P: Import is creating OS - level duplicate files named (-2) when using Devices rather than Files

I noticed there are questions about the details:

- I use a 100 MP medium format Fuji camera and am shooting RAW (RAF) that have about 200 Mb file size

- I transfer from SD card directly (not via camera)

- Always updating to latest LrC (currently at 11.3.1)

NOTE: Eventhough the camera settings are exactly the same I do not see this issue with my Nikon full frame camera.  I am assuming this has something to do with having large file size. 

When I transfer images into Lightroom Classic, I get multiple copies (same file type i.e. RAF).  Anyone else experiencing this bug as well?  Any fixes?  Comments and suggestions are highly welcomed.  Thanks 🙂

That workaround might be easy for you, but I shoot with 3-4 cameras and take thousands of shots per shoot, and sometimes two of the cameras end up with overlapping filenames. Then I have to rename some of the files before I copy them to the same folder for import, so some don't get overwritten. The process gets very messy, it's easy to make errors, and it takes twice as long as it should (extra hours, not extra minutes). I have accidentally lost important images in the process, which never happened before this highly-disruptive bug crept in.

The problem is happening on a clean installation on a brand new computer, just as it did on my old computer. Somewhere in that time, things have gotten even worse.

When Rikk FLor said "sporatically" he was saying he could only reproduce it sporadically in his testing. It is apparently happening regularly on some people's set ups. If you have tried deleting LRC, deleting the cache and associated system files, and then reinstalling. Try running a test import. If it still continues, then you need to find a comfortable workaround for now. I have always first copied from the card to a folder on the desktop. THen I "copy or copy as DNG" to my lightroom Catalog and the permanent destination image folder/drive. And so far, no duplicates.... just a suggestion!

It does not happen "only sporadically" for me. The problem first began a year or more ago. At first, it only happened with files imported from a Micro SD card used in my drone. Recently, LRC duplicates every single file imported from any memory card. This happens on every single import. You're welcome to do a remote session to see it in action.

The workarounds that I've discovered are to either 1) copy all images first to a local volume, then use the Add tool on import (versus Copy), or 2) to add the files to an existing LR-cataloged folder, then use the Synchronize tool. I believe the problem lies in the Copy tool, which is unfortunately very important to simplify workflow.

Apparently this duplication upon import issues happens sporatically and only for some users. Rikk Flohr, the ADobe Photography advocate has been looking into this for all of us. If it were consistently reproduceable, then we would already have a fix. Here is what Rikk said, "

Opened new bug for investigation. Issue is still not reproducible save very sporadically. In months of attempting to reproduce, it has only happened to me once and was not repeatable. 
Previous bug was only partially related to this failure. "

I didn't mention that I'm referring to Lightroom Classic

I, too, have been having this problem for over a year now. Even on a brand new computer with a fresh installation of LR 11.3.1, it happens everytime I import (copy) from a removable card. See attachments.

The only workaround I have found is to manually copy all the images to a folder to non-removable media, then Add the contents from Import, or to Synchronize a folder. The bug exists in Copying from removable media.

I have a Sony 7R3 and 7R4. I shoot only RAW, and import into LR Classic 11.3. This has worked well for years.
However, recently, SOME imports (not all, sometimes on the 7R3 and sometimes on the 7R4, with no pattern I have discerned), every image is duplicated in LR…?
 
That is, one image will be xx_001, then the exact same image will be xx_002. The next image (second on the SD card) will be both image xx_003 AND xx_004, etc.
 
When this happens, I have to scroll through all the images, rejecting every second image, then deleting all rejected images. Needless to say, on an import of 1000 images, that is a RPITA… 
 
Is this a known bug on the current version of LR? I think this started with the latest update, though I cannot be absolutely sure of that. We are now traveling in Bali, so I don’t have all my tools from home to investigate further.
 
Oh yes, this is on a 2019 Macbook Pro, fully maxed out, running OSX 12.3.1.
 
Also, there are about 4000 images in the current catalog. This started happening on my main catalog of 400,000 images, so I broke off, started a new catalog, and have 4000 from the past weeks of traveling (Turkey, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Borneo, Bali). Same behavior in both catalogs.

I tracked this down a bit two days ago using MacOS 12.3 and LrC 11.3.1:

• I imported from an SD card to a folder. The 'treat jpeg next to raw as separate' preference was NOT checked, i.e. there should have been 7 NEF+JPEG pictures in the LrC folder.
• I had checked to eject the card following the import and LrC reported that it had ejected. When I pulled the card out after that message, MacOSX griped about illegally ripping out a disk... Not sure what LrC believes it ejected...
• Instead of 7 there were 14 pictures in the LrC folder, NEF and JPEG separate.
• I looked around, checked and unchecked the preference — no result.
• I synced the folder and LrC griped about 7 missing pictures (all JPEGs) which I let it remove. Now there were 21 files on disk: seven NEF, seven JPEG, and seven -2.NEF (the infamous duplicates). I'm not sure just exactly what was 'missing'.

Next  I renamed the folder in LrC and imported again:

• First I toggled the preference a few times and left it unchecked, i.e., NOT treat as separate.
• Then, when I looked at the import preview, there were 7 pictures, all NEF (previously there had been 14, NEF and JPEG). Following the import I have 7 NEF+JPEG pictures in LrC and 14 files on disk (NEF and JPEG separate).

At least in this sequence things went wrong when I synced the folder and let LrC remove the missing pictures, and I think it all started because LrC ignored the preference during my first import.