Discrepant photo count on Finder vs LRC (more in Finder)

[Nancy Everds]

Lightroom Version Number

15.0.1

Operating System

1. macOS 15 Sequoia

I have recently been going back to some old photos, and noticed that, in some folders, there are many more image files in the folder (as seen on Finder) compared to those counted by LRC. My search in finder is limited to images, and they are all jpgs, raw, and psd files. For example, the year folder 2010 has 11.019 images in LRC (in subfolders) and the same folder has 14,708 image files on finder. Of the folders I've checked, most are not this disparate; this is the largest discrepancy so far. I have been meticulous for many years about always deleting (not just removing from LRC). I suspect that whatever happened occurred many years ago, perhaps during import or when I was a neophyte with LRC. What is the best way to find and either eliminate or import these files. Is it as simple as synchronizing the folder (or perhaps each subfolder)?

 

[clee01l]

I have recently been going back to some old photos, and noticed that, in some folders, there are many more image files in the folder (as seen on Finder) compared to those counted by LRC. My search in finder is limited to images, and they are all jpgs, raw, and psd files. For example, the year folder 2010 has 11.019 images in LRC (in subfolders) and the same folder has 14,708 image files on finder. Of the folders I've checked, most are not this disparate; this is the largest discrepancy so far. I have been meticulous for many years about always deleting (not just removing from LRC). I suspect that whatever happened occurred many years ago, perhaps during import or when I was a neophyte with LRC. What is the best way to find and either eliminate or import these files. Is it as simple as synchronizing the folder (or perhaps each subfolder)?

The Folder pane counts are limited to image files that have been imported into the LrC catalog Finder includes all file and need to be sorted on kind to get a group of just images.

In Lightroom you can Synchronize the folder to see if there are unimported images,
The best way to remove them from the filesystem is to use the synchronize folder function to identify unimported image fileImport them and if you wish delete them from the catalog and system folder.

 

[camner]

You also might consider labeling all of the newly imported (via Synchronize Folder) images with a color label so you can readily see which images were already in the catalog and which were not. That way you can filter on the color label and go through them and mark as deleted any that you know you don’t want.

Also note that if you have “Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates” CHECKED, after your Sync Folders process there still could be images in Finder that are not in LrC, because some of the files in the folder synchronized were duplicates of images already in Lightroom.

 

[Califdan]

Thirdly, the LrC folders panel count VC's (virtual copies) and these are not physical files so nothing Finder knows about.

 

[Nancy Everds]

Thanks for the comments.
--I filtered by images (and also checked extensions and for videos in Finder, so I think it's an accurate count.
--Thanks for confirmation that synchronizing is the best way to resolve.
--I always have the "don't import suspect dups" button checked, but it's always good to be sure.
--Labeling the newly imported files is a super idea. It will make sorting this out much easier.
--I have very few VCs, but if I had a lot, LRC would have more files than Finder, which is the opposite.
It'll be interesting to see if I can figure out why some files are outside of LRC.

 

[Nancy Everds]

I've done some next steps:
I picked a folder without too much of a discrepant count to start with so that I could try synchronizing.
Here are the numbers:
Folder 2005:
Finder says 7732 image files (images only, no movies present)
LRC says 7390.
I clicked on synchronize folder and got the dialog box.
Dialog box says 32 new photos. I clicked on show import dialog first, and there was a brief flash of several images, and then only one file showed up that said it was corrupt. What are these 32 files?
Dialog box says 65 missing photos. I clicked on show missing photos. None of the missing photos have an exclamation mark in the thumbnail. I checked 3 of the missing photos, and 2 were present in the folder according to finder (same name, same file type).
Any thoughts?

 

[John R Ellis]

Dialog box says 65 missing photos.

The missing-photos count of Synchronize Folder has long been broken, giving spurious counts. Ignore it. Adobe fixed one bug a couple years ago, but another one popped up:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...hows-photos-as-missing-lr-14-4/idi-p/15384516

To find missing photos, do Library > Find All Missing Photos.

 

[John R Ellis]

In Library, make sure the menu item Library > Show Photos In Subfolders is checked. If it isn't, then the counts shown in the Folders panel exclude photos contained in subfolders. Whereas Finder always searches subfolders.

 

[camner]

You might try doing the sync process with “Don’t import suspected duplicates” UNchecked (don’t worry…you don’t have to actually perform the import…you can cancel out once you get to the Import screen). See if the number of images LrC finds to import is greater than when “Don’t import suspect duplicates” is CHECKED. If so, you probably have files in that filesystem (Finder) folder that are copies of images that are already in LrC.

 

[Nancy Everds]

The missing-photos count of Synchronize Folder has long been broken, giving spurious counts. Ignore it. Adobe fixed one bug a couple years ago, but another one popped up:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...hows-photos-as-missing-lr-14-4/idi-p/15384516

To find missing photos, do Library > Find All Missing Photos.

I did not know this--thanks. Library>Find All Missing Photos says none missing.

In Library, make sure the menu item Library > Show Photos In Subfolders is checked. If it isn't, then the counts shown in the Folders panel exclude photos contained in subfolders. Whereas Finder always searches subfolders.

Yes, I only have photos in subfolders (by date), so I leave that checked.

You might try doing the sync process with “Don’t import suspected duplicates” UNchecked (don’t worry…you don’t have to actually perform the import…you can cancel out once you get to the Import screen). See if the number of images LrC finds to import is greater than when “Don’t import suspect duplicates” is CHECKED. If so, you probably have files in that filesystem (Finder) folder that are copies of images that are already in LrC.

Great idea. About 32 photos showed up. These 32 images do not explain the 310 file difference, but it's a place to start. These were in a subfolder of 2005 in Finder that does not show up in LRC. Can I delete this folder in Finder (thus breaking the "do everything in LRC" rule)? Or should I import into LRC then delete? I also see other empty folders in Finder that are not in LRC. I assume I can also delete those in Finder...correct?

 

[camner]

I did not know this--thanks. Library>Find All Missing Photos says none missing.

Yes, I only have photos in subfolders (by date), so I leave that checked.

Great idea. About 32 photos showed up. These 32 images do not explain the 310 file difference, but it's a place to start. These were in a subfolder of 2005 in Finder that does not show up in LRC. Can I delete this folder in Finder (thus breaking the "do everything in LRC" rule)? Or should I import into LRC then delete?

If the folder with the 32 images also contains images that are tracked in Lightroom and that you want to have in Lightroom, and/or contains images that are NOT in Lightroom that you want to have in Lightroom, then deleting those 32 in Finder, while certainly doable, could be a bit risky (prone to human error….mistakenly deleting a file you didn’t intend to delete).

A safer approach would be to perform this two-step process:

1. Run Synchronize folder on the folder in question, with “Don’t import suspected duplicates” CHECKED. When you get to the import dialogue box, if you wish you can examine the images Lightroom is planning to import and uncheck any individual images you don’t want to have imported (alternatively, if there are too many to check right now for desirability, just import all of them and put them in a new collection for later examination and possible deletion).
2. Run Synchronize folder again on the folder in question, with “Don’t import suspected duplicates” UNchecked. Don’t bother to take a look at them in the import dialogue step… Just import them all. This could result in some duplicate images in Lightroom, of course. Then click on Current Import (this special collection is called either Current Import or Previous Import, depending on when you are looking at it in relation to when you did your last import), select all of them, and delete them from the disk (not just remove from the catalog).

Oh, I forgot a crucial step 0: make a backup of your catalog before doing this.

The fewer the number of images in the folder, the safer I would feel just doing it in Finder… The larger the number of images in the folder, the safer I would feel doing the two step process described above.

I also see other empty folders in Finder that are not in LRC. I assume I can also delete those in Finder...correct?

If a folder is both (a) empty when viewed in Finder and (b) not in LrC, yes, you can delete it in Finder. In fact, you must. If you remove it from within Lightroom, all you’ll do is remove it from Lightroom…the empty folder will still remain in Finder (I believe…I haven’t checked recently).

 

[Nancy Everds]

I deleted the 32 files in finder. I also (1) deleted folders in finder that didn't show in LRC and (2) deleted folders in LRC that were empty (that deletes them in finder as well, by the way). I looked at all the files in Finder (all files greater than 1 kb; there were none less than 1 kb)
Current list of files (only other files in finder are xmp). You can see the discrepancy is in JPGs. When I click on synchronize, there are no files to import.

Type	LRC	Finder
TIF	10	10
PNG	1	1
JPG	1108	798
RAW	6415	6415
PSD	166	166
Total	7700	7320

Thoughts about next steps?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

You can see the discrepancy is in JPGs. When I click on synchronize, there are no files to import.

Don’t you think that is as expected? Lightroom Classic knows more images in this folder than there really are, so why would it show files to import? What it should show is ‘missing’ files (the surplus jpg’s) and offer to remove these from the catalog.

 

[Swingman]

I deleted the 32 files in finder. I also (1) deleted folders in finder that didn't show in LRC and (2) deleted folders in LRC that were empty (that deletes them in finder as well, by the way). I looked at all the files in Finder (all files greater than 1 kb; there were none less than 1 kb)
Current list of files (only other files in finder are xmp). You can see the discrepancy is in JPGs. When I click on synchronize, there are no files to import.

Type	LRC	Finder
TIF	10	10
PNG	1	1
JPG	1108	798
RAW	6415	6415
PSD	166	166
Total	7700	7320

Thoughts about next steps?

Your first post implied d you have fewer files in LrC. Now the table shows other way around? May be somethings a miss?. May be you have duplicates in LrC or multiple versions?

 

[clee01l]

Are some of the JPGs imported as SideCar files to the associated RAWS?

 

[Nancy Everds]

Are some of the JPGs imported as SideCar files to the associated RAWS?

So sorry----headers flipped on table. 1108 jpg in finder, 798 jpgs in LRC. All other image counts the same.
I've been reading through some of the historical LRQ forum posts and I think you are right, Cletus, I have some embedded sidecar jpgs that are likely the problem. Way back when, I had a first gen Rebel, and a person on a photo trip leant me their higher end camera which must have been set to saving both RAWs and JPEGs.

Interestingly, no matter how I set up my search in LR, I can't bring up just the files with RAW+JPEG (any searchable field, file name, contains, contains all, etc). With the letters CR2 or CR2+ in the search criteria. I get the same files, both CR2 plus CR2+JPEG files. That means it's hard to confirm that the discrepant number is fully explained by the CR2+JPEG files, but it likely is. I see some old comments about writing code to ID these photos, but I think I'll pass unless there is a straightforward way in LRC.

Two other interesting points:
The +JPEG notation shows up in the file name location in the metadata, but I don't think it's not part of the name really, since it doesn't show up in finder.
I also found THM files in finder. I read a very old message (I think from Victoria) that mentioned THMs being generated by Canons in the early days.

 

[clee01l]

I also found THM files in finder. I read a very old message (I think from Victoria) that mentioned THMs being generated by Canons in the early days.

The THM files are separate Thumbnail files. I don't think either Lightroom or Finder considered them images