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11-14-2015, 02:10 AM   #1
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Multiple unwanted duplicates appearing - Help.

Hi

I have experienced multiple copies of my JPG's and video's appearing in my file folders . Any ideas on why this has happened? I use lightroom for PP.

For example files appear as follows (original file followed by unwanted and unknown origin copies) in multiple folders, I have my folders organised by date. About a 1/3 (files January through to March 2015 also a couple of days in October) of my 2015 folders have been affected. 2014 Directory does not appear affected.

File:
ABCD001
ABCD001-2
ABCD001-3
ABCD001-4
ABCD001-5
ABCD001-6
ABCD002
ABCD002-2
ABCD002-3
ABCD002-4
ABCD002-5
ABCD002-6

Thanks for any help and advice. Suggestions on how to eliminate copies also appreciated.


Last edited by FreeSpirit9; 11-14-2015 at 02:15 AM.
11-14-2015, 07:22 AM   #2
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Do you manage your files with Lightroom, or do you use explorer to move/copy/delete your files?

As for suggestions on eliminating copies, something like this would probably come in handy... Yet Another Duplicate File Remover download | SourceForge.net
Just be sure that you don't delete your originals!!!
11-14-2015, 07:33 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by 12345 Quote
Do you manage your files with Lightroom, or do you use explorer to move/copy/delete your files?
I have been using Lightroom to delete some files but generally use explorer to move, copy and delete and then sincronised LR. Does this contribute to the problem?
11-14-2015, 08:14 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by FreeSpirit9 Quote
I have been using Lightroom to delete some files but generally use explorer to move, copy and delete and then sincronised LR. Does this contribute to the problem?
Recommended procedure is to import the originals to lightroom and NEVER touch them with explorer, only Lightroom. I consider jpgs to be the same as a print, multiple copies are fine, made for the purpose needed at the time. I do not catalog jpgs in Lightroom, I consider them to be disposable. If you need different versions (b&W versus color for example) use the virtual copy feature and catalog the originals. This all assumes you are shooting RAW, though the same process will work fine if you shoot jpg.

I have my original RAWs in date order by YEAR>DAY. So one folder for each day that a photograph was made. The jpgs are exported to various folders as needed, one for upload to stock agencies in the size they need, another for upload to Etsy or whatever. All of those are disposable and can be re-created by exporting them again from the collection in Lightroom. Uploads to Flicker and my website on Zenfolio are never exported as jpgs, they get uploaded and synced directly from Lightroom so no need of a local copy of the jpg.

11-14-2015, 11:07 AM   #5
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One more question, these JPG files that are showing as duplicates, are they photos that were exported from Lightroom, or are they JPGs taken with your camera?
11-14-2015, 12:49 PM   #6
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With this problem, I personally would check first:
  • Are the files really bit-indentical?
  • If yes, can you be sure they are not just links, or even hard-links? On many systems, hard-links may show exactly like real full files.
I would check this, because I once had a compiler which stored modified source code this way, to keep every modification transparent. Maybe there exist jpg-editors which act the same way. If so, this kind of handling may be configurable.

Last edited by RKKS08; 11-14-2015 at 12:50 PM. Reason: Typing
11-14-2015, 04:03 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by 12345 Quote
One more question, these JPG files that are showing as duplicates, are they photos that were exported from Lightroom, or are they JPGs taken with your camera?

JPG's taken with my camera. Nothing has been exported from Lightroom.

---------- Post added 11-15-15 at 09:07 AM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by jatrax Quote
Recommended procedure is to import the originals to lightroom and NEVER touch them with explorer, only Lightroom.
Thanks for your suggestion.

---------- Post added 11-15-15 at 09:14 AM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by RKKS08 Quote
With this problem, I personally would check first:
  • Are the files really bit-indentical?
  • If yes, can you be sure they are not just links, or even hard-links? On many systems, hard-links may show exactly like real full files.
I would check this, because I once had a compiler which stored modified source code this way, to keep every modification transparent. Maybe there exist jpg-editors which act the same way. If so, this kind of handling may be configurable.
This is a recent problem, have been using LR for over 2 years now.

The files appear to be copies as when I delete them manually they show up as the same size as the original.

I don't know how to check if the files are bit-identical. I do know that I have deleted about 20GB of copies so far over the last couple of days . Luckily there does not seem to be more copies appearing.

The majority of the files which are copies have not been modified so I assume they can't be modified source code.


Last edited by FreeSpirit9; 11-14-2015 at 04:17 PM.
11-14-2015, 06:10 PM   #8
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Set lightroom to NOT start up when a Card is inserted in your computer.

Check that your Lightroom import is set to "DO Not import Suspected Duplicates"

As mentioned earlier only use Lightroom to move images around. Never ever go into the operating system to do this. When I say never ever, I have had occasions when LR does not work because for various reasons and I had to remove certain files in Windows explorer, before LR would work. The reasons LR did not work were largely because of my previous messing around in Windows explorer, indexing files and so on. I had a lengthy thread on this a few months ago.

After copying from SD card to my hard drive, I always check the files are intact and then reformat the card in camera. Whatever backup routine use use should then look after copies in a different storage location.

Remember Lightroom does NOT back up your images it only backs up the Catalog. On this it set LR to back up the catalog regularly and from time to time optimize the catalog as well.

B+H have a good tutorial on Youtube that might be worth a look.

Good luck
11-14-2015, 07:49 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by FreeSpirit9 Quote
JPG's taken with my camera. Nothing has been exported from Lightroom.
Ok, I just wondered, because if you export multiple copies of the same original file, it will save them with a file-name sequence like that.

Now I'm curious; if you shoot JPG, and don't export from Lightroom, what do you use Lightroom for?
11-14-2015, 08:15 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by 12345 Quote
Ok, I just wondered, because if you export multiple copies of the same original file, it will save them with a file-name sequence like that.

Now I'm curious; if you shoot JPG, and don't export from Lightroom, what do you use Lightroom for?
I am still confused as to why I have copies with that file-name sequence, in some folders I only see one or two copies not 5 or 6, I also do not export from LR. Unless I inadvertently did an export without knowing...........

To answer your question I use Lightroom to import my photos from the SD card and for post processing. Once I have done my post processing (of JPG's and occasional RAW) I save my processed photo into a new folder called Processed Photos which I do not import back into Lightroom, as they have already been processed. I find that often the JPG's can be improved in PP (cropping, exposure, sharpening, S curve, etc). I try not to use RAW (except for special shots) as the file size is too big and my hard drive is too small to keep that many files on tap if I were to shoot exclusively in RAW (nice to have/do, but....), my JPG's are generally about 3-7MB in size. I am only able to keep 20 months worth of pics on my 500GB HDD. The other previous years are kept on external HDD's. So with a small disc space availability, getting a stack of unwanted duplicates is a real problem as it leaves very little room on the HDD. Both my wife and I shoot K5's so the computer we share has to cope with the needs of two photographers.

I know that I don't use the full functionality of LR, but for what I do and under the circumstances, this approach meets my immediate needs.

---------- Post added 11-15-15 at 01:16 PM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by Bruce Clark Quote
Set lightroom to NOT start up when a Card is inserted in your computer.

Check that your Lightroom import is set to "DO Not import Suspected Duplicates"

As mentioned earlier only use Lightroom to move images around. Never ever go into the operating system to do this. When I say never ever, I have had occasions when LR does not work because for various reasons and I had to remove certain files in Windows explorer, before LR would work. The reasons LR did not work were largely because of my previous messing around in Windows explorer, indexing files and so on. I had a lengthy thread on this a few months ago.

After copying from SD card to my hard drive, I always check the files are intact and then reformat the card in camera. Whatever backup routine use use should then look after copies in a different storage location.

Remember Lightroom does NOT back up your images it only backs up the Catalog. On this it set LR to back up the catalog regularly and from time to time optimize the catalog as well.

Good luck
Thanks Bruce.

Last edited by FreeSpirit9; 11-14-2015 at 08:35 PM.
11-17-2015, 11:16 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by FreeSpirit9 Quote
Once I have done my post processing (of JPG's and occasional RAW) I save my processed photo into a new folder called Processed Photos which I do not import back into Lightroom, as they have already been processed.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but when you "save" processed photos, isn't that exporting? However, if that folder is not where the duplicates are showing up, then I don't really see a correlation to your problem...

I can certainly understand the benefits of shooting JPG, I also like to sharpen/add contrast, etc on the rare occasion that I do edit JPG files. (I shoot 98% RAW, which sometimes gets to be kind of ridiculous)
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