Problems with synchronizing, duplicates and renaming

Same HUGE mess of umpteen folders, but three NEW bizarre problems...  I need a really good answer that'll get this working...

I've got a setup now with year folders from 2006 to 2022, holding around 30,000 images.  Now we've get to get all the OTHER folders imported into the years.

PROBLEM 1

This morning, doing a Synchronize Folders showed X number of images import.  Clicked the show import dialogue and started the sync.  It did the metadata update, then should have opened the import dialogue.  Instead a partial spinning circle where the folders were, that stopped after half a rotation, and the normal “busy” rotating circle for the curso.  Never opened, never finished, just hung.  Crashed LR, retried a couple times.

And YEAH, since I KNEW the first thing somebody in here would say was “delete the preferences” I did.  Other than screwing up most things that were configured it did NOTHING.

Tried again on a different folder.  Worked FINE.

Tried another folder, got the same thing - no import dialogue, hung Lightroom, had to crash it.

If I DON’T tell it to display the import dialogue, it proceeds to import the images just fine.

Doesn’t seem to matter if it’s three images to import or 500, almost all the time, it hangs Lightroom.

That’s problem ONE.

PROBLEM 2

As I understand it, Lightroom thinks every image in the entire catalog will be unique.  HOW does it decide what “unique” is?  Is it JUST the filename?  Is it the filename and date?  PART of the filename?  Something else?  'Cause it's NOT working currently using the filename...

In this catalog, there are MULTIPLE occurrences of a filename.  They shoot Sony so the filename is something like DSC1234.ARW, and this image in the 2016 folder.  You import another bunch of images, and there’s a DSC1234.ARW going in the 2020 folder.  They’re NOT the same image, they're YEARS apart, but they have the same name.

HOW do NORMAL people handle this – people that DON’T rename every image they shoot?  In this system there are often at least THREE images with the same name in different years.

What’s BEEN happening is we find one of the umpteen folders of images and import it into the correct year.  BUT, a bunch of images fall OUT because they’re duplicates.  The “don’t import duplicates” gets turned OFF because they’re NOT duplicates, they’re DIFFERENT images with the same filename but years apart in the capture date.

So HOW do y’all handle the problem – rename every image?  Something else?  And how do NORMAL people without the expertise in here do it?  'Cause I don't see the people I'm helping having ANY clue about renaming images on import...

PROBLEM 3

In THIS case, I have a bunch of images that actually ARE duplicates going into the 2008 folder – it’s a very SMALL folder of 8 images, so it’s perfect to experiment on.  I elected to rename the images, which is where the NEXT problem showed up.

I created a preset to put a six-digit year (YYMMDD) on the front of the filename, followed by an underscore then the “Original Number Suffix”.  When I used this on one of these Sony images, DSC12345.? Instead of getting 161013_12345.jpg or ARW or psd, I got 161013_2.jpg or whatever.  EVERY TIME.  I absolutely CANNOT get Lightroom to use the original filename OR THE “Filename Number Sequence” - it will NOT put the number from the filename into the renamed image.  What I FINALLY did was use the WHOLE filename.  So, the rename is 161013_DSC12345.jpg.  Which works, but it’s ugly and longer than needed.  But I haven’t been able to get anything ELSE to work.

NOW comes the REAL fun.  In the 2008 folder of 8 images I have DSC12345.ARW.  In the 2020 folder I ALSO have DSC12345.ARW.  Same EXACT name, 4 years apart.  I attempted to IMPORT a DSC12345.ARW that matches the one in 2008 – it’s the same image.  It IS a duplicate.  Lightroom removed it from the import display as it should.

I RENAMED the 8 images in the 2008 folder so they looked like 080512_DSC12345.ARW.  I tried the import AGAIN.  And again, Lightroom said I had a duplicate – I PRESUME this time it was complaining about the one in the 2020 folder.  I renamed the DSC12345.ARW in the 2020 folder to 200419_DSC12345.ARW and a check of the ENTIRE catalog shows NO OTHER IMAGES WITH  DSC12345 ANYWHERE IN A FILENAME.  So importing an image named DSC12345 SHOULDN’T have a problem – RIGHT?

It does.  Lightroom STILL turn the image off EVEN THOUGH there’s NO duplicate filename in this catalog.

WHY ISN’T THIS WORKING?  Does the import object to a PARTIAL match on the same date?  What IS it doing?  The whole point of doing this is so we can be SURE when an image is shown as a duplicate that it actually IS a duplicate.

How DO I get this to work?