lwebb1508

Q: How to bulk delete duplicate photos in iphoto?

My Iphoto on my mac contains multiple duplicates of my photos.  I assume this is because of automatic syncing with my iphone,

so I have turned of the sharing until I figure it out. 

But is there a way to get rid of all the duplicates quickly without going through them all??

Thanks!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 2, 2013 9:46 AM

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Q: How to bulk delete duplicate photos in iphoto?

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Oct 2, 2013 9:51 AM in response to lwebb1508
    Level 10 (84,170 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 2, 2013 9:51 AM in response to lwebb1508

    That is not a feature of iPhoto - suggest to Apple - iPhoto Menu ==> provide iPhoto feedback.

     

    iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ -  or Duplicate annihilator are good tools for doing this

     

    LN

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Oct 2, 2013 10:03 AM in response to lwebb1508
    Level 10 (140,898 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 2, 2013 10:03 AM in response to lwebb1508

    You can use one of these applications to identify and remove duplicate photos from an iPhoto Library:

     

     

     

     

    OT

  • by AnneMack,

    AnneMack AnneMack Jan 3, 2014 5:12 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 3, 2014 5:12 PM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks !  I will make a suggestion for deletion of photo duplicates.

    I have this problem too as I have downloaded iphone photos due to phones crashing etc., making sure we didn't lose the photos.  Although they were in the icloud stream, I do like to have a backup when a device has a problem.

    Solution for us now is something I read online by a blogger is to download monthly and then create monthly events then create albums from events for more organization and to help with duplication.  Just have to clean up the old stuff and make those backups on external drives.

  • by Kurt Triffet,

    Kurt Triffet Kurt Triffet Jan 29, 2014 6:14 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (94 points)
    Jan 29, 2014 6:14 PM in response to LarryHN

    iPhoto from Apple -$14.99

     

    iPhoto Library Manager-from a third party - $29.95

     

    Go figure ;-)

     

    Using the free iPhoto Remove Duplicates script on mine right now.

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jan 29, 2014 10:55 PM in response to Kurt Triffet
    Level 10 (139,475 points)
    iLife
    Jan 29, 2014 10:55 PM in response to Kurt Triffet

    iPhoto from Apple is at a reduced price that is subsidised by hardware sales. It competes directly with Picasa - subsidised by advertising giant Google - which is free.

     

    iPhoto Library Manager is not subsidised by anyone, is the work of a solo developer who has figured out a way to add value to using iPhoto.

     

    Quite clever, really.

  • by Kurt Triffet,

    Kurt Triffet Kurt Triffet Jan 30, 2014 9:08 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (94 points)
    Jan 30, 2014 9:08 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    It's basically a $30 fix to a big problem that hopefully Apple will one day will address. I'd even pay a couple bucks more to have the program right.

     

    More power to the guy for being able to capitalize on Apple's oversight. :-)

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jan 30, 2014 9:36 AM in response to Kurt Triffet
    Level 10 (84,170 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jan 30, 2014 9:36 AM in response to Kurt Triffet

    actually it is not a big problem - iPhoto is very good about keeping duplicates out so few people have this issue - duplicates in iPhoto are strictly caused by user actions importing things multiple times or other user errors like importing one iPhoto library into another one (which should NEVER be done)

     

    and IMHO everyone should have IPLM around - it is a great utility for making better use of iPhoto - it is NOT a fix for duplicates although it can do that

     

    LN

  • by Kurt Triffet,

    Kurt Triffet Kurt Triffet Jan 30, 2014 11:46 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (94 points)
    Jan 30, 2014 11:46 AM in response to LarryHN

    Since you cannot bulk delete images from an iPhone unless you copy them down into iPhoto and put them into a folder (at which point you are allowed to delete those originals), it's very easy to accumulate duplicates when you sync. This can snowball into a bigger problem later.

     

    Judging from all the pages on dealing with removing duplicates that come up in a Google search, it's enough of a problem to have paid more attention to.

     

    People should often not do a lot of things ;-), but unless effort is made to make it intuitive and easy to avoid an issue, these kinds of user problems will always occur. Apple is usually quite good at this, which is why I might give them less slack ;-)

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jan 30, 2014 11:48 AM in response to Kurt Triffet
    Level 10 (139,475 points)
    iLife
    Jan 30, 2014 11:48 AM in response to Kurt Triffet

    Since you cannot bulk delete images from an iPhone unless you copy them down into iPhoto...

     

    Whoa there, yes you can. You can do it on the Phone and you can do it with Image Capture (in the Applications Folder)

     

    Apple provide two ways to do it.

  • by Kurt Triffet,

    Kurt Triffet Kurt Triffet Jan 30, 2014 11:58 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (94 points)
    Jan 30, 2014 11:58 AM in response to Terence Devlin
  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jan 30, 2014 12:34 PM in response to Kurt Triffet
    Level 10 (84,170 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jan 30, 2014 12:34 PM in response to Kurt Triffet

    Humm - now that you posted that article I see clearly that your question is about how to give up photos you love of your grandkids - rather than what you originally ask of how to get rid of duplicates - My answer is simple - don't - keep them all - that is why I have 65,000 photos (more than double the grandmother's iPhoto size)

     

    Basically to the revised question is only you can decide what to keep[ and what to get rid of - but looking thorough them to decide is fun

     

    Enjoy

     

    LN

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jan 30, 2014 12:35 PM in response to Kurt Triffet
    Level 10 (139,475 points)
    iLife
    Jan 30, 2014 12:35 PM in response to Kurt Triffet

    I don't get your point? With respect, the fact that a blogger couldn't figure it out means.... a blogger couldn't figure it out. The point is that you don't need to import the images to iPhoto to delete them.

     

    You're welcome.

  • by Kurt Triffet,

    Kurt Triffet Kurt Triffet Jan 30, 2014 12:54 PM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (94 points)
    Jan 30, 2014 12:54 PM in response to Terence Devlin

    I was merely pointing out that the solution is not as obvious as you'd like to think it is.

     

    Love a link to the solution, BTW :-)

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jan 30, 2014 1:38 PM in response to Kurt Triffet
    Level 10 (84,170 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jan 30, 2014 1:38 PM in response to Kurt Triffet

    You can do it on the Phone and you can do it withImage Capture (in the Applications Folder)

    and again yoru question has morphed from duplicates to photos of grandkids you shoudl give up but can't to how to delete photo on an iPhone - which does not involve iPhoto for the Mac in any way

     

    LN

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