kellyp30297607 wrote Hi, I'm new to elements and tried importing my photos into the organizer. I ended up importing like 36000 images. They are all scrambled and duplicate, completely out of order, just a mess. I want to delete everything out of there and only import photos from my memory cards, but I can't figure out how to delete and start over. I need to know how to select more than one folder as there are a ton and then delete them. Not sure if there is a way to just clear organizer. Any help would be great. Thanks! |
In short, all you have to do is to start a new catalog, delete the first one and import your folders selectively into the new catalog.
In more details:
- You don't clear the organizer, you delete a catalog. The catalog does not contain photo files, only links to their location on your computer (drives, cards, DVDs...) It looks like you have used the default 'bulk import' which has registered (indexed) all the image files present on your computer (except duplicates, more on this later).
- I assume the 'Import' process has scanned all your computer for this with many unwanted files. The process filters (does not import) what the organizer considers as 'duplicates'. The criteria are: same size in kilobytes, same date_taken. The first one found is imported, the following with the same criteria are skipped. Other real duplicates not strictly having those two criteria are imported (visual similarity, slight difference in metadata or different time zone...)
- Deleting thousands of files from the organizer is very, very slow and often fails even if you have plenty of RAM. If you have to clean up your catalog, do a test to see how many you can delete without the process aborting (several hundreds?) and do it as a night task. Also consider 'hiding' files instead of deleting. The lesson is that in your case, starting with a new empty catalog will be faster and better quality wise.
- Managing duplicates is not a simple task and there are many discussions about it in this and other forums. Let's compare what specialized softwares can do and what the organizer offers. External programs (some are free, but beware adwares or worse) have various criteria to search and delete on your WHOLE computer. The organizer has two useful features: its duplicate filetering (see above) and the 'visual search' for duplicates. If you choose an other software, run it before attempting to import your files.
- When you decide to import selectively, folder branch by folder branch, chances are that you'll select the meaningful ones first. Real duplicates will be skipped. The result is generally that you get a relatively clean catalog. Many duplicates are still on the disk but no longer in the catalog. A search for visual duplicates is then possible. If you want to delete the duplicates left on your drive, there is a solution. You do a full backup of the catalog and restore on a new master folder on one of your available drive (internal or external).
You can then delete the files from your OS (explorer/finder) easily. You can restore your backup in the original drive if you want.
Back to the way to delete your present catalog: the organizer can work only if there is a catalog chosen. First create a new, empty catalog, then from the menu File >> manage catalogs... use the delete button to delete the former one.
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