davidp

Over the years I've done a horrible job of storing my pictures. I have so many duplicates saved in various folders. I read about "Duplicate Photo Fixer" that claims it can help with this problem by deleting duplicates. Of which I have many. Has anyone ever used this program? Or does anyone have any suggestions of how to deal with a ridiculous #of duplicate pictures in many different files. It isn't necessary to tell me how dumb I was to get to this point I know that already!
Thanks

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

In Adobe Lightroom, you can "stack" duplicates into one catalog image, so they don't clutter the universe.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I would advise caution here.

The first question is "what is a duplicate"?
Do duplicates consist of two or more files with the same file name?
Do duplicates consist of two or more files with exactly the same content, regardless of their file name?
Are two files duplicates even if they have the same image, but different sizes?

So how exactly does the "Duplicate Photo Fixer" work? What does it consider duplicates? Does it's definition of duplicates coincide with yours?

When it finds duplicates, which ones does it delete? (hopefully not all of them)

davidp

Great questions!

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

1. your images are not in the programme you use to view them. They are where you store image files on your drive.
2. you will have folder names for each image 'set'....'holidays' at or simply a date (When you 'collected' certain files together(by year?)

3. Take the opportunity to review your pictures and delete duplicates and crap from each file and 'move' things into a useable new format (so you can find them) Send copies to family, friends, organisations as you 'think' who might like them.

4. at some point 'someone else' will look at your images.!!!!What is worth them keeping.....be highly critical...not just bloody minded. Too many images and they will discard the lot.

There isn't a really easy way....because AI cannot read your mind.
Have fun

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

About 5 years ago my organization of photos was a real mess. I had retired so I had some time over the winter (not retired from the farm in the summer). I had all the photos in Lightroom so I could sort by date in the metadata (except for a few scanned images). I generated one Lightroom catalog for each year and started sorting from the earliest year. The first few years I could go through 2 or 3 years in a days work. In later years, when I got going with digital photography I had thousands of images each year to be sorted so it could take a week or more for some years. (I wasn't working on it 8 hours a day, just as time permitted). Overall it took maybe 2 months to get everything sorted. In the process I added keywords in Lightroom to all the remaining photos.

It got done, but I had to set myself to the task and keep at it. It was worth it. YMMV.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

The OP didn't say whether he was using Lightroom, or how he was viewing his photos or how he expected to organize them. But you do bring up a couple good points which I will reiterate.

Send copies to family, friends, organizations you thing might like them. Spreading the wealth is probably the best way to archive your images.

At some point someone else will look at your images. I use two organizational methods, one is Lightroom which I can use to find keyworded images in less time than it takes to type the keywords. The other is to put meaningful names on your files. Lightroom is great for me because it's so easy to find things. But when I'm gone, my family (none of whom uses Lightroom) would be unable to find anything. For that reason I put a short descriptive text in both the file name and the folder name. That way my successors will be able to find things using standard computer search methods.

And I agree that if presented with too many images to look through, most people will punt and bin the lot.

gmango85

I have used this app for a year and it does a good job. Just be carefull of jpeg and raw files, and slighty differeent variations, hencw I reviewed each match to make sure they are "duplicates". Note I do not do a good job of storing my pictures.

JeffR Loc: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Try “Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder.” It’s free and you can get it at http://www.duplicate-finder.com/photo.html.
It doesn't automatically delete anything -- I would NEVER allow that. It shows both photos side by side with data regarding file size and resolution, so that you can make the decision. The settings allow you to search for 100% identical photos, or for similar photos, and it's analyzing the image itself, not just name or metadata. I’ve used this terrific piece of software for years and love it.

davidp

thanks

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Tried it out and it looks pretty good. You give it a folder and it samples all the photos in that folder and subfolders and reports on those that are similar. Tried it on a folder with a mixture of images and text files and other stuff. It found about 950 images and took about 5 minutes to look through them all and compare them. I had a mixture of image sizes in there from different sources and it found what I would consider identical images from different sources with different sizes and gave them a fairly high (>80%) comparison number. I suspect that if your images are large it will take longer and if they're all small it will be quick (but I didn't try experimenting that way).

When it goes through everything it makes a list, shows two files and their comparison and allows you to (1) do nothing; (2) move either one; or (3) delete either one. I had a pair of photos of a room, one with the window open and the other with it closed. Otherwise they were pretty much identical. It rated them 30% similar. Other pairs that were the same image with different sizes had similarities of 60-80%. The same image with brightness adjusted had 60-80% similarity.

It's in my toolbox now.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

There are many free utilities available online that will delete any kind of duplicate file with the same name as those saved.
Regardless of what program you use, be sure to save a backup before you do any kind of deleting/reorganizing. >Alan

jcboy3

If it doesn't use other parameters such as size, creation date, modification date, then you risk losing a lot of files. Every time you reset your file names, you will generate duplicate file names.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

when using a duplicate photo file finder, first I want to see both pics side by side, then I want to see both filenames, ( I add suffixes for certain things I do to a pic) Then I want to be able to click it to see it full size Also The ability to delete whole directories and last two clicks to delete a pic, a delete button and are you sure button ( just in case) and speed.
I haven't found a program that does all that. Im currently using awesome photo duplicate finder. its slow, and it wont let me see directories the way I want and it doesnt showme afile name, it may cause I havent played with it much. but it does everything else I want.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Yes, it's slow. But it's comparing the contents of large files so that's understandable.
When I tried it, I saw the photos side by side, I could click on the photo and see it full size, The list of duplicates showed the filename and path immediately below the pair of photos being compared.

I haven't done much research into duplicate finders but this one seems to do what I might need. Of course I've only been using it for an hour or two at this point.