Freddie2014

Q: How do I de-duplicate Photo's in iPhoto?

I know I have around 3,000 digital photo's on my MacBook Pro. For some reason, the computer has generated multiple copies (sometimes as many as 8!) of exactly the same photo and now tells me I have somewhere in the order of 19,000! The computer has also generated photo's of each of the faces in each of my photo's, this is on top of the exact duplicates.

 

Have asked Apple 'Genius' at an Apple Store and he was both confused and confusing in his answer so basically I would like to know how to de-duplicate (and Trash the 'faces' photo's. Any ideas would be gratefully received. PS I am not that computer literate so please keep your answer simple and precise. Thank you in advance - Freddie2014

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), How do I de-duplicate photo's in iPhoto

Posted on Jan 21, 2015 7:34 PM

Close

Q: How do I de-duplicate Photo's in iPhoto?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jan 21, 2015 10:28 PM in response to Freddie2014
    Level 10 (139,470 points)
    iLife
    Jan 21, 2015 10:28 PM in response to Freddie2014

    Where are you seeing these duplicates? In the iPhoto Window? Somewhere else? It's important, as there can be different versions of a photo that look similar but are not actually duplicates.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jan 21, 2015 10:37 PM in response to Freddie2014
    Level 10 (84,073 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jan 21, 2015 10:37 PM in response to Freddie2014

    what has recently changed? Have you by any chance imported an old iphoto library (Note: You NEVER import an if library)

     

    LN

  • by Freddie2014,

    Freddie2014 Freddie2014 Jan 22, 2015 12:20 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 22, 2015 12:20 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    The photo's are both in iPhoto and I can see in All My Files.

     

    I have not imported an old photo library although I do have the same problem on my iMac desktop machine (the two are linked by WiFi)

     

    The only thing Apple said that I could understand was 'don't worry about it. The amount memory I have used up is tiny'

     

    But this doesn't help. I like to have a tidy place and it annoys me I have in some case 8 copies of the same pic!

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Jan 22, 2015 1:12 AM in response to Freddie2014
    Level 10 (105,357 points)
    iLife
    Jan 22, 2015 1:12 AM in response to Freddie2014
    Have asked Apple 'Genius' at an Apple Store and he was both confused and confusing in his answer so basically I would like to know how to de-duplicate (and Trash the 'faces' photo's.

    iPhoto creates smaller versions of the photos you import for a speedier performance when you browse your iPhoto library or share your photos in the Media Browser. Previews, thumbnails, Faces thumbnails.

    These smaller versions are required and you must not delete them using the Finder. If you try, you will corrupt the library or at least slow down iPhoto to snail's pace, because it will need to recreate them with each launch.

     

    There is a hack to disable Face detection, described by lopezio

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/24149461#24149461

    Dec 30, 2013 6:06 PM

    Re: Iphoto 11 -How to turn off faces?

    in response to mkmichaelmk

    Start of solution:

     

    I did some digging in the prefs of iPhoto and found out the following. This is how you can disable (turn off) Face detection, without deleting faces found so far (just in case you want to restart processing at another time):

     

    1. Quit iPhoto

    2. Open Terminal Application (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)

    3. Type the following (exactly as is):

     

    defaults write com.apple.iPhoto PKFaceDetectionEnabled 0

     

    (then return)

     

    4. - Start iPhoto - Faces stops getting on your nerves... 

     

    If you ever need to re-enable faces, just do the same again and replace the 0 with 1.

     

    Greetings,

     

    lopezio

    This hack can work, because iPhoto and Aperture are sharing the same library format, and so iPhoto works, if you disable the Face detection in Aperture.

  • by Terence Devlin,Solvedanswer

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jan 22, 2015 1:31 AM in response to Freddie2014
    Level 10 (139,470 points)
    iLife
    Jan 22, 2015 1:31 AM in response to Freddie2014

    This really really is not a problem.

     

    All my Files i just that -  a list of all your files. In iPhoto you have the master photo you imported from your camera, you also have various tiny thumbnails versions used for display and a preview used for sharing. These are not duplicates. They re not copies. For a start they're all different sizes. They are not untidy and they are all required for iPhoto to work.

     

    The very best advice I can give you is to absolutely ignore 'All My Files'. It's too crude a tool to be useful. It's like lifting the bonnet on a car. If you're not a mechanic then it's all just a bundle of wires and bits and stuff. You wouldn't tidy that up, would you?

     

    Seriously, you don't have a problem.

  • by Freddie2014,Helpful

    Freddie2014 Freddie2014 Jan 22, 2015 1:32 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 22, 2015 1:32 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks leonie

     

    I will try the 'faces' fix when I have my daughter with me as she knows better than I

     

    Not sure if I yet have an answer to my other problem of duplicated photo's In Finder I have up to eight copies of same .jpg file (same pic) and in my iPhoto I scroll through my pictures and some appear over and over again. I don't think they are thumbnails.

  • by Freddie2014,

    Freddie2014 Freddie2014 Jan 22, 2015 1:39 AM in response to Terence Devlin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 22, 2015 1:39 AM in response to Terence Devlin

    Thanks Terence

     

    Good advice - probably best left alone!

     

    But I still have a problem scrolling through same photos in the thumbnails.

     

    I think I need to learn how to use iPhoto properly but I'm being lazy (and am not very bright!)

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jan 22, 2015 1:39 AM in response to Freddie2014
    Level 10 (139,470 points)
    iLife
    Jan 22, 2015 1:39 AM in response to Freddie2014

    Duplicates within iPhoto:

     

    Some apps for dealing with duplicates in iPhoto

     

    iPhoto Library Manager

     

    Duplicate Annihilator

     

    Decliner

     

    iPhoto Duplicate Cleaner

     

    Anything you see in All My Files: Ignore.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jan 22, 2015 1:44 AM in response to Freddie2014
    Level 10 (105,357 points)
    iLife
    Jan 22, 2015 1:44 AM in response to Freddie2014
    In Finder I have up to eight copies of same .jpg file (same pic)

    Do you see any duplicates, when you browse your photos in iPhoto?

    Select the "Photos" view and arrange the photos by date. Then all duplicates will appear side by side, because they have the same date.

    Screen Shot 2015-01-22 at 10.37.51MEZ.png

    If you are seeing photos with the same version name IMG_somenumber side by side, you have indeed duplicate images imported to iPhoto. That should not happen, because iPhoto will try to stop you, if you try to import duplicates.

     

    Look for a version name, that you are seeing eight times in the Finder. Do you see the same filename eight times in iPhoto, if you sort by date?

     

    Did you import from an iPhone or a camera? You may have imported photos twice, from Photo Stream and from the card, or have imported burst photos from an iPhone.

  • by Freddie2014,

    Freddie2014 Freddie2014 Jan 22, 2015 2:36 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 22, 2015 2:36 AM in response to léonie

    Cant do that because I can't see the version number of the pic readily. How do you get that to show in iPhoto?

     

    I imported from a camera...

     

    In my iPhoto  'Library' I have 'Event's, 'Photo's, 'Faces' 'Places'

     

    In 'Events' I have eight groups of photo's

     

    In each of the groups there are multiple photo's, e.g. in one group there are 4,300, in another there are 52 etc.

    When I put the curser on any one of these groups I can run a 'slide show' of the contents.

    The contents are different from each other, but there are some pics that are the same - hence the duplications.

     

    Under 'Photo's' I have 9,027! and in this view the photo's are in groups (I suppose grouped as per 'Events'?) and this shows the duplicating as you scroll through. I tried ordering by Date but it doesn't bring all those of the same date together

     

    Under ''faces' I have 2,242 'unnamed' faces in my Library. Many of these are duplicated also.

    In 'Places' I have maps (ignore)

     

    Cant seem to get the detail that you suggest my iPhoto version is 9.6 (910.29) and I am running Yosemite on a 2010 macBook Pro

     

    Any help?

     

    Would appreciate any further clues but can't discuss any further tonight, resume tomorrow

     

    Another Poster, Terence, recommends de duplicating software but am hesitant to try as I may make things worse

  • by Terence Devlin,

    Terence Devlin Terence Devlin Jan 22, 2015 3:14 AM in response to Freddie2014
    Level 10 (139,470 points)
    iLife
    Jan 22, 2015 3:14 AM in response to Freddie2014

    Photos in Events and under the Photos heading are not duplicates.

     

    These are two views of the Library - two doors into the same room, as it were. The image you see in Photos and the one you see in an Event is the same image.

  • by Freddie2014,

    Freddie2014 Freddie2014 Jan 24, 2015 8:00 PM in response to Freddie2014
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 24, 2015 8:00 PM in response to Freddie2014

    Thanks everyone - my immediate problem has now been resolved. I downloaded a free App from the App Store and although it took a long time it eventually identified and allowed me to trash all 11,000+ duplicate photo's.

     

    The only issue is how I generated so many duplicates in the first place? But now I have cleaned up many Gig of space I shall not worry about why this happened until it happens (hopefully never) again.

     

    Thanks again for all your help, nice to know there are friendly people out there.

     

    Freddie2014