Explicitly create duplicates when/before merging catalogs

[Andras Ikladi]

Hi,

I have two catalogs that I would like to merge with some common images. Ideally, I could just "Import from catalog" and tell LR to ignore duplicates (import them as an independent image, not adjusting metadata and/or virtual copies) but unfortunately, that's not an option. To work around, I already renamed (prefixed) the images I would like to merge but they still get detected as duplicates. Other than the file name, what else do I need to make unique for this to not happen?

Thanks,
Andras

ps: I know this is not the best possible workflow but I have a good reason (external dependency) to do this

[dj_paige]

There are many options available when you Import From Another Catalog, see the list of options at item 5 under (scroll down) "Import photos from a different Lightroom Classic catalog" here in the documentation. Do any of them work for you?

[Andras Ikladi]

There is no option that I can see that both maintains metadata and physical copies. I can get all the internal LR data merged (I think) but the external dependencies I need to maintain don't allow for VC. So how?

Or to rephrase the question: how does LR identify duplicates? What exact EXIF data is used?

[dj_paige]

According to the documentation, Lightroom Classic uses this rule:

Lightroom Classic determines a photo is a duplicate of another file in the catalog if it has the same, original filename; the same Exif capture date and time; and the same file size. You can instruct Lightroom Classic to disregard duplicate files when importing.

[Andras Ikladi]

Thank you!

Hmm...maybe what I'm missing is that I modified the physical filename and I should update the filename in the EXIF data.

After some testing, seems like I cannot work around this in LR. The filename on disk was already modified before, and I I just tried to modify the capture time, add a copy name before export but they still get detected. So I think the "Original filename" field in the exif data needs to be modified too. Maybe.

[dj_paige]

May I ask why you need actual duplicate copies of a given photo when you do this merge? Why isn't virtual copies acceptable in the combined catalog? It seems to me you are about to do a lot of work, and I don't see the benefit over virtual copies.