how do I remove duplicates in iphoto?

For dealing with duplicates in iPhoto check out Duplicate Annihilator

I downlaoded Duplicate Annihilator and ran it five times. There were originlly 8200 photos in the Library, and now 4930. Each time i ran it (alternating between Magic & Classic) many more duplicates were found ranging from 100 to over 600.

i wrote several times to the company for an answer, but so far nothing.

I find this very strange and ˆf the software is indeed finding so many dups, why doesn't the company advise us to run it several times?

Jim

You need to ask them about that.

Regards

TD

From your info I'm guessing that sometime you imported one iphoto library into an existing iPhoto library - You must never do that

If you did and still have good copies of both libraries the easiest way to resolve the issue is to start over - load both backups an use iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to move the photos between libraries - this will give you what you want with no duplicates

LN

Larry, thank you, but I'm wondering if each time I run the Annihilator is it really finding more duplicates and not

trashing some of my photos that are not dups.

If the former, i'll just keep running it until no more are found.

I have another question. I am running iPhoto '08 7.1.5 on my G5 and '11 9.2.2 on my Mac Pro.

Whenever I move a photo into an Album and the same photo already exists there, the second p;hoto is accepted without warning. That happens on both computers. I could swear that in the past I could not move a duplicate.

Whenever I move a photo into an Album and the same photo already exists there, the second p;hoto is accepted without warning.

These are not duplicates.

Photos in Albums simply reference the pictures in the Library. A Photo can be in as many Albums as you like without using any extra disk space,a nd it can be used in an Album as many times as you like. There is no duplication involved here.

At heart, an Album is simply an instruction to iPhoto: Show this bunch of photos together in this order.

Regards

TD

"Photos in Albums simply reference the pictures in the Library."

THAT is very helpful. Now I moved from a PC to an iMac just recently, copied all my photos over, imported them to iPhoto. But, subsequently I re-organized the photos and got rid of duplicates in Library itself. But iPhoto does not seem to reflect the changes.

How do I get rid of that first import, without deleting the actual files, and then when I finish organizing the folders, I would then import to iPhoto.

In short, if I simply delete everything from iPhoto, will the files underneath go as well, or just the "referencing?"

Thanks.

Isaac

copied all my photos over, imported them to iPhoto. But, subsequently I re-organized the photos and got rid of duplicates in Library itself.

What duplicates in what Library?

If you use iPhoto you do everything in the iPhoto Window and nowhere else.

So what did you delete and from where?

I originally went to Finder, and being an ex-PC person, I found the Library (or the folders/directories structure), found multiple copies of some of the same files, cleaned them out by hand, then got rid of directories, …

I guess the PC guys call it "getting under the hood." It certainly was not efficient.

From your answer, it seems that if you delete a photo in iPhoto, the file itself is gone. Please correct me if I am wrong.

One of the reasons to go to Finder, as far as I can currently tell, one does not know the Library structure of the folders when working in iPhoto --- when, for example, one folder is a sub-folder of another. If it is possible that iPhoto display that in some fashion, that would be a great help.

Maybe I should have mentioned that, in Finder, I started with Documents/My Pictures and worked from there.

Are you running a Managed or a Referenced Library?

A Managed Library, is the default setting, and iPhoto copies files into the iPhoto Library when Importing. The files are then stored in the Library package

A Referenced Library is when iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing because you made a change at iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced. (You unchecked the option to copy files into the Library on import) The files are then stored where ever you put them and not in the Library package. In this scenario you are responsible for the File Management.

I hope I am beginning to understand. When I copied my files to the iMac, I simply put them in Documents/My Pictures. So when I imported them to iPhoto, with the default option (not knowing any differently), I copied them again, and currently have two files for each photo --- one in My Pictures and one in iPhoto. It follows that if I delete a photo in iPhot, nothing has happened to the files in My Pictures. Is that correct?

Thanks.

That is correct. IPhoto never does anything to any file or photo outside of its library Once you have the photos safely in iPhoto you can delete the source photo. You do not need it anymore

And you must never make any changes to the contents of the iPhoto library except using iPhoto

LN

"Once you have the photos safely in iPhoto you can delete the source photo. You do not need it anymore"

Thanks. But, oddly enough, I am interested in the opposite. 😊 Now that I organized my source photos, I am entertaining the thought of deleting everything in iPhoto, and then importing the most recent organization of my source files. That should make working in iPhoto a lot simpler (As you can see, I have yet to shed my PC mentality). It may be an odd way of doing things, but, as far as I can tell from Terence's and your answers, no damage should result to the source photos. Correct?

Isaac

Do what you want. By default iPhoto does nothing to the photos outside of it and nothing you do to the photos outside of iPhoto affects iPhoto. My personal suggestion is to learn how to use iPhoto and organize you're photos in it. That is what it is for. Organizing outside of iPhoto and trying to keep that organization inside of iPhoto is difficult and frustrating. Better to use the power and features of iPhoto

LN