How can an image file be in two places at once?

[robertb12343273]

I have a folder named 'DallasJan2007'.  It has a number of photos of a family event.  I also have a folder named 'FujiE550'.  It has a subfolder that contains those same photos.  I highlighted the photos in that subfolder and attempted to drag them into the 'DallasJan2007' folder and was told I couldn't do it because they are already there.  And so they are.

I don't get it. What am I missing here? How can an image be in two places at once?

[dj_paige]

You imported the photos twice. To confirm this, click on "All Photographs", turn off all filters and then search for one of these photos by file name. 

[Rob_Cullen]

If they are both seen in the catalog- another possibilty is that one folder is a sub-folder under the other 'parent', and you have the Library option set to "Show photos in sub-folders". Thus when you select the 'parent' folder it shows photos in both parent and sub-folder.

Or, you have imported the photo using the 'Copy' option, thus you have an original somewhere (not in the catalog), and the copy in the Catalog that cannot be moved to the original source folder..

[Just Shoot Me]

Or when you did import those images they were Already On your Hard Drive in the Dallas2007 folder and you had Copy Selected instead of Add at the top of the import window and in the Destination section you had it Copy those image to a folder named FujiE550 under the Dallas2007 folder.

This is a common mistake casued by NOT Reviewing all the option in the import dialog window before you click the Import Button in that window.

[robertb12343273]

I think I may well have selected Copy instead of Add.  They do seem to exist in two folders and I'm afraid to delete them from one....they don't take up much space....so I'll leave them where they are so as to not risk losing some images I do want to keep.

Thanks for the help!

[dj_paige]

If they really exist in two places, you can decide which one you want to keep and then delete the other ones. Sometimes, one version has the edits and the other version does not have the edits, so obviously you would keep the version with the edits. Once you have deleted one version, you should be able to move the other version to the folder of the deleted version, if that makes you happy.

I recommend against keeping two copies of any photo in Lightroom, as this can only lead to confusion. You edit one copy one day, and then some other day you edit the other copy, and now they don't match, and this leads to confusion.