Duplicate photos "1 of 2" and "2 of 2" in Lightroom Classic 9.1

[Joakim_R]

Hello, folks

I've long had these weird duplicates on a lot of my photos in Lightroom Classic. Can't remember when they first showed up. Two thumbnails next to each other: "1 of 2" is of the processed image and "2 of 2" is of the original photograph. Haven't been THAT much of a problem.

Until I installed LensTagger and found that this extention can not edit these files. (I want to add the lens info to shots taken through my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART lens.)

Why does this problem exist?

The images are all in the cloud; can I delete them from the computer and re-sync them from the cloud? If so, I'm scared to delete them because I don't want to accidentally remove them from the cloud too. I'd like instructions.

Thank you

Joakim

[richardplondon]

Sounds as if you have Virtual Copies, which are each in a stack with the respective master image. 

LensTagger does not work with Virtual Copies because the idea is to write current metadata out to file, externally alter the lens metadata which is part of that, and then read the metadata back in. With a Virtual Copy you cannot do that. So if you want, you can "switch master and copy" such that your virtual version becomes the master version, which then can participate in LensTagger. 

If you are not aware of Virtual Copies and/or are not aware of what Stacking is, I suggest it is worth finding out and becoming more in control of what is going on. E.g. the free Adobe instructional videos, or even just Lightroom Classic Help, are well worth some study IMO. One cannot necessarily assume that the same working concepts one is familiar with from using other software, will transfer the same into Lightroom Classic. A large part of its power comes precisely from NOT operating in the same manner, as typical software does.

[Joakim_R]

Hi Richard, I think I recognize your face from other replies I've seen!

Thank you, I'll certainly look into Virtual Copies. I hope it answers any follow-up questions, or I might return.

Joakim

[cmgap]

You'll know if they are virtual copies  by the title - it will say Copy 1, Copy 2 etc and also there  will be a page turn in the bottom left corner of the thumbnail.

[Joakim_R]

Yes, those are indeed Virtual Copies. But deleting them creates a problem. I deleted the virtual copy of an expendable photo I had, and all my edits were deleted with it. Therefore, the trick of filtering all my Virtual Copies and deleting the lot of them won't do any good.

Or have I misundertstood something?

Joakim

[richardplondon]

If the Virtual Copies have edits that you want to keep, then you should not remove these. My suggestion was only to SWITCH which is the master copy, and which is the virtual copy, for a given photo - Library / Photo menu / "Set Copy as Master".

Once your chosen version, with the edits that you want to keep, has become the master - you can use LensTagger with that. Of course, doing so before any virtual copies get made, would have been more efficient.

LR can be set to automatically "stack" different image versions. Having multiple virtual copies of a given photo is perfectly fine - is often actively useful. Each one can be managed, developed, printed, exported etc independently so far as LR is concerned. Only in a few aspects, LensTagger being one, is there any practical difference between master and virtual versions.

[Joakim_R]

I thank you for your help. But the problems are compounding.

I deleted my local library off my harddrive and reinstalled LR Classic in an attempt to re-sync the whole thing from the cloud to perhaps have them sort themselves out (although I realised later that I could simply have kept the images on the drive and dragged-and-dropped them into LR). This didn't work. There are now Virtual Copies showing up in the grid in my CC apps too (desktop version, web version, iOS version).

And about half of my almost 2,500 photos are Missing Photographs, meaning they show in the LR Classic grid, and are even editable, but they aren't on the harddrive.

And - to the original problem - the copies that are called Virtual Copy have edits and I can't delete them. And the copies that are called Original can't be deleted without the Virtual Copy being deleted with them.

As you can see, I need to regroup and perhaps deal with other problems here first. I'm a little confused.

[cmgap]

You can copy and paste the edits to the original and delete the copy.

[Joakim_R]

That's an option, except there are a few hundreds of them. But I'll keep it in mind.

[AxelMatt]

Do you has edit this picture in Photoshop. When you saved in Photoshop the picture imported snd stack automatically in LR.

[Joakim_R]

I have not edited these images in Photoshop. But I can’t tell you why or when they stacked, it’s been some time.

Joakim

[Joakim_R]

I used my iPad version of Lightroom and did it all manually; deleted all duplicates I could find, did I.

It was surprisingly easy, I just kept my eyes open for photos that looked the same and I checked the Photo Information layered on the thumbnails to make sure they were indeed take at the same second.

Thank you all for your help.