# filter virtual copies and its master.



## samuel70 (May 25, 2020)

Hi,

Is there a way to filter virtual copies along with their masters ?

After editing a bunch of pictures I flag the keepers and usually filter and delete the unflagged ones.
Sometimes I forget to flag the master as well as the virtual copy so I have to be very careful not to delete the unflagged master as well .

Any idea on how to manage this ? (Filter tip, change my workflow,...?)

Thanks for your help.


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## Roelof Moorlag (May 25, 2020)

In the filter bar (far right) you can filter on Masters and Virtual Copies (Attribute). Is that what you mean?


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## Linwood Ferguson (May 25, 2020)

Unfortunately the "master" there is not distinguished from "only".   So it shows all images that are not copies.  If I understand what you want, I don't think you can do it except individually (find all copies, then use them individually to go find the master), at least with vanilla lightroom.  Unless you left them stacked, that makes it easier. 

There is a plugin called "Any Filter" that you might look at.  It seems you can construct pretty much any kind of query, though I find the GUI very confusing and in a brief look did not see how.   John Ellis wrote it and is around here and might chime in if he thinks it can.  @johnrellis ?


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## samuel70 (May 26, 2020)

Ferguson said:


> Unfortunately the "master" there is not distinguished from "only".



Thank you for your feedback !
You understood correctly (sorry, English is not my first language )
I guess I have to adapt my workflow a little bit and perform an extra check when I flag the keepers.
(I wish Lightroom would have a filter that combines copies and their own master or an option to get a warning when deleting flagged virtual copies.)

Cheers !


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## samuel70 (May 26, 2020)

Roelof Moorlag said:


> View attachment 14634
> In the filter bar (far right) you can filter on Masters and Virtual Copies (Attribute). Is that what you mean?



Yes, that's what I mean. 
But There doesn't seem to be a way to filter the virtual copies and their own masters altogether.


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## Roelof Moorlag (May 26, 2020)

samuel70 said:


> Yes, that's what I mean.
> But There doesn't seem to be a way to filter the virtual copies and their own masters altogether.


I would take a look at the any filter plug in that Ferguson refered to:
https://johnrellis.com/lightroom/anyfilter.htmYou can try it first


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## johnrellis (May 26, 2020)

If your virtual copies are are stacked with their masters, you can use the Syncomatic plugin's Sync Stacks Or Masters To VCs command. That will let you sync flags from the top of stacks to photos inside the stacks or vice versa.  While it can sync from masters to virtual copies, for some reason it doesn't go the other way. The author John Beardsworth also participates in this forum, so he might be able to elucidate. 

If your virtual copies aren't stacked, then Any Filter can't do exactly what you want, but it could help.  Use Any Filter to show just unflagged masters with at least one virtual copy, along with flagged virtual copies.  If you sort grid view by file name and then run that filter, you could then quickly scan the resulting thumbnails to look for an unflagged master that also has a flagged virtual copy next to it.


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## samuel70 (May 27, 2020)

I'll give these plugins a try.
Thank you all for your help.


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## MarkNicholas (May 29, 2020)

Try this. Select the relevant Masters only. Then (in LR) move them to an empty folder. The VCs will be moved together with the Masters and the previously empty folder should now contain just your selected Masters and their VCs. You can then flag them and move them back to their original location.


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## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (May 29, 2020)

> Then (in LR) move them to an empty folder. The VCs will be moved together with the Masters


AFAIK, this will add to the collection the master only, the VC will not be added, even if the master and the the VC are stacked.


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## Roelof Moorlag (May 29, 2020)

Mark did not mention collection but folder. I tried it and it works the way he describes.


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## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (May 29, 2020)

My mistake ! I should have read more carefully, sorry.


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## Linwood Ferguson (May 29, 2020)

MarkNicholas said:


> Try this. Select the relevant Masters only. Then (in LR) move them to an empty folder. The VCs will be moved together with the Masters and the previously empty folder should now contain just your selected Masters and their VCs. You can then flag them and move them back to their original location.


Perhaps I misread the OP, but I thought the issue was identifying them.  I.e. you have many images, some of which were copied to virtual copies but most not.    If they are still stacked it is easy, but if not stacked it becomes harder. You can find all the copies, but it seems tough to find the masters en mass.

The closest I can get is display all images, use the filter for attributes to find the copies and select them.  With them selected go back to displaying all images and sort by capture time which will put the copy and original next to each other, and go through by hand and add to the selection the adjacent master.  When all are selected you can then use some other code (keyword, color label, stars) to more permanently label them so you can find them again quickly to re-stack or code in whatever way desired as individual groups. 

Tedious.  I actually wished Lightroom distinguished "master" from "only" more clearly, the very light duty warning you get when deleting a master that virtual copies exist (on the same dialog you always get when deleting) is rather inadequate I think.


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## MarkNicholas (May 30, 2020)

Ferguson said:


> Perhaps I misread the OP, but I thought the issue was identifying them.  I.e. you have many images, some of which were copied to virtual copies but most not.    If they are still stacked it is easy, but if not stacked it becomes harder. You can find all the copies, but it seems tough to find the masters en mass.
> 
> The closest I can get is display all images, use the filter for attributes to find the copies and select them.  With them selected go back to displaying all images and sort by capture time which will put the copy and original next to each other, and go through by hand and add to the selection the adjacent master.  When all are selected you can then use some other code (keyword, color label, stars) to more permanently label them so you can find them again quickly to re-stack or code in whatever way desired as individual groups.
> 
> Tedious.  I actually wished Lightroom distinguished "master" from "only" more clearly, the very light duty warning you get when deleting a master that virtual copies exist (on the same dialog you always get when deleting) is rather inadequate I think.



Linwood, My work-around does just that. You identify them (master + VC) by isolating them in an empty folder (not collection).

Interestingly I used a slight variation of the method that you describe for another issue that I had. I had a folder of about 8000 low res jpegs. For around 600 of these photos (and in 3 separate folders) there were high resolution jpegs. The low and high res jpeg for each photo had the same file name. What I did was colour code the high res jpegs and give them keywords HR1, HR2 & HR3 and then put all the low res and first the HR1 photos into the quick collection and sort by file name. I then ran through manually with the spray can (different colour) locating a high res photo and then colour coding its low res associate. I then keyworded the associate LR1. I then repeated for HR2 & then HR3.  It was actually very quick and easy to check that you got them all from the filter.. It took longer to think about how to best do it and the initial trial to get the best method. Make sure the file names are showing on the photos  

I sometimes think that work-arounds are my favourite pastime in LR.


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## MarkNicholas (May 30, 2020)

Linwood, I should add that you are correct that my work- around only works if you know the masters. But if you only know the VC's you can "Set Copy as Master" to make the VC the Masters. You can then move (and therefore isolate) the masters to the empty folder. The  empty folder will then just contain the chosen photos with the VCs.


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