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Is there a way to compare folder contents?

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rc.harris

New Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2021
Messages
4
Lightroom Version Number
11.1
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
I would like to compare the contents of two folders - to identify photos which appear in one but not the other. Is there an easy way to do this?
 
One way to do that is to temporarily mark each folders photos with a separate label colour. Then create a collection and add all the photos of both folders into it. So you will see together there all the photos from both folders, easily distinguishable by label colour. You can sort these photos on the grid by capture date or filename etc if that helps to group and compare them. Or use the Library filter to view only the photos of a certain file type or camera model.


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Try Beyond Compare, from www.scootersoftware.com . It's my "daily driver" for this sort of utility. Great interface, lots of display options.
 
I am a big fan of Beyond Compare. Use it for lots of different scenarios. It is available on Mac and Windows. Use the Folder Compare Option. The interface is fairly intuitive, but time spent getting to understand its various features will be rewarded.

If using the synch or copy features to copy images from one folder to another then you can subsequently use the Lr Synchronise Folder option to import the images. However, if you move or delete files outside of Lr, using Beyond Compare, then the usual painful experience of dealing with the mess created will follow (ie use the copy rather than move or delete features). Consider your own approach as to how you wish to deal with duplicate images in your catalog.
 
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In recent years, folder comparison has become a feature in more backup programs, so if you use a robust backup utility, check it to see if already has that feature. In backup programs you might not see folder comparison as a top-level feature, but as a necessary part of other features such as previewing a backup, or previewing sync in one direction or the other, so you can see what the folder differences are before some files are replaced or deleted during the actual action.

Just remember that, as already noted above, any kind of folder modification outside Lightroom Classic will break links to those images in the catalog. Of course it would be much nicer if Lightroom Classic had folder comparison built in, but it doesn’t… So for now, Y.K’s solution is a clever way to get it done inside Lightroom Classic.

If there are not a lot of differences, like just a few images, the best thing to do is go into the Lightroom Classic catalog and manually reconcile them there. For example, if you discover two duplicates, you want to see in Lightroom Classic if one has better edits or more complete metadata than the other, then you know which one is better to keep. An outside application won’t know those things, and might delete the wrong one.
 
I am a big fan of Beyond Compare. Use it for lots of different scenarios. It is available on Mac and Windows. Use the Folder Compare Option. The interface is fairly intuitive, but time spent getting to understand its various features will be rewarded.

If using the synch or copy features to copy images from one folder to another then you can subsequently use the Lr Synchronise Folder option to import the images. However, if you move or delete files outside of Lr, using Beyond Compare, then the usual painful experience of dealing with the mess created will follow (ie use the copy rather than move or delete features). Consider your own approach as to how you wish to deal with duplicate images in your catalog.

One way to do that is to temporarily mark each folders photos with a separate label colour. Then create a collection and add all the photos of both folders into it. So you will see together there all the photos from both folders, easily distinguishable by label colour. You can sort these photos on the grid by capture date or filename etc if that helps to group and compare them. Or use the Library filter to view only the photos of a certain file type or camera model.


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Thanks all!!
My challenge was comparing the content of folders maintained within the lightroom classic world. So Y.K.'s color label approach sounds like an eloquent solution to comparing two lightroom folder contents - I'll give that a go. PhilBurton - Beyond Compare sounds like a great tool outside the lightroom world. I'll keep that on my list of useful utilities. As Conrad suggested - I might end up "breaking" links in the folder content maintained within lightroom if you used it beyond discovery!
 
[ ...] PhilBurton - Beyond Compare sounds like a great tool outside the lightroom world. I'll keep that on my list of useful utilities. [ ...]

I selected BeyondCompare because it was a lot easier to use than similar utilities. Much better interface, lots of options for display and actions.

Beyond Compare allows manual synchronization of folders. For automatic synchronization of folders, on the same system or on different systems, I use the paid version of www.goodsync.com.
 
I also use Beyond Compare, but a quick and dirty alternative if there are not too many folder is to use FreeCommander XE. It will quickly and easily compare two folders and highlight the different files.

--Ken
 
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