Duplicate photo (search and seizure?)

[RHPConsult]

This helpful assembly has aided me in the past with learning how to eliminate duplicate addresses in my AddressBook, and disposing of multiple messages stashed in iPhone. I'm now wondering how to deal with duplicate photos already resident in my iPhotoLibrary.

I know about the warning when downloading from one's camera, duplicates of items already in the Library.

What I don't understand is how to rid oneself of duplicates somehow already resident in the Library. I speculate that this befell us when moving the Library around between old and new Macs, or perhaps betwen mutiple HDs. However it happened, it did. I am not able to discover any "tools" identify/eliminate these items within iPhoto.

Does anyone know of any 3d party app that perhaps might find such duplicates in iPhoto's Library?

And thank you.

[kcourt]

Actually, you have to make sure you are not deleting the photo you might have corrected -

When I recently downloaded my photos to my new iMac, some photos had several copies.  They appeared next to each other so I had to hand delete.  I made sure I kept the one that I had edited, (blemishes removed, changed color tones, eliminated spots, etc) as this took some time originally.  It also took time to delete them individually, but I did it, a few at a time, until it was done.

    It was a pain to do....

Good luck.

Kathy

[RHPConsult]

That's good advice, Cathy. I really hadn't remembered that some of the duplications are undoubtedly "edited" versions and one has to be careful not to lose the changes by trashing the wrong copy.

My bigger problem (in the Library of nearly 3500 items) are the duplicated "series" of photos, widely separated in time – for some strange reason. Some are favorites, but their "dispersion" throughout the Photo Library make them difficult to compare/identify/discard . . . except by experiencing the "pain" you describe.  

[Xairbusdriver]

Are you saying that you have duplicates of images in the "Originals" folder?! I hardly ever use iPhoto but I thought one of its advantages was that it always kept originals and any and all edits completely seprate, as in the "Originals" folder and the "Modified" folder. Maybe this is a left over system from an earlier, less intelligent iPhoto version.

Exactly where are these duplicates?

[Paddy]

This is one of the reasons I no longer use nor like iPhoto - how it catalogues is not up to you, nor can you really customize it. (I use Lightroom)

While RHP's originals should indeed be in the Originals folder, that doesn't help find the duplicates, as they're clearly not all in the correct folders by date, but, as he notes, scattered all over the place. So they're not together and there is no mechanism within iPhoto to search for duplicates by filename. (Which is truly, truly ridiculous if you ask me).

However, I'm obviously not the only person who thinks this is a serious flaw in iPhoto - someone has written a plug-in to solve that problem!

http://www.brattoo.com/propaganda/index.php

For $7.95, it sounds like it could save you a LOT of work!

[RHPConsult]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Nov 17 2009, 07:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are you saying that you have duplicates of images in the "Originals" folder?! I hardly ever use iPhoto but I thought one of its advantages was that it always kept originals and any and all edits completely seprate, as in the "Originals" folder and the "Modified" folder. Maybe this is a left over system from an earlier, less intelligent iPhoto version.

Exactly where are these duplicates?

Studied Responses:
1. Yes, exactly (In fact, I composed my plea, I thought, quite carefully in anticipation of a TeeEss inquisition!)  
2. I thought so, too.
3. Or, as I suggested – perhaps from "migrations" of various sorts between differing Macs, since the appearance of the first iPhoto in OS X .
4. Precisely when identified, above . . .  I'm now wondering how to deal with duplicate photos already resident in my iPhotoLibrary.

On the very first screen of PhotoLibrary, Event 2 and Event 3 "share" 9 (possibly) duplicate photos. That easy to fix: hose the second 9. It's the (likely) dozens of single repetitions distributed across the whole schmeer, i. e. from Event 1 through Event 264 that has me hoping to avoid kathy's accurately designated "pain(s)"

Curiously, it's having been "freed" from some of my age-related, vexing "inconveniences" of vision (via recent cataract extraction) and arthritic hands (via the new iMac's fantastic screen and it's priceless new small keyboard + its fantastic speed with SnowLeopard) that even makes this proposed clean-up seem feasible. You "youngsters" won't understand – really – but the seasoned citizens among this assembly will.

[kcourt]

  I don't understand why I had so many duplicates after uploading iPhoto to my new iMac - many are exactly the same but I had to check each one to make sure!

As for the small keyboard - what were they thinking??    

As for getting old and our various problems - yes, Virginia, we do get old and our body doesn't work as well as it did in our carefree days. but gee, I am glad I am still here - at 79!

I feel good, enjoy life and am grateful for each day!  

Paddy, I might try our suggestion - seems a great price for something that might save us hours of work!

Kathy  

[RHPConsult]

Reason Nr 3287 for: Why Techsurvivors.net is an Absolute Lifesaver, so to speak

Thank you, so much, Paddy.   Your diagnosis of my dilemma was perfect.

I hadn't seen your post before I answered ABD's

It's exactly what I was hoping someone might discover.

A "lot of work" is putting it mildly. How about eliminating worry/anxiety/distress/irritation/hemi-fury?

The testimonial on http://www.brattoo.com/propaganda/index.php describes closely my situation and what I hope will be the result.

I'll check-in here with what I find.

• • • •

Note to Kathy: If I didn't make it clear, I am genuinely thrilled how the new small keyboard somehow almost eliminates errors arising from arthritic joints. I'm almost a typist again!

[Xairbusdriver]

I think you are saying that the duplicates that you see are when using iPhoto to view your images. I was simply referring to the locations which you can see if you control-click or right-click the iPhoto Library icon. Then select Show package contents. Of course, manually 'adjusting' the items/images in the "Originals" folder may be verboten!!! Don't do that unless you have lot's of time on your hands.

Hope your 'solutions' work for you.

[Paddy]

Jim, as I pointed out, looking in his Originals folder won't help him find and eliminate the duplicates, because the originals are all sorted into folders by date. And RHP's duplicates are in different folders - for whatever reason. So, unless you have a multitude of Finder windows open and want to wade through comparing folder contents, it's not a good way of finding the duplicates. Plus, as you note, messing with the Originals folder items may confuse iPhoto.

This is what you see when you open the iPhoto Library folder and drill down into the Originals folder. As you can see - not a lot of help if you're trying to find dupes!

[RHPConsult]

I wish I knew the reason some duplicates are spread across folders from 2004 until last week!

And yes, there are "some" in the same folder, but I assume that those are ony 1) an "original" and 2->N) copies that were edited/fixed/adjusted/tuned.

And to "ressure" the reader, all we're talking about here is my iPhotoLibrary, not any of my 30+ subordinate Albums - which I have been led to believe are filled only aliases

[Xairbusdriver]

Have you, at any time, 'shared/synced' your library with your iPhone? Apparently, one can 'share' pictures from within iPhoto to an iPhone. I would think it would only be possible from with iTunes, myself, but I've never done it in any manner. The point is, after the iPhone has some of these images, it is possible to sync things the other way around and end up placing the iPhone images back into iPhoto. I know this can sometimes cause problems with phone numbers and contacts, but I thought those issues were caused by using MobileMe. At any rate, that is a possible cause. Don't do that any more!

As to finding duplicates, the only way I can see is to search by date. Keywords would be great, assuming you took the monumental effort of creating unique words for all images! And used that same word when importing them the second/third/etc. time. I didn't think you had done that, either.

The problem with searching by date, of course, is not only that you have them spread over ~5 years, but undoubtedly over many months and those dates will probably relate to when they were placed in the program not the time/date they were actually taken.

The only other way I can logically(?) think of is to export all mages (or subgroups) to individual specifically named folders (if that's even possible). At that point, hopefully, either they will automatically sort themselves by name or date. But that will still, of course, require visually scanning the list(s) for matching pairs/triplets/etc.

I don't know if you ever bought Elements, but it installs Adobe Bridge CS3 or CS4, depending on whether you have PSE 6 or 8. Bridge has vastly greater search capabilities than iPhoto (which wasn't really designed for that kind of work, to begin with) and it can look at image collections just about anywhere on you hardware. But even that searching would assume that some bit of data is similar on all duplicates and that you can figure out what that info is, fairly exactly.

[RHPConsult]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Nov 17 2009, 09:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have you, at any time, 'shared/synced' your library with your iPhone?


Yup. I have a "For iPhone" album in iPhoto. It is to that repository that I direct iTunes when syncing.


Apparently, one can 'share' pictures from within iPhoto to an iPhone. I would think it would only be possible from with iTunes, myself, but I've never done it in any manner. The point is, after the iPhone has some of these images, it is possible to sync things the other way around and end up placing the iPhone images back into iPhoto . . . .


Not likely, since my syncing is "automatic" and the number of duplicates is far less than the number of those "automatics" over the past 3 years!


The problem with searching by date, of course, is not only that you have them spread over ~5 years, but undoubtedly over many months and those dates will probably relate to when they were placed in the program not the time/date they were actually taken.


Your surmise is correct. Some photos are scanned prints from the 40s, if you can believe that. There are few if any "dates"in iPhotoLibrary that reflect anything but when down/uploaded. I have wondered frequently how that might be changed for the future, if not for the already collected/assembled past


The only other way I can logically(?) think of is to export all mages (or subgroups) to individual specifically named folders (if that's even possible). At that point, hopefully, either they will automatically sort themselves by name or date. But that will still, of course, require visually scanning the list(s) for matching pairs/triplets/etc.


I've previously made a half-hearted attempt to do that by establishing "subject-matter" albums and putting, oh perhaps, a couple of 1000 items in such cartegories, then by inspection (only) try to prune duplicates. But that only affects the Albums not the Library, of course.



I don't know if you ever bought Elements, but it installs Adobe Bridge CS3 or CS4, depending on whether you have PSE 6 or 8. Bridge has vastly greater search capabilities than iPhoto (which wasn't really designed for that kind of work, to begin with) and it can look at image collections just about anywhere on you hardware. But even that searching would assume that some bit of data is similar on all duplicates and that you can figure out what that info is, fairly exactly.


I have enough trouble divining the fundamental "features" of my PSE 6 to worry about other bells-and-whistles  I had never heard of ere this!

My present plan is to try Paddy's suggestion of This little puppy

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

my syncing is "automatic"

I never allow iTunes to do anything automatically! And if you mean you are also using MobileMe, you are flirting with danger of other content 'spawning' duplicates.

Finding duplicates of very large 'items' is not a trivial task for a computer. It cannot 'see' much of anything except the data. I see that that software looks at the data in a computer way. Possibly adding the values of bits in each row and column and coming up with a total that will very likely match only an extremely limited number of different images. Thus, any matches could easily be assumed to be duplicates, which could then be displayed for you to make the final decision of what to delete. Having a fast computer is essential, since you have thousands of images to compare. Even then, it could easily take some hours for the final display to appear. I can imagine ways that would eliminate most of the obvious non-duplicates and that could cut the search and the computations to mere minutes, but it might also miss some because the filtering criteria is not precise enough. At any rate, 8 bucks seems a very reasonable cost and well worth saving the time and frustration of doing this task manually! After all, that's why we have computers!

[RHPConsult]

That's me, all over: Danger-flirting Senior