# How to find duplicates in LR catalog



## Cuzzinbrucie (Feb 13, 2018)

Operating System:Win10
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):  LR Classic v7.2

Is there a feature in LR for locating duplicate photos after they have already been imported and catalogued?


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## BigAl (Feb 13, 2018)

I've never found a specific tool for doing this, and it would be useful. One way round it is to go to Catalogue> All Photographs. This will show all the images in the catalogue. Then in the Library filter filter, under Metadata by file type, and also under Attribute filter for Master copies only. If you also order by creation date you will be able to scan through the thumbnails in the grid view. Duplicate images will now appear next to each other.

It's not perfect, and if you shoot a lot of bursts where telling images apart can become tricky it is harder. Still it gives you a pretty good idea if you have duplicate images, even where you might have changed the file name.

Filtering for file type might not always be appropriate, but I would think mostly you would be concerned about actual duplicates, rather than say a RAW and a PSD or TIFF. If you do need to look for more than one file type, don't forget you can Ctrl+click entries in the list to select multiple options. I only mention that, as it took me quite a number of years to realise you could do it.

Alan


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## johnbeardy (Feb 13, 2018)

See LrDuplicateFinder Lightroom Plugins - Duplicate Finder for Lightroom . I have never used it, and I would always prefer to trust my eyes anyway. I would rather have a few duplicates than delete something by mistake.


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## Cuzzinbrucie (Feb 13, 2018)

BigAl said:


> I've never found a specific tool for doing this, and it would be useful. One way round it is to go to Catalogue> All Photographs. This will show all the images in the catalogue. Then in the Library filter filter, under Metadata by file type, and also under Attribute filter for Master copies only. If you also order by creation date you will be able to scan through the thumbnails in the grid view. Duplicate images will now appear next to each other.
> 
> It's not perfect, and if you shoot a lot of bursts where telling images apart can become tricky it is harder. Still it gives you a pretty good idea if you have duplicate images, even where you might have changed the file name.
> 
> ...



Sorry, don't understand how to apply the following sentence to the menus/options on the LR screen. Please explain in more detail.  Thanks.

"Then in the Library filter filter, under Metadata by file type, and also under Attribute filter for Master copies only."


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## GrahamP (Feb 13, 2018)

Not a specific Lightroom plug-in or similar, but if you want to find duplicates reliably, I cannot recommend Duplicate File Detective highly enough.


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## Johan Elzenga (Feb 13, 2018)

GrahamP said:


> Not a specific Lightroom plug-in or similar, but if you want to find duplicates reliably, I cannot recommend Duplicate File Detective highly enough.


Looks like Windows only, and it does not have an option to write its findings into a Lightroom catalog.


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## Johan Elzenga (Feb 13, 2018)

johnbeardy said:


> See LrDuplicateFinder Lightroom Plugins - Duplicate Finder for Lightroom . I have never used it, and I would always prefer to trust my eyes anyway. I would rather have a few duplicates than delete something by mistake.



As the results are displayed in a Smart Collection, with matched photos grouped together, I don't think that's a big risk. You are still the one who decides what gets deleted.


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## Cuzzinbrucie (Feb 13, 2018)

Decided to use BigAl suggestion and it worked fine for me. I only had to check a subset of 700 photos and found the duplicates quickly.  Thanks.


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## PhilBurton (Feb 14, 2018)

GrahamP said:


> Not a specific Lightroom plug-in or similar, but if you want to find duplicates reliably, I cannot recommend Duplicate File Detective highly enough.


Another very powerful utility for Windows, with specific features for duplicate photos is Duplicate Cleaner Pro.  The Pro version is now on sale.

Phil Burton


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## Rob_Cullen (Feb 14, 2018)

One problem with ANY "Duplicate Finder" that is NOT a plug-in for Lightroom:  If you use the OS to delete any duplicates found, then Lightroom will continue to show Previews of all these deleted files (had they been imported). 
Admittedly you will see these previews with the "Missing" icon [!] but you will still need to remove the 'missing' previews from the Catalog Library.

Another Lr Plugin (not mentioned above, and free- 'Donate if you like' ) is "Duplicate Finder for Adobe Lightroom"
Teekesselchen: Home
Adobe Add-ons
This program works 'within' Lightroom with Search Option Preferences and adds a "Duplicates" keyword to suspected duplicate files- Delete at your leisure in Lightroom.


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## BigAl (Feb 14, 2018)

Cuzzinbrucie said:


> Sorry, don't understand how to apply the following sentence to the menus/options on the LR screen. Please explain in more detail.  Thanks.
> 
> "Then in the Library filter filter, under Metadata by file type, and also under Attribute filter for Master copies only."





Cuzzinbrucie said:


> Decided to use BigAl suggestion and it worked fine for me. I only had to check a subset of 700 photos and found the duplicates quickly.  Thanks.



I guess you figured it out, since you managed to get the job done. For anyone else who was confused by my slightly convoluted sentence I was trying to say you need to apply sorting filters, using the Library filter,  the little bar at the top of the grid display. Clicking on the Metadata option allows you to select files by all sorts of options, one of which is file type. The Attributes tab gives you options like star ratings and colour labels. At the right hand end is also an option to show only master copies. I normally use this when looking for duplicates, since I do use virtual copies quite a bit. In a search for duplicate files I wouldn't want to see the VCs.

Alan


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## Johan Elzenga (Feb 14, 2018)

I-See-Light said:


> One problem with ANY "Duplicate Finder" that is NOT a plug-in for Lightroom:  If you use the OS to delete any duplicates found, then Lightroom will continue to show Previews of all these deleted files (had they been imported).
> Admittedly you will see these previews with the "Missing" icon [!] but you will still need to remove the 'missing' previews from the Catalog Library.


And even more important: because Lightroom stores its edits in the catalog, not in the image, you'll have no way of seeing which one of the two duplicates may have the latest edits or other metadata in Lightroom. You can simply delete one of the duplicates and then delete it from Lightroom too, but that will only work if you know for certain that there are no differences whatsoever between these files that are stored in the Lightroom catalog.


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