Problematic Duplication after Rearranging and Consolidating File System

[calicarson]

Ok guys, I've got a weird problem.

So up to a week ago, my photos were spread out all over my system, some imported by Canon EOS, some by Lightroom and some by iPhoto (gross! I know). Anyway, last night I said "enough is enough" and had LR import all photos from disk and rearrange them. All the photos are now rearranged on my disk and present in my library, but I've got two new (related) problems:

See my attachment for a somewhat useful graphic demonstration of my problem.

1) Lightroom is still looking for duplicates of some old photos in their original location (iphoto library, etc.). In other words, as I'm scrolling through my library, I'm seeing duplicate thumbnails, sometimes separated by 1' or 2' other photos in the sequence (the sequences themselves repeat). One copy has the "missing file" question mark and the other is the full photo.

2) The "missing file" copy has my Keyword data (and perhaps my developing data, too), while the copy linked to the actual photo doesn't have any LR metadata.

If I can't figure this out, I can always delete the catalog and retag and redevelop everything, but, obviously that'll be a huge headache. (although I have to admit even that would be worth it now that all my files are in one place and one program.)

Ideally, LR would realize that the photos are the same (same thumbnail and file name) and correct the problem. Less ideally, I could transfer the tags to the "live photos" and manually delete the evil twins.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[johnbeardy]

Re-import is very often not the solution.

Depending on how many duplicates you have, you could select each one with the question marks and its newly-imported pair, run Sync Metadata, then delete the missing one. You'd have to fix each pair individually.

Alternatively, take a step back (ideally to a backup of the catalogue before you re-imported) so you no longer have the newly-imported copies in your catalogue. Now fix all the question marks by clicking the missing folder, and if that doesn't work by clicking the question on the thumbnail (my Missing Files plugin will help you whittle them down ).

John

 

[sizzlingbadger]

Did you have missing files before you started ? You may have moved the files outside of LR using Finder and then re-imported them thus getting two copies, one (the original with metadata) which no longer has a file to reference. If this is the case then it maybe be better to go back to an older copy of the catalogue and start again. Import all the files that are not already in LR. Then move and create folders from with LR only and this will keep track of all the images properly.