Deleting duplicate photos

Are you talking about duplicates seen in iPhoto? Duplicate annihilator - http://www.brattoo.com/propaganda/ - is a good choice for that

If you are looking inside the iPhoto library using the finder or any program other than iPhoto:

1 - it is recommended that you not do that - it is dangerous and there are no user serviceable parts in the iPhoto library

2 - there are no duplicates in the iPhoto library (unless you see them using the iPhoto program) - there are two or three different versions of each photo ( an original, a thumbnail and if the photo has been modified the modified version) and those can not be deleted - they are required for iPhoto to operate

LN

Hi LarryHN
Something has been happening with my photos. I open iphoto I click on a folder of photos; say coral reef Belize the folder opens and there are the thumbnails. The curious and frustrating thing is; some of the pictures have 1 or 2 copies and others have any where from 2 to 8 copies. Not sure why. My first thought was when importing photos from my external hard drive there could have been several copies of each photo due you my lack of understanding thus having stored and restored the same pictues. The second thought was perhaps when deleting the extra thumbnails (leaving 2 of each photo) this some how created more copies of the following photos.
I am now in the process of deleting all the pictures within iphoto believing they are backed up in time machine/time capsule. Went to time machine to locate them but didn't know how.
Hope you are able to follow what is going on here and are able to help. Like so many others. I need to free up space. I don't get it. I have MacBook 10.5.8 and it seems it holds very little. My toshiba held more than 25,000 photos.
Are you able to help and or advise.
Thanks
Cptnjk

cptnjkspro wrote:
Hi LarryHN
Something has been happening with my photos. I open iphoto I click on a folder of photos; say coral reef Belize the folder opens and there are the thumbnails. The curious and frustrating thing is; some of the pictures have 1 or 2 copies and others have any where from 2 to 8 copies.

Where are you seeing these? In the iPhoto window? In the iPhoto library using the finder? How are you seeing them?

Also note that we can see what you are doing do using proper language is critical - in iPhoto folders are logical items displayed in the source pane on the left that hold other folders or albums.

Not sure why. My first thought was when importing photos from my external hard drive there could have been several copies of each photo due you my lack of understanding thus having stored and restored the same pictues.

Each photo you import shows up in iPhoto - if yo import 6 versions of a photo yo will have 6 in iPhoto

The second thought was perhaps when deleting the extra thumbnails (leaving 2 of each photo) this some how created more copies of the following photos.

Deleting using iPhoto (moving photo to the iPhoto trash and emptying it) does not create copies. How are you deleting "thumbnails"? There is no correct way to delete a thumbnail - each photos in iPhoto has an original and a thumbnail and they will both be deleted when you use iPhoto to delete. What are you doing to delete "thumbnails"

I am now in the process of deleting all the pictures within iphoto believing they are backed up in time machine/time capsule. Went to time machine to locate them but didn't know how.

To find photos in TM you open TM and iPhoto and use the iPhoto menu item to browse photos

To restore a full library you use TM and go to the data you want to restore from and select the iPhoto library and click restore

Hope you are able to follow what is going on here and are able to help. Like so many others. I need to free up space. I don't get it. I have MacBook 10.5.8 and it seems it holds very little. My toshiba held more than 25,000 photos.

LN

Larry HN

Sorry about the not using the proper language. Don't know if I know the proper language and if I don't where would I go to learn it?

Where am I seeing the photos:
I click iphoto on the dock.
A window opens and this is what I see:
On the left of the screen is a menu bar/source pane
Listed are : Library
Events (39)
Photos (4630)
Faces (0)
Places (0)
Recent
Last 12 Months (4600)
Last import (30)
Flagged
Trash
Albums and so on.
I do believe that I am viewing the thumbnails in the iphoto window. As I said I accessed iphoto from the dock. I don't know how to use finder at all.

You asked "how are you seeing them" Im not sure what you are asking, but my guess would be that I am seeing the photos as thumbnails.

The thumbnails have appeared in a couple different ways:
A) a small icon of a photo and a title for example "coral reef"
there is a small icon photo for each folder/category I had created previously another example
would be "so many faces so much sugar" and so on.

If I were to click on one of these small icons it would open up thumbnails of every photo that
I placed in there before they were imported from the toshiba.

B) large thumbnails without the name or label of a particular group of photos.
The logical item ( photos or events) that is highlighted would indicate which thumbnail photos
I was looking out.

Regarding the duplicated photos: ?Importing? is when I transfer my photos directly from my camera,
from an external hard drive and perhaps from someplace else?

If I had a set of 25 photos all different but somehow saved that same group of 25 photos 2 or 3 times on the same external hard drive then importing those photos into iphoto I would have as many as 3 copies of each photo is that correct. If that is the way it works, why then are all 3 of the same picture next to each other rather thank 3 groups of 25 photos each group following the other?

Regarding deleting thumbnails: before I get started How do I tell the difference between the original and the thumbnail? Where would i find the original and what would happen if I were to delete the original? Let me make an example:
In the source pane under library I find the word event photo faces and places .
Following the word event there is the number 39
Following the word photo there is the number 4600
Under the heading recent I find listed; last 12 months with the number 30 following
Under the heading albums there are two albums
The first is vacations
The second is family

Still in iphoto which I opened from the dock, to delete thumbnails I highlighted as many thumbnails as I wanted then proceeded to drag them to the trash from there I went to the toolbar (bar across the top of the window) under photo I clicked empty trash, and it did!

A second way in which I deleted thumbnails would be again to highlight the thumbnails I wanted to delete then hold down option and command and push delete. I see now in doing what I just described actually put those deleted photos in the trash,

Under Albums lets say I had 3 the first contained 200 photo
When I created the second album it also contained 200 photos
likewise with the 3rd album
as I drug each of the 3 albums to the trash it was added to the trash when I emptied the trash using
toolbar Photo and empty trash the action not only emptied the trash it also removed those photos from the 4600 (in the photo's under the library heading.

In each case I was asked if I wanted to delete the photos permanently I clicked yes at that point the trash was empties and I don't know where they are or if they exist.
It is my goal is to free up as much space on the start up disk as possible. I don't know what the start up disk is nor do I know what i can remove without causing something else not to work properly.

I would like to have my photos on the MacBook and not have to carry around an external hard drive, do I have options or am I stuck with the ex. hd ?

After I export (i guess that's the correct word) my photos to the external hard drive is there a way to remove all pictures from the Computer.

Can you recommend a resource book, tutorial or something that will help me to understand clearly the do's and don'ts and how to and other necessary information for a newcomer to have.

It is 3:01, I started this around 9:45 so if some of this makes little or no sense and seems to run on and on time could be a major part in it that plus the fact that I don't know to more efficiently relate what is taking place, what I have done and what I need to do.

Thank you so very much!

Sorry about the not using the proper language. Don't know if I know the proper language and if I don't where would I go to learn it?

Take the iPhoto tutorials - http://www.apple.com/findouthow/photos/ -- read the names of items in iPhoto

Where am I seeing the photos:
I click iphoto on the dock.
A window opens and this is what I see:
On the left of the screen is a menu bar/source pane
Listed are : Library
Events (39)
Photos (4630)
Faces (0)
Places (0)
Recent
Last 12 Months (4600)
Last import (30)
Flagged
Trash
Albums and so on.
I do believe that I am viewing the thumbnails in the iphoto window. As I said I accessed iphoto from the dock. I don't know how to use finder at all.

You asked "how are you seeing them" Im not sure what you are asking, but my guess would be that I am seeing the photos as thumbnails.

The thumbnails have appeared in a couple different ways:
A) a small icon of a photo and a title for example "coral reef"
there is a small icon photo for each folder/category I had created previously another example
would be "so many faces so much sugar" and so on.

If I were to click on one of these small icons it would open up thumbnails of every photo that
I placed in there before they were imported from the toshiba.

B) large thumbnails without the name or label of a particular group of photos.
The logical item ( photos or events) that is highlighted would indicate which thumbnail photos
I was looking out.

Regarding the duplicated photos: ?Importing? is when I transfer my photos directly from my camera,
from an external hard drive and perhaps from someplace else?

If I had a set of 25 photos all different but somehow saved that same group of 25 photos 2 or 3 times on the same external hard drive then importing those photos into iphoto I would have as many as 3 copies of each photo is that correct. If that is the way it works, why then are all 3 of the same picture next to each other rather thank 3 groups of 25 photos each group following the other?

Yes - unless iPhoto notices a duplicate (which is not reliable) you will have a photo in the iPhoto library for each photo you import

That depends on your preference settings and your view settings - the basic view is date based so in that view all copies of a photos would appear nest to each other

Regarding deleting thumbnails: before I get started How do I tell the difference between the original and the thumbnail? Where would i find the original and what would happen if I were to delete the original? Let me make an example:
In the source pane under library I find the word event photo faces and places .
Following the word event there is the number 39
Following the word photo there is the number 4600
Under the heading recent I find listed; last 12 months with the number 30 following
Under the heading albums there are two albums
The first is vacations
The second is family

You can not delete thumbnails - iPhoto manages photos and when you delete a photo it is deleted - the thumbnail, the modified version (if any) and the thumbnail

When you take the tutorials you will see that if you delete photos form albums that does not delete from the library but only from that album. To delete photos form the library you must delete from an event.

albums are just database entries that point to photos in the library and do not really exist or take any space

To delete a photo you need to be in event view or photos view - then select the photo(s) and drag them to the iPhoto trash (in the source pane on the left) and empty the iPhoto trash (iPhoto menu ==> empty trash)

Still in iphoto which I opened from the dock, to delete thumbnails I highlighted as many thumbnails as I wanted then proceeded to drag them to the trash from there I went to the toolbar (bar across the top of the window) under photo I clicked empty trash, and it did!

Yes -- if you were dragging photos from events to the trash - not from albums

A second way in which I deleted thumbnails would be again to highlight the thumbnails I wanted to delete then hold down option and command and push delete. I see now in doing what I just described actually put those deleted photos in the trash,

Yes - that is a way to delete photos totally even though you are viewing them in an album

Under Albums lets say I had 3 the first contained 200 photo
When I created the second album it also contained 200 photos
likewise with the 3rd album
as I drug each of the 3 albums to the trash it was added to the trash when I emptied the trash using
toolbar Photo and empty trash the action not only emptied the trash it also removed those photos from the 4600 (in the photo's under the library heading.

In each case I was asked if I wanted to delete the photos permanently I clicked yes at that point the trash was empties and I don't know where they are or if they exist.
It is my goal is to free up as much space on the start up disk as possible. I don't know what the start up disk is nor do I know what i can remove without causing something else not to work properly.

I would like to have my photos on the MacBook and not have to carry around an external hard drive, do I have options or am I stuck with the ex. hd ?

Not at all - you can have multiple iPhoto libraries - switch between them by depressing the option key and launching iPhoto and selecting a different library - it stays selected until you do this again.

With multiple libraries iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - is useful for moving photos between libraries and switching libraries on the fly

After I export (i guess that's the correct word) my photos to the external hard drive is there a way to remove all pictures from the Computer.

When you export photos you are saving only the photo - not the iPhoto library (albums, projects, etc)

If you want to move the photos then export with the options you want - if you want to move the iPhoto library quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto to select that library

Once you have done that and fully tested the moved library you can trash the original library -- or you can us iPhoto to delete selected photos form it leaving others

Can you recommend a resource book, tutorial or something that will help me to understand clearly the do's and don'ts and how to and other necessary information for a newcomer to have.

1 - the iPhoto tutorials -- http://www.apple.com/findouthow/photos/

2 - iPhoto help

3 - iPhoto - the missing manual by David Pogue -- http://missingmanuals.com/

Hopefully this helps some


LN

Hi did you ever resolve your issue? I am experiencing the same thing, and it is very frustrating. I even have duplicate pictures as documents??? I tried trashing all the duplicate pictures in my documents pretty much one by one. I then went into iphoto to see if the same pictures I trashed from my documents were affected by the trashing--they were! When I double-click the thumbnail a huge exclaimation mark appears, instead of the picture. I then dragged the picture that was affected out of the trash into iphoto, and it opened fine. This is getting me very angry so if you found some answers PLEASE tell me. I want to trash all my duplicates so my computer can have room to breathe!

Spartagon

Are you running a referenced library (You have unchecked the iphoto advanced preference to "copy imported items to the iPhoto library") or a managed library (that preference is in its default checked status)?

LN