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How do I remove duplicates in my Lightroom Catalogue?

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
April 6, 2016
4 replies
142088 views

I have merged an old Lightroom Catalogue in to my Main Lightroom catalogue and accidentaly created duplicate images, thousands of them (sometimnes triplicates), I guess I must have performed the process before, foregotten, and not deleted the catalogues I was merged after I'd merged them.... then come back and done the process again... thus creating duplicates.

My problem is I want to remove the duplicates without losing the edited versions; just those I have meged in. The folder has many subsequent images which are not duplicated , so I cant start the process again?

How to

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Correct answer Akash Sharma

You could remove Duplicates from Lightroom is by recognizing them in Grid View and deleting.

However there are few Plugins Available. Here is one http://www.lightroomfanatic.com/tutorials/advanced/finding-duplicate-images-lightroom-cata log/

Find and Eliminate Duplicate Images in Lightroom | Laura Shoe's Lightroom Training, Tutorials and Tips

Let us know if that helps.
Regards

Akash

A

arina28630140zmc3

Participating Frequently

might be this guide help you: https://www.duplicatephotosfixer.com/articles/delete-duplicate-photos-in-lightroom/

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

@arina28630140zmc3 Thanks for the link to 'Duplicate photos fixer'. I perused the site for information. It claims that it can search a Lr-Classic database, but does it indicate which of the "duplicates" it finds have had edits done in LrC?

Unless I mis-understood, it still seems to me, that any 'external' duplicate finder (not a LrC plugin) will not tell you if the image has been edited in LrC, so you run the risk of deleting photos that have had extensive editing work done in Lr-Classic.

The free plugin from Teekesselchen: is still TBMK one of only two dup finders that allows you to check the edited status of duplicates that it finds in the Catalog - before you delete them.

DUPLICATE FINDER Teekesselchen: Home (Norton reports site is unsafe- but no problems for me.)

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

A

Anonymous

Thank you very much Akash for recommending those plugins.

I digged deeper and found something too: Lightroom Duplicate Finder – Delete Duplicate Photos

This tool can compare Lightroom catalog to an external folder too.

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

@17769815 I would be interested to read your Review of this VS Duplicate Image Finder.

In particular- how it works with the Lightroom-Classic Catalog. And the 'Pro' version is needed for raw files!

I can find nothing at the Vendor site that explains the Lr functions in detail.

Running the demo version I note that it does not indicate or differentiate images that have been edited in the Lr Catalog- so it will allow the deletion of images carefully edited in LrC (all my work deleted?).

What happens when you [Perform] deletion of checked files? Are they removed from the Lr Catalog, or do they now show as "missing" thumbnails? (Demo mode will not [Perform] a Delete or Move to test. )

These are always the questions I have when reading about 'Dup Delete' software that is not specifically a Plugin for LrC.

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

A

Anonymous

I did a test - removed all EXIF data, changed the names and dates of 2 images and put some text over one of them - the tool found them as 96% similar so it definitely uses some sort of image analysis. That was enough for me to get the PRO version. I am still learning the tool as it has so many settings and features.

About your question - I persoanlly keep my edited photos in a separate folder so I do not care abour the EDITED state too much. I use multiple tools and prefer not to rely on software-specific flags like the edited state, ratings, colors, etc. I asked the support for you though and got an answer that it is already under development. Edited state will be listed together with option to tick/un-tick images based on it. ( someone had asked for it already 🙂 )

Regarding your other question I had already asked them why they do not delete the images from the catalog automatically. Currently it displays a message that reads:

"After completing your move/delete operations, perform the following actions in order to refresh the missing entries:
- Start Adobe Lightroom
- Select all catalog folders
- Select "Synchronize Folder..." from the popup menu"

They answered that they prefer not to modify the catalog directly in order not to cause any issues in LR as currently the tool supports all LR versions and catalogs.

I am really happy with the tool - the price is ridiculously low for what it offers. (I am not sure if the current 50% discount is permanent though)

The demo version is quite limited of course, but I mainly tested performance and precission and as I described above I was impressed!

P.S. It found burried images that I would otherwise never be able to spot and remove.

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

"Not free anymore.."

on the site link given above - "Free of charge"

Did you perhaps click on a link to some other software? I could be wrong if it has updated!

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

A

alexanderr40100875

Participant

Only works for LR 4 and 5. I've got 3.

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

Is v6 the same as CC?

Does this plug-in work with CC?

Am I the only person that finds it incredible that a presumably state-of- the-art, top end professional program like LR does not have a built in way to find duplicate photos, a fairly common, and very vexing problem, when hundreds or thousands of photos are involved?

The free Teekesselchen duplicate file finder plugin for Lightroom can be found at-

Teekesselchen: Home

It is working successfully with my Lightroom Classic 7.0 version (as it did for me in earlier versions)

Lightroom v6.12 is exactly the same software as the CC2015.12 CC version.

LR does not have a built in way to find duplicate photos

If you use Lightroom with the option "Don't import suspected duplicates", then the problem seldom arises. (With the exception of exported derivatives)

The Lightroom catalog is built with the premise that it only references one 'master' copy of each photo file. Having multiple copies of the exact same file in a computer is not caused by Lightroom but rather by poor data and folder management with the operating system.

Even merging catalogs seldom creates a 'duplicate' problem although the catalog may show Virtual Copies that appear as possible 'duplicates', IF you have elected to save editing data from both merged catalogs.

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

Akash SharmaCorrect answer

Legend

You could remove Duplicates from Lightroom is by recognizing them in Grid View and deleting.

However there are few Plugins Available. Here is one http://www.lightroomfanatic.com/tutorials/advanced/finding-duplicate-images-lightroom-cata log/

Find and Eliminate Duplicate Images in Lightroom | Laura Shoe's Lightroom Training, Tutorials and Tips

Let us know if that helps.
Regards

Akash

AnniewokAuthor

Participant

The one tutorial is for duplicats on the Hard Drive (original copies), is it not? And the other is only a solution if you registar buy and run a third party software solution. I was rather hoping that their may be a solution within the the Adobe umbrella of software solutions! Especailly as I can't believe I am the only person to do this. It seems a simple but very awkward problem to have accidentaly created but a very time consuming one to have to resolve, unless I am able to utilise the database management system of Lightroom?!

J

JTresor

Participating Frequently

Ditto, would think that I am not the only person with this issue...LR can see all the metadata ...why cant I get that to match up and get at least close?

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