Lightroom 2.3 duplicate folders / duplicate images /

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emul

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[FONT=&quot]I am running LR2.3 on Vista. I have somehow ended up with two "catalogs" for 2''9 photos. Folders under the 2''9 top level are duplicated and the possibility is that I have been working on photos in different catalogs. Checking the catalog "optimize and relaunch " all appears fine.

How do I "combine" the two catalogs to ensure that I have all amendments that I've done?

Any idea how I've created this monster?

Thanks for your time and support

As a picture paints a thousand words
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3442229787


[FONT=&quot]and as you can see 2''9-'4-'1 contains 9 pictures in one catalog and 62 in the other!

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]In LR clicking on properties brings up the same disc location for both.I have also tried:

[/FONT] 1.Selected all the photos in "wrong" dragged thumbnail to "right" folder. Got a move on disk reminder clicked ok. LR message - file already exists in this location - stops move

2. Right mouse clicking on top level 2''9 (not under pictures) allows option to "add parent folder" - doing this I end up with two top level Pictures each containing a 2''9 - clicked undo on this

I have tried dragging the 2''9 (wrong) to pictures\2''9 - LR will not do this.

I also, as a test, deleted a photo from the a 2''9 wrong folder. The photo shows in the good as offline or missing now, proving that they are at least pointing at the same location on the hard disk

I created a folder in lighroom called 2'1' under pictures. In explorer eoin\pictures\2'1'.

I moved in LR folder 2''9-'1-'1 from the 2''9 (not pictures\2''9) to 2'1'. Now in LR pictures\2''9 shows folder 2''9-'1-'1 with a ?

[FONT=&quot] Apologies for the long post, this is a combination of posts from a Q&A over on the LR forum on Flickr.

Any ideas how I can combine the images in the different folders? It appears from reviewing the contents that I've deleted images in the different folders & worked on them!!

Thanks

emul
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I certainly can't answer all of your questions ... however, to combine the two catalogs, you would import one catalog into the other. Use File->Import Catalog.

How did this happen? Well, there's no way to be sure, but duplicate images and folders with question marks usually occur because people try to move photos and folders in the Windows or Mac operating system. The easiest way to prevent these from happening again is to simply stop moving photos and folders in the operating system, and only move them using Lightroom's folder panel.

I also suspect your workflow could be streamlined somehow to take advantage of Lightroom, but without more information about your workflow, I can't be sure.

I am impressed that you have a 2'1' folder. You are way ahead of most of us.
 
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Paige

Thanks for the response. I have done a search and only have the one catalog. I can export any of the folders as a catalog.

I have been very careful NOT to move any of the folders outside LR as I am aware (from other users) of the issues that this can cause.

My workflow tends to be very simple
1. LR Import from SD / XD to folder in yyyy-mm-dd format
2. Process pictures

I have obviously, mistakenly, processed the "same" image from different folders.

The Q now is how to combine the two and more importantly ensure that this doesn't happen again.

Emul
 
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My only comment is that if your workflow is really that simple, there shouldn't be any duplicates. Either there is something you didn't tell us, or you did things you don't realize (and we probably can't help you with that).
 
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Paige, I referred emul here from the Flickr Lr forum. I couldn't get to the bottom of his/her probs over there, and I wasn't getting much member help there either. The 2'1' folder :) came after I asked him to create a new folder just to move some files to as an experiment.
 
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I have covered everything I know and that I am aware of. I'll post to adobe forums. Thanks for the input

To me having work in software industry and being relatively tech savvy it looks like a bug and I believe that there was a bug in earlier version of LR 2.x with "ghost folders".

My main concern is how to eliminate this issue, combine the folders and get rid of the issue.

I am thinking of export all the images as DNG to new folders, combine / eliminate duplicates and re-import into a new LR 2.3 catalog.

Thoughts?

Emul - Eoin (he)
 
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Let me say that deleting within a Lightroom catalog and re-importing is rarely a good solution to Lightroom problems. You lose your edit history, stacks, virtual copies, collection membership and perhaps stars and colors when you do this. And you may lose your metadata if it is not written to the original files.

If you simply want to remove certain folders and leave others, in Lightroom move your photos to the folder you want to keep, and then delete the newly empty folder.
 
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My understand is that all the changes I've made, processing / development get written to the DNG file with the metadata. True? In this case I reckon that while loosing stars (not a great issue) I can clean up the issue and ensure changes I've made are retained.


Eoin
 
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If you delete a file and re-import, the final edited state of each photo is available upon re-import, but not the sequence of editing steps. Also, depending on settings in Lightroom, any metadata you have entered for the photos may or may not be available upon re-import.

As I said, in general fixing problems by deleting and reimporting is not a good method, if other methods are available.
 
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Paige

You'll have to forgive me but I don't understand what other methods will work

1. Both the 2''9 folders in LR are point to the same directory on HDD, and therefore to the same images

2. However there are duplicate images in the these duplicate folders which in some cases have processing done etc

3. The folders contain different number of images

Moving a file from one folder to another results in an error "file already exists on disk", which of course it does .... LR just has two pointers to the same folders / images.

It is possible that I won't be able to export the images as I'm basically trying to export the same thing, will test on a folder with a single image - nothing to lose

Eoin
 
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First, make sure all of your metadata is written to the files.

Duplicate folders ... you need to delete one instance of the folder, and then in the other instance of the folder, you would right-click on it and select synchronize folder (this adds every photo in the folder into your Lightroom catalog, if it isn't already in your Lightroom catalog).

I think this eliminates the duplicate photo problem, as now there should be only one instance of each photo. If before you make this change, you have different edits of the same photo, I have no idea what will happen. I don't think realistically there is a way for Lightroom to combine your edits.

I suggest you make a copy of your catalog file before you make these changes in Lightroom (just in case you need to undo the process).
 
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I find it quite bizarre that LR would allow 2 folders with the same name in the first place (unless they were in separate hierarchical folders). Without being able to see a screen shot it's hard to see exactly what's happening.

I tried to create a folder with the same name as one that already exists and LR tells me the files are already registered and refuses to create a new folder with the same name.

If it is indeed the case then I personally would be wary of keeping the catalogue as it may well have some kind of corruption. I think I would create a new catalogue, import the photo's and take the hit with anything I lost with regards to ratings etc.. This is not ideal as Dj has pointed out but at least you will have a 'known state' to work from in the future.

I recently re-created a fairly small catalogue from scratch and the biggest pain was re-creating the collections :x

as an aside.... I lost my custom crop settings too (no big deal but I was surprised they were part of the catalogue as most other settings / pre-sets / templates are not)
 
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sizzlingbadger;427'3 said:
If it is indeed the case then I personally would be wary of keeping the catalogue as it may well have some kind of corruption. I think I would create a new catalogue, import the photo's and take the hit with anything I lost with regards to ratings etc.. This is not ideal as Dj has pointed out but at least you will have a 'known state' to work from in the future.
Click to expand...

Blowing away your catalog and re-importing everything should be the absolute last resort. And it affects every folder, not just the two folders that are the problem. A lot more than just ratings are lost when you do this. Do not do this at this time.

sizzlingbadger;427'3 said:
I personally would be wary of keeping the catalogue as it may well have some kind of corruption
Click to expand...

It could also be some sort of bug in Lightroom and the catalog file itself is fine. There are several possibilities. Let's not jump to conclusions.
 
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I agree... but if the catalogue is small it could be the easiest option, it will depend on the circumstances. The catalogue I rebuilt was only about 1''' images so it didn't take long.

A bug in Lightroom could have corrupted the catalogue but it's hard to see how the catalogue could be ok and the problem is only in LR.
 
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sizzlingbadger;427'9 said:
A bug in Lightroom could have corrupted the catalogue but it's hard to see how the catalogue could be ok and the problem is only in LR.
Click to expand...

In earlier version of Lightroom, a known bug made "ghost" folders appear, and the catalog was fine. There is no way of knowing if the bug was completely fixed or not.

I continue to assume that the catalog is not corrupt. If you think you have a corrupt catalog, then the first thing to do is Edit->Catalog Settings->Relaunch and Optimize.
 
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I understand, but that is not what we are seeing here. Re-launch and Optimize is also no guarantee that the catalogue is ok.

I'm just trying to give some options that *may* be useful. They don't have to be followed if the circumstances don't apply.
 
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sizzlingbadger said:
I understand, but that is not what we are seeing here. Re-launch and Optimize is also no guarantee that the catalogue is ok.

I'm just trying to give some options that *may* be useful. They don't have to be followed if the circumstances don't apply.
Click to expand...

Try "synchronising" the Pictures folder.
 
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Now I have seen the images with the problem it makes more sense. You have created a 2nd 2''9 folder (probably accidentally at some point) at the top level. Dragging all the sub folders from the top level 2''9 directory to the 2''9 directory under 'Pictures' (if possible) creates a problem in deciding which duplicate is the one that contains your updates. Quite a messy task ahead by the looks of it.
 
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Yes, I have had this problem as well a couple of times. It is a bug. I did find a solution though.

1 - If you place a dummy picture in the folder on the physical drive(without importing into lightroom)
2 - Then synchronize the folder that you want keep in Lightroom. It will fix the two folders merging them together(and import the dummy picture)
3 - Then just delete the dummy picture using lightroom.

Probably not in the manual, but it worked for me with several duplicates I had.
 
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One thing to be aware of - the Synchronize command allows you to delete missing photos and import new photos, which can create even more of a mess. Before you do anything major like that, make sure you have catalog backups.
 
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Sorry for delayed response

If you look at the pictures again not only are there two 2''9 "parent" folders there are also duplicate date folders .... with different numbers of images in each. I can see how you could possibly create two 2''9 folders (use a different card reader!!) but to duplicate the sub-folders I can't fathom.

Synchronise throws up an interesting issue

clicking on top level 2''9 = Import new photos - 863 all other '
on pictures/2''9 = Import new photos 1279, remove missing = 44

@Evan will try your suggestion, after a backup!!
@Brad will follow up - thanks

Eoin
 
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