SD card was removed. I don't remember doing that, but it is certainly possible and fits the observed behavior 100%.

Nevertheless, thank you for your help because it did lead me to finding the cause of problem.

Bill_de Loc: US

That is strange, but glad you found some documentation to explain the situation.

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burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

As a LUMIX user, I concur. I put the card in a reader, copy files to a new folder, give it a name I'll understand, and put it in a year folder in my Pictures folder. THEN I unmount the SDXC card, put it in the exact camera body I'll use it in next, and format the card. Meanwhile, my images on the computer are backing up to two external drives. When done, I import into Lightroom Classic and begin cull edits.