Catalogs Remove duplicate images and subfolder they are in?

[fsphoto]

Lightroom Version Number

9.4

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Trying to clean up and better organize my catalog before upgrading to 11.1
I have several instances of the following issue.
As an example:
Parent folder named Alaska with 3000+ images>Subfolder also named Alaska with 258 images.
I want to remove the subfolder and keep the parent folder.
When I try to move the 258 images from the subfolder into the parent folder, I get an error message saying that the files already exist in the destination.

I have tried to remove the images in the subfolder since they are apparently already in the parent folder, but the images in the parent folder get removed also.

How can I remove the duplicate images in the subfolder and remove the subfolder without affecting the images in the parent folder?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[PhilBurton]

As a first step, compare the parent folder and the subfolder to see if there are in fact duplicate image files.

 

[Califdan]

First of all (temporarily) turn off the "Show images in subfolders" option. This is found in the in the "Library" menu. Once you do that the count of images on the parent folder will no longer include images in the sub folders and if you click on the parent folder you will no longer see images that reside in sub folders. Now you can see which images are actually in the parent folder and which are actually in the sub folder. Select thoes in the sub folder and drag them to the parent folder.

If you get the same message it means that on disk the images are in both folders (even though LrC's folder panel my not show the version in the parent folder as they may not have been imported). To correct this, Go to Finder or File Manager and delete the versions in the Parent folder. Then using the LrC Folders panel you should be able to drag the images form the sub folder to the parent folder.

Once the subfolder shows 0 images you can remove it from LrC. However this does not remove it from the file system. Use Finder or File Manager to delete it from the file system after assuring that it is indeed empty.

 

[John Little]

To correct this, Go to Finder or File Manager and delete the versions in the Parent folder.

Wouldn't it be prudent to check whether one or both of the images has been edited in LR before deleting either one? Or would LR no longer consider them duplicates?

 

[PhilBurton]

Wouldn't it be prudent to check whether one or both of the images has been edited in LR before deleting either one? Or would LR no longer consider them duplicates?

Totally agree here.

 

[fsphoto]

Firstly, thank you all for your help!
I did check further before deleting any images and I discovered that the duplicate images are not duplicates. They are images shot with 2 different camera bodies, Canon 40D and 5D, but somehow they have the same file names.
So, for example, I have a Parent folder named Alaska with image # _MG_1343 shot with a Canon 40D and image # _MG_1343-1 shot with a Canon 5D. The Subfolder also named Alaska has an image#_MG_1343 shot with the Canon 5D.
The images shot with the Canon 5D, file numbers _MG_1343 and _MG_1343-1 are in fact the same image.
How or why this happened I do not know, clearly I made some bad choices when I imported the images many years ago. Is it a coincidence that images shot with 2 different model camera bodies have the same image numbers? I don't know, but I will try to figure it out.
My goal is to organize my catalog properly and efficiently, perhaps I need to rename the images in question and then put them all in one folder, or have subfolders according to camera model?
I would welcome any suggestions.
Thank you all again for your help!

 

[Califdan]

Maybe didn't explain well. My "solution" assumed that your "check" after changing setting concluded that to LrC image was ONLY in subfolder and not in parent but got error message when trying to move to parent thus implying that on disk a copy was also in Parent. In this case, LrC does not know about the version in the parent folder so it can't have LrC updates applied to it.

Shooting with 2 bodies from the same vender is likely to result in duplicate file names (one from each camera) on the same shoot. This is one of a few situations which are a good reason to rename files on import. In Canon cameras you can tell the camera how to name files or you can use a file rename preset in LrC during import. The key is to imbed somethuing in the file name that indicates which camera it came from. I shoot wiith a Canon 5d Mark III and 7d Mark II. I reanme files by replacing the "IMG_" in the file names with either 5dk3 or 7dk2 depending on which camera I'm importing.