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donnak47705876
donnak47705876
Participant
February 21, 2017
Answered

Duplicate Detection - yes or no?

  • February 21, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 1956 views

Supposedly you can select "detect duplicates" when importing.  I did this and imported images from a large directory.  All the duplicates came into the catalog?  Searching the documentation I see this

Note: The Synchronize Folder command does not detect duplicate photos in a catalog. Lightroom does not have a function that identifies duplicate files.

So, which is it?  Does LR detect duplicates or not.    I paid the $150 for LR thinking I was getting some that worked better than Apple Photos.  So far I'm feeling ripped off.  Hopefully all part of the learning curve?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer dj_paige

The quote you provide is not as clear as I think it should be, but it seems like it is saying that there is no tool to detect duplicates that are ALREADY imported. Lightroom certainly can detect a duplicate if you are trying to import a duplicate of a photo that is already in Lightroom.

Yes, I think you need a third party tool at this time.

2 replies

johnrellis
johnrellis
Genius
February 21, 2017

Note: The Synchronize Folder command does not detect duplicate photos in a catalog. Lightroom does not have a function that identifies duplicate files.

This statement in the Adobe help is incorrect. dj_paige's reply explains the actual behavior.

I filed a bug report on incorrect documentation: Lightroom: Misleading documentation on duplicate detection | Photoshop Family Customer Community . Adobe is usually very good about fixing documentation mistakes reasonably quickly.  Thanks for calling it out.

    U
    USERNAME NOT FOUND
    Participant
    February 3, 2023

    This conversation is 6 years old, but the problem persists. I can't import half of a batch from my recent vacation into Lightroom mobile because in spite of different file names, time stamps, and image content, LR has determined them "duplicates" and apparently there's STILL no way to deselect the option. I've had it rightly skip re-importing the same picture. But this is the first time it's doing it, en masse, to whole batches of pictures. Very disappointing. 

    Rikk Flohr_Photography
    Community Manager
    Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    February 3, 2023

    The option is in the Panel on the right side of this screen capture;

    Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org
    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    February 21, 2017

    Where did you see that quote?

    The normal behavior of Lightroom is to exclude duplicates, assuming you have that option turned on. Sometimes it may get turned off by accident. For a photo to be a duplicate, it has to have the same capture date and time, same file size and same original file name.

    donnak47705876
    donnak47705876Author
    Participant
    February 21, 2017

    Thank you.  Yes, I read that in the documentation.   The quote came from pg 133 of the 7/26/2016 version of the LR reference manual.  I'm using LR 6.0 downloaded from Adobe site within the last month.

    The 'gotcha' must be the file name, since I'm importing from files already saved, the file names are obviously distinct.  I was guessing the 'same original file name' refered to what the camera wrote into the meta data.  However, the only thing I see on LR panel is 'file name', not 'original file name', and of course that matches the non-duplicate name from the file system.   The names suggest that some previous photo tool (iPhoto, Picassa, or Photos) replaced the meta data to match the file name when it was written.

    If most of this is correct, then I guess I need to rely on a third party tool to remove the duplicates?  Last one I tried using on a Photos library corrupted the library causing me to embark on this laborious process of recovering and reorganizing using LR.

    dj_paige
    dj_paigeCorrect answer
    Legend
    February 21, 2017

    The quote you provide is not as clear as I think it should be, but it seems like it is saying that there is no tool to detect duplicates that are ALREADY imported. Lightroom certainly can detect a duplicate if you are trying to import a duplicate of a photo that is already in Lightroom.

    Yes, I think you need a third party tool at this time.

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