In PSE15 Organizer, I am prevented from importing an image if it already exists in the Organizer...even when the image resides in a different folder. I often keep the identical image files in multiple folders for teaching purposes.
Mike Mc
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https://forums.adobe.com/people/MM+in+Carlsbad wrote
In PSE15 Organizer, I am prevented from importing an image if it already exists in the Organizer...even when the image resides in a different folder. I often keep the identical image files in multiple folders for teaching purposes.
Mike Mc
Mike,
The feature to prevent importing duplicates is 'as designed' since it's a major requisite for efficient organization.
Either you rely on a poor and very limited system based on folders or you use catalogs in systems like the Organizer or Lightroom.
Your personal use is one in which you want to use the same image for multiple purposes. That's where the organizer shines, without creating the dreaded duplicates which take disk space and prevent updating each duplication afterwards.
Working on catalogs with a powerful database, you store your image file physically only once. For different needs, you can:
- create different catalogs pointing to the same image
- create different albums pointing to the same image (kinds of playlists)
- assign different tags depending on your purpose in those catalogs or albums
- create stacks or version sets
- 'export as new files' outside of the catalog to create voluntarily physical duplicates in other folders.
The catalogs only keep pointers to the physical location of the image. The result is that you have a very flexible 'virtual' way to manage variants or virtual duplicates for as many purposes as you want.
Note that for the organizer, a 'duplicate' file has the same date_taken and size in KB.
https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/elements-organizer_reference.pdf
https://forums.adobe.com/people/MM+in+Carlsbad wrote
Hello MichaelBParis,
But, duplicates can be imported into Lightroom. One simply unchecks the "Don't import suspected duplicates" box during the import process. LR then tolerates the duplicates just fine, resident in different folders.
Yes, LR allows that. LR users are supposed to be more professional than Elements users and to be responsible for their own choices. It's the same with the backup strategy: LR users have the responsibility to backup their media files independently. The wise choice for Elements is to always backup the media file tree as well as the catalog. You may think the idea is to protect beginners from their errors, but the main reason is that giving the option would create a lot more work from the Adobe help team... and from volunteers like me!
On the other hand, beginners expect the program to protect them against duplication when importing from cards as well as being able to store duplicates if they want. The best advice teachers can give with Elements is to show them how to create voluntary duplicates as suggested in my previous post instead of importing duplicates.
Perhaps I should post a feature request to Adobe to allow that option in PSE Organizer. Or maybe is was already added to PSE2018?
It's your choice.
My guess is that it will never happen
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