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Question

Lightroom Importing Duplicate Images

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
May 4, 2021
4 replies
3621 views

I'm having an odd issue where I get duplicates only when importing my photos to Lightroom.

Here's the story: I took exactly 300 photos on my Canon DSLR, and I imported them to Lightroom as usual. On the Import page, it showed 300 photos. However, when I imported them into Lightroom, 600 photos appeared, each with their unique name/sequence # (0001 through 0600; see attached screenshot). Every other photo is an exact copy of the previous one. I clicked on the original and the suspected duplicate photos and they each say "Original + Smart Preview" as I have it set up to do, so they don't look like virtual/digital copies. I checked my camera for a setting and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, and I checked my SD card and there were definitely 300 photos on the card. I figured it must be a Lightroom issue. The duplicate photos only appeared after I imported them to LR!

I could go and delete every other photo, but I would like to know how to avoid this in the future.

Please advise, I appreciate the help in advance!

This topic has been closed for replies.

E

esto gal

New Participant

I have the same problem with duplicate images. I have Lr Classic 11.1 and am running macOS Monterey 12.0.1. I import images from a memory card to an external hard drive and then to another external (back up) drive. When I import images to the second hard drive, I have to disable "Don't import suspected duplicates" in order for any images to be imported. I'm not building smart previews. Like the previous writer, I can delete the duplicates manually, but that's time consuming and shouldn't be necessary. I apologize if this question has been completely answered previously, but I sometimes find the threads of responses difficult to follow.

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

@esto gal You should NOT be using Lightroom-Classic to "Import" the image files to the external 'Backup' Drive.

You should-

Only use the Import once to place the files on the (primary) external drive (and index them in the Catalog), then use another Mac App to copy the files from the 'Primary' drive to the 'Backup' drive. (TIme Machine, Chronosync, etc)

You do not want, or need, the 'Backup' image files on the 'Backup' drive indexed in the Catalog.

With only ONE Import procedure you will never need to disable "Don't import suspected duplicates".

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.0, Photoshop 27.0, ACR 18.0, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0 .

kentdesign

Community Expert

As a form of testing, could you start up LR holding down the option key and start up creating a new "TESTING" catalog.

Then try importing again.

I am wondering if there is some setting that went crazy in your original catalog.

hmrakovcicAuthor

New Participant

Oh wow okay so I just did what you recommended and it imported the 300 photos normally! So weird, I wonder if there's a setting gone awry in my original catalog...

kentdesign

Community Expert

OK. So now I would suggest starting up that other catalog the one where the duplicates existed and try exporting as catalog. Give that previous catalog, The one with the problem a new name. Then try starting up that Newly named catalog,And try importing again from the card as you had done. The other option is to launch that new catalog the new test one,Where it did import correctly, And try import as a catalog and import the one that you exported with the new name. I know this all sounds confusing but I'm trying to figure out how to have you create a new catalog with all your old information and data and have it worked properly going forward. Instead of trying to track down what's wrong with your old catalog

TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

Any chance you're shooting raw+JPEG?

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

hmrakovcicAuthor

New Participant

I had wondered if I left a setting on where I was shooting RAW+JPEG, but nope I just check again and I'm definitely shooting just RAW. And the duplicate photos that show up on LR are also RAW (.CR2 files, just like the originals)

kentdesign

Community Expert

HI, I just tested the latest LR with my Mac (Catalina) and imported some Canon images. All worked as it always has.

So first a couple of questions:

Can you tell us which version of Lightroom, and which MacOS or Windows you are using?

Are you importing directly from the camera? i.e. with a cable?

Are you importing from the memory card via a card reader?

hmrakovcicAuthor

New Participant

Hi there,

My Lightroom version is 10.0, and my MacOS is Big Sur (11.2.3)

I'm importing the photos from the memory card using an SD card reader, which is what I usually do.

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