Import doesn't recognize photos already in catalog

[Biscut]

Hi everyone. Recently come back from a trip with several thousand photos, I'm having an issue.

I've already imported all of my photos to Lightroom—I think. Upon connecting a CF card back to Lightroom for import, though, many (or all?) photos on the card are not being recognized by Lighroom, even though they are already in the catalog. Yes, the "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates" is checked. Some of the other cards from the trip, when connecting to Lightroom for import, result in a blank screen after the thumbnails flash on the screen, indicating they are recognized duplicates.

This problem worries me because there are well over a thousand photos on the card and I want to be absolutely sure they are all really on my computer and in the Lightroom catalog before I erase the card. Closing the import and searching through the catalog and files on my iMac, they seem to be there, though they are difficult to count and confirm because of several cameras and many folders.

Was there some sort of problem on import I missed? What can I do? Is there a way to tell Lightroom, hey, this photo is in the catalog! Are some photos there but not there somehow? Like, uncounted or won't show in keyword searches or something?

It's probably an unrelated issue, but Lightroom is also having issues with some movie files from the same camera, with the thumbnails not available during import and an error resulting in the files not being imported. I'll ask about that separately unless someone thinks this issue is related.

Any help would be very much apprecaited.

[Biscut]

Lighroom Classic 12.5

2019 iMac, Ventura 13.5.1

Canon R5

[JohanElzenga]

Hi everyone. Recently come back from a trip with several thousand photos, I'm having an issue.

I've already imported all of my photos to Lightroom—I think. Upon connecting a CF card back to Lightroom for import, though, many (or all?) photos on the card are not being recognized by Lighroom, even though they are already in the catalog. Yes, the "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates" is checked. Some of the other cards from the trip, when connecting to Lightroom for import, result in a blank screen after the thumbnails flash on the screen, indicating they are recognized duplicates.

By @Biscut

This is how it is supposed to work. The images that are already in the catalog should not be imported again. That is what "Do not import suspected duplicates" is for, and it seems to work just fine. The fact that you do not see those images flashing for a moment could be because the card is fast enough for Lightroom not to show it. I would not worry about that. It is not a feature that must happen or else there is a problem. Did you try toggling "Do not import suspected duplicates" on and off? 

[Biscut]

Thank you for replying, Johan. I guess I didn't quite explain the situation well.

Yes, I have toggled the "Do not import suspected duplicates" checkbox on and off, and this does not change the situation. It's definitely not working the way it's supposed to, hence my decision to post here. The problem is that although some photos are already in the catalog, they are still showing as ready-to-be-imported. Having the "Do not import suspected duplicates" box checked, and the New Photos (not All Photos) section at the top highlighted, the already-imported photos are shown as "new" and ready for import.

So, if I import them, I'll have 1338 duplicate files in my catalog taking up 78 GB more space on my computer.

But why doesn't Lightroom recognize that they are photos already in the catalog? And are there any consequences to that?

[JohanElzenga]

Yes, this is a known issue. This happens from time to time, usually if you have renamed the photos. The consequence is that you'll have duplicates, that's all. For me it's a reason not to rely on this feature and reformat my card as soon as I have imported the photos and have backed them up.

[Biscut]

All right, thank you. Just something that can't be helped then I guess.

I didn't rename any of the photos. I guess I will just assume that all of the photos have imported properly and delete the card for future use.

I was especially worried whether all of the photos were indeed imported because there were other import issues. This was a new camera and I didn't yet have a card reader (for CF type B cards). I imported by cable directly from the camera, which was slow with a set of 128 GB cards. One or two of the imports were interrupted (seems the camera battery expired during the hours it took to process) and had to be redone. Now, when I go to confirm all of the photos are imported, I get this issue on one of the cards for 1338 photos. Anyway, I guess I just hope for the best and trust they are all there.

[Suzanne Mathia]

Lightroom will append a -2 to the file name of a suspected duplicate. Once you have determined that they are in fact dupes you can sort by filename contains -2 and delete them easily

[JohanElzenga]

Lightroom will append a -2 to the file name of a suspected duplicate. Once you have determined that they are in fact dupes you can sort by filename contains -2 and delete them easily

By @Suzanne Mathia

That's a good idea, but remember that this only works if you import them by copying into the same folder. The -2 is not added by Lightroom, but by your OS, because it does not allow Lightroom to overwrite files.

[Suzanne Mathia]

ah yes. Thanks Johan