# Duplicating photos



## annibee (Jan 23, 2019)

Hi,

I have logged onto my desktop version of LRCC and I now have duplicates of many of my images. Not just a different format, but exactly the same name and image. 

I initially started uploading my images in years from my photo library on dropbox. I then organised the images into albums and folders in LRCC (Mac).  
I also started to upload the images from my iphone directly into LR using the app. (Probably not a good idea, but, I stupidly didn't think through potential issues).

I don't see duplicates on my phone LRCC app, only on my computer. The only difference between the two files is the metadata that tells me that one of the images is in an album. The actual image doesn't seem to have duplicated in the backup folder on my hard drive.

If you organise your images into folders is it supposed to show a duplicate?
Could I have inadvertently uploaded duplicates from my phone and because the metadata is different (ie one is in a folder and one isn't) it is now showing the duplicated photo in my library?
Should I delete all the duplicates that are not in the albums or will this stuff something else up?
Thanks for your help.


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## pauljames34 (Jan 23, 2019)

Before you do anything in CC I'd say download everything using the Adobe Lightroom Downloader..


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## MarkNicholas (Jan 23, 2019)

If I were you I would isolate several photos and their duplicates by adding them to quick collection and then start investigating. You say one is in a folder and one isn't. If you right click on the photo and select "show folder in library" it will tell you which Lightroom folder it is in. If you select "Show in Explorer" (or whatever the equivalent is on a Mac) it will tell where it is on your drive.


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## annibee (Jan 24, 2019)

I tried doing what you suggested Mark, but 'show folder in library' wasn't an option on my desktop Lightroom CC when I right clicked on the image.
I also just noticed on my mobile device, the photos don't show the album info, however, on the top metadata one is marked as an original and one is a smart preview. I wasn't planning to keep originals on my device, but may have initially had this checked when I first started uploading to the cloud.


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## Robert.C (Jan 24, 2019)

Having similar problems here,and not being able to see those files in directories in CC on the Mac is one of the things I noticed first. It’s really annoying.


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## Robert.C (Jan 24, 2019)

pauljames34 said:


> Before you do anything in CC I'd say download everything using the Adobe Lightroom Downloader..



What is that? 

Thanks
Robert


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## Roelof Moorlag (Jan 28, 2019)

Robert.C said:


> What is that?
> 
> Thanks
> Robert



This application downloads all of your *Lightroom* content to your desktop computer.
Photo Editor | Online Photoshop Lightroom


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## Roelof Moorlag (Jan 28, 2019)

Robert.C said:


> Having similar problems here,and not being able to see those files in directories in CC on the Mac is one of the things I noticed first. It’s really annoying.


Maybe Lightroom Classic CC is a better option for you.


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## annibee (Feb 1, 2019)

Can anyone help with this issue? Phantom duplicates are showing in my catalogue/library exactly the same name etc. but only one image is stored locally in my originals folder. However, when I tried deleting what I thought was the duplicate, it also deleted the other one and the one stored locally. Here are screen shots.


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## Robert.C (Feb 1, 2019)

Can you show the one on the rights full info pane? It’s cut off on the bottom.
It’s the synced status that’s missing. Just want to see if that too says the sameas the one on the left
 Heading for the Bunnings Sunday sausage sizzle I see. Go Aussie.


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## annibee (Feb 1, 2019)

The only difference in the info at the bottom is the Album name in the first image, no other info. Both synced and backed up. I have noticed that there are probably hundreds if not thousands of these duplicates, but only one original file in my locally stored lightroom back up folder.


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## Robert.C (Feb 1, 2019)

annibee said:


> The only difference in the info at the bottom is the Album name in the first image, no other info. Both synced and backed up. I have noticed that there are probably hundreds if not thousands of these duplicates, but only one original file in my locally stored lightroom back up folder.



Ah, so what may be happening here. It's something I've looked at from time to time. 
There is only 1 image. It's also in an Album. (Not a folder), so when you look at All Photos, it shows up both images. The one in the Album where you put it and the view of that same image in  All Photos. If you go to its Album and display the Album set, you should only see the one image.
I think that's how it works... I'm struggling with LRCC myself! 
For example, I have this image in Three Albums. 3 - doh! Which I found by searching for the image. It only shows up once in each Album, but in all photos, I see the three images.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 1, 2019)

annibee said:


> The only difference in the info at the bottom is the Album name in the first image, no other info. Both synced and backed up. I have noticed that there are probably hundreds if not thousands of these duplicates, but only one original file in my locally stored lightroom back up folder.


Although it's possible to create copies in the LRCC desktop app, those copies will also sync across to the other LRCC apps. The fact that you don't see those duplicates on your phone, plus the fact that both copies are removed when you delete just one of them, looks like you've encountered a bug which you should report (use the link at the top of the page).

Depending on how many images you have in the cloud and stored locally, I'd be tempted to trash the local library and allow LRCC to rebuild it from the cloud. That might work, but you might prefer to report the issue to Adobe to see if they have a better way to fix things.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 1, 2019)

Robert.C said:


> Ah, so what may be happening here. It's something I've looked at from time to time.
> There is only 1 image. It's also in an Album. (Not a folder), so when you look at All Photos, it shows up both images. The one in the Album where you put it and the view of that same image in  All Photos. If you go to its Album and display the Album set, you should only see the one image.
> I think that's how it works... I'm struggling with LRCC myself!


No, it doesn't work that way. "All Photos" only ever shows the one copy of all the images, regardless of whether they're in an album or not. If two copies are being shown that'll be because the app thinks that two copies exist.


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## Robert.C (Feb 1, 2019)

Jim Wilde said:


> Although it's possible to create copies in the LRCC desktop app, those copies will also sync across to the other LRCC apps. The fact that you don't see those duplicates on your phone, plus the fact that both copies are removed when you delete just one of them, looks like you've encountered a bug which you should report (use the link at the top of the page).
> 
> Depending on how many images you have in the cloud and stored locally, I'd be tempted to trash the local library and allow LRCC to rebuild it from the cloud. That might work, but you might prefer to report the issue to Adobe to see if they have a better way to fix things.



Hi, I've found that I have to pay particular attention to the Remove Photo dialogue. One option leaves the original image on disk, the other removes it everywhere, including all devices.  I have the Preferences set to keep all images locally as well, on a second Hard Disk I have devoted to just LightroomCC. So whatever I import,  a copy gets put on the HDD, as well as going to the Cloud.
I currently have over 56,490 images collected over years and years. Some good some bad. One day I'll sort them out, but meantime moving them from Classic and scattered repositories is proving a very time-consuming process.
So I've lost a few in the process, accidentally deleted a few, duplicated a few, removed duplicates, opps wrong ones... and discovered that as I just mentioned, every occurrence of an image shows up in All Photos. Including if they are different file types. So care is needed if deleting them.


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## Robert.C (Feb 1, 2019)

Jim Wilde said:


> No, it doesn't work that way. "All Photos" only ever shows the one copy of all the images, regardless of whether they're in an album or not. If two copies are being shown that'll be because the app thinks that two copies exist.



Ah Ha. It does too. I confused myself there.  My image shows the results of a Search for that particular image. Then it shows all three in the Three different Albums.
Sorry about the confusion.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 1, 2019)

Robert.C said:


> Hi, I've found that I have to pay particular attention to the Remove Photo dialogue. One option leaves the original image on disk, the other removes it everywhere, including all devices.


It sounds as though you're confusing LR Classic with LRCC desktop. Classic does have options to either simply "remove from catalog" (keeping the file on the hard drive) or "Delete from Disk" (which removes from the catalog and deletes the file from the hard drive). LRCC has no such secondary options, if you delete the image it is removed from the cloud completely and will thus disappear from all the LRCC apps/devices (though it does NOT delete from Classic if the Classic catalog is sync-enabled).


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## annibee (Feb 1, 2019)

Some of my pairs of duplicated images are in albums but some duplicate pairs are not. I can also see the duplicates on my iPhone. However, the difference here is that one photo is marked as original and the other says smart preview.

One possible explanation?...
When I started uploading my Photos library to Lightroom on my iPhone, I started off with 'keep a copy of originals' checked. Then, after reading up about it, I decided I didn't want the originals stored on my phone so changed it to 'smart preview' only'. So maybe it added a smart preview as well? This may explain why only some images are duplicated.

Another explanation?....
Before using Lightroom, I would download the Photos from my iPhone into a Camera Uploads folder in Dropbox. However, I didn't delete these photos off my phone so may have been imported again. Though I would have thought that Lightroom would have registered they were duplicates.

If delete the Lightroom app, would this also delete any originals left on my phone? I presume when you set the app to automatically download originals it puts the images somewhere on your phone, but I can't seem to find where they are. I should then be able to reinstall in and all the photos that are in my cloud Library would reappear?


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## annibee (Feb 1, 2019)

See images...


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