Excessive Copies

[Remo Nonaz]

Somehow I seem to have created at least four copies of every image in a ~300 image folder. I have no idea how I managed to do this. Many of the images are second class citizens that I have not worked on at all or put in any collections or categories.

Is there any way to go in and delete multiple duplicates? If not, is there a way to collapse the filmstrip mode so that it only shows one image with the number of copies displayed in the corner? Right now, they are all splayed out and I have ~1500 images to scroll through. 

[John Cothron]

It might be possible to delete them all from the catalog (although you may want to save changes to a xmp side-car before doing so) while leaving them on the disk.  Then you can re-import with the option of having lightroom not import suspected duplicates (I'm assuming the files have identical names).

This will not get the images from your disk of course, but they wouldn't be part of the catalog.

Then, you could (from within lightroom) actually move the images in that folder to a temp folder somewhere...the images that ARE in lightrooom I mean.  Once you do that, you should be able to delete the rest of the images in that folder at once, then move the lightroom images in the temp folder back to the original.

[aduke]

Somehow I seem to have created at least four copies of every image in a ~300 image folder. I have no idea how I managed to do this. Many of the images are second class citizens that I have not worked on at all or put in any collections or categories.

Is there any way to go in and delete multiple duplicates? If not, is there a way to collapse the filmstrip mode so that it only shows one image with the number of copies displayed in the corner? Right now, they are all splayed out and I have ~1500 images to scroll through. 

If three out of four images are virtual copies, then I know, from experience javascript:void(0); how they happen. If you have selected all of the images of  a folder or collection and move away from the Most Selected image, it is easy to miss that they are all selected. When  you then select one and make a virtual copy of it, you will create a copy of all of the images in the folder. Usually, I realize what I've done, and Ctrl/Cmd Z is your friend.

Also, if most of these images are virtual copies, then right-click and choose Stacking from the pull-down and then choose Collapse Stacks. That will, at least, get you back to seeing only the top image on the stack.

Alan

[Remo Nonaz]

Thank you, aduke. I'm not sure exactly how I did it, but I did wind up with three virtual copies of every image. I cleaned it up the hard way, which wasn't so hard, just tedious. I think I learned a little about Lr handles these, so it wasn't a total waste of time. I have noticed the contro-z does come in handy at times!

[ehackett]

Thanks for this, guys!  I did the same thing...well, one copy of each, not 3, mysteriously appeared and I have been wondering how I did it and how I might undo it.  Stacking!

Best wishes,

Ed

[aduke]

Thanks for this, guys!  I did the same thing...well, one copy of each, not 3, mysteriously appeared and I have been wondering how I did it and how I might undo it.  Stacking!

Best wishes,

Ed

Ed

Stacking only hides the extra images. It is much, much easier to get rid of them right after their creation using the Ctrl/Cmd Z (Undo) function, which will undo everything that has been done in the last operation requested.

To get rid of them later, select the folder, set a filter to show only virtual copies. To do this, there is a set of three controls at the right end of the filter bar, you can select any combination of Master Photos, Virtual Copies and Videos. If I were doing this, I would select Virtual Copies, select all images and then review all of the selected images to see if there were any that I did not want to delete and deselect those, then right click and use Delete Photo on all that remained.

Alan

[John Cothron]

I didn't realize from your first post that you meant virtual copies, that changes things up a bit

[Remo Nonaz]

Lightroom 4 Tutorial - New Files - May 5th

New videos are now in your Lightroom 4 Advanced Tutorial

To access the latest videos, use the URL from your receipt or log in at our Store

The ten new videos are contained within LR4_20.zip, LR4_21.zip, LR4_22.zip &  LR4_23.zip.

This release is principally about working in Lightroom4's  Library module

PERFECT TIMING - JUST WHAT I NEED! 

[wolfnowl]

Remo:  You may or may not know this, but in the top right of the filter bar (beside the colour bar and under the lock icon) in the Library module are three icons for Master Photos, Virtual Copies and Videos.  Clicking on the Virtual Copies will only show virtual copies in the Grid.  Now, let's say you have four virtual copies of each image, and you only want to keep one (if you don't want any, just Select All and Delete).  Adjust the zoom level of the Grid so that it's four images wide.  You should now have all of the copies for each Master Photo in one row.  Select the Painter tool and set it to Paint Rejected Flags.  Now put the can over the VC in column 2, hold down the mouse and paint down.  Ditto for column 3 and 4.  Now that all of the 'extra' copies have been rejected, you can delete them easily enough.

Mike.

[Remo Nonaz]

Mike: That is hugely useful! Thank you.

I have a lot to learn about the Library features of Lr. When I started using Lr4b back in January I was familiar with ACR, so I have no troubles with the Develop module. But the Library module is unique and complex. Which is not to say not good, it's just that it requires a knowledge level I haven't attained yet to use it efficiently.

Last night I added the Jeffrey Friedl Folder-Watch plug-in. I can't wait to see what kind of mayhem that creates in the database!