You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Multiple versions of same photo

When using iPhoto for iOS I have noticed that it seems to create multiple versions of an image, even if you just open and view the image.


How can I consoldate these images into one.


User uploaded file

iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iOS 5.1

Posted on Mar 9, 2012 4:35 AM

Reply
80 replies

Mar 9, 2012 5:46 AM in response to MadisonP

Hi


Thanks, I have followed your suggestions and have managed to re-create the error


User uploaded file


  • The duplicates do not show in the iPad photos app, occurs only in the iPhotos app.
  • Duplicates only show in the "Photo" section of iPhotos
  • I uninstalled and re-installed the iPhotos app. After the app completes "Updating Photo Library" it shows the duplicates, but initially only 2.
  • It duplicates only photos that are in the camera roll and a photo album.
  • If a new photo gets added the the Camera Roll or the Photo Stream, the "Updating Photo Library" runs again and creates another duplicate. One for every time the update happens.


Looks like a bug in the software, possibly.


Thanks

Derek

Aug 16, 2012 7:46 PM in response to Drick55

The same bug occurs on iPhoto App for Mac, and even wordt it also happens on iphoto app for iPad. I'm so freaking tired of manually deleting those files every time! I've already tried to uninstall and reinstall iPhoto app and to restore its cache with no success.


Apple is soooo laid back towards the bugs their consumers have been facing, and as always we haven't a decent page in the support session where to fire real bug reports and this really upsets me. Apple phone and on line support is a joke, seriously.


User uploaded file

Mar 9, 2012 4:56 AM in response to Drick55

Greetings,


I can't reproduce the behavior you depict above on either my iPhone 4 or my iPad 2. You say you are just opening the image in the Photos view and it replicates or do you have to do something else like attempt to edit it?


Questions:

If you go to the Photos.app on your iPad is there still only one instance of each image?

Are these images you synced over from your computer or are they in your camera roll?

Did they come from photostream?


Troublehshooting:

Assuming the images aren't duplicated in the Photos.app, I'd suggest you turn your iPad off and on and delete and reinstall the iPhoto.app.


If the same thing occurs after removing and reinstalling iPhoto, I would think there must be something going on in the Photos.app which is in turn causing issues in iPhoto. Backup and restore your device: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414


Hope that helps.

Mar 9, 2012 5:52 AM in response to Drick55

Hi Derek,


If it were a bug in the software it would be happening to me too or to the vast majority of iPhoto for iOS users. As its not, that means the issue is likely with some other item of data on your device.


If you have any other apps which access the contents of the Photos.app it might be worthwhile to uninstall them temporarily in case they are interfering. Once removed, power cycle the iPad and test again.


Failing that:

Backup and restore would be the next step:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

Mar 9, 2012 12:23 PM in response to MadisonP

I have now started the process of restoring my iPad. I have a feeling it won't help but lets see.


Just some feedback, I have been able to consistantly recreate the problem.


I uninstalled then reinstalled iPhoto. The duplicate files are removed, and then one duplicate is created the first time it opens. An additional duplicate is created for each update of the library.


Only pictures in albums are duplicated. If I remove all albums and reinstall, there are no duplicates. As soon as I add an album, then those pictures are duplicated. If I then remove the album the duplicates remain until I reinstall iPhoto again.


Strange thing is, this does not happen with all albums. I also changed the name of the album, but that didn't help.


Will see what happens after the iPad restore.

Mar 10, 2012 1:13 AM in response to Drick55

I have followed the full restore process on my iPad, reinstalled all apps.


Opened iPhoto and the problem still occures.


I can recreate the issue every time, as detailed above.


If I add a new album in photos app, then open iPhoto, those pictures will now be duplicated once. As soon as iPhoto does a Library Update, another duplicate picture will appear.


There may be something else causing this outside iPhoto, but there are too many photo apps on my iPad to investigate.


I think I will wait for Apple to find their bug and fix it.

Mar 11, 2012 7:36 AM in response to Drick55

I have iPhoto on an iPhone 4s. And an iPad 2 both with IOS 5.1

Only the iPad has this duplicating problem. I have deleted iPhoto and reinstalled,still duplicates. Reset the iPad,still duplicates. It seems to happen when an album is created..also happens with existing albums. My photo list is getting larger and no way to delete photos. It is tripling some photos. Photo list is 708 photos,iPhoto show 1453 photos!

Paul

Mar 11, 2012 2:36 PM in response to Drick55

I am also having the same issue. However, I noticed that the only photos being duplicated are the photos that I originally imported onto my iPad via the camera kit. The photos are not duplicated on my iPhone in the iPhoto app. They are also not duplicated in the "Photo" app on either device. It seems like a software glitch which is duplicating photos uploaded directly to the iPad via the camera kit.

Mar 12, 2012 7:17 AM in response to rachel21

I think you might be onto something here. It only seems to duplicate pictures that were not taken by an iOS device.


Might be something to do with the naming of the file, if it's not in the standard iOS format IMG_xxxx.JPG then it creates a duplicate. But only if that image is in an album


Maybe if an Apple Dev is reading this, it might help to find the bug.

Mar 14, 2012 7:54 AM in response to Coggy

I've actually decided just to live with it. The only thing it seems to be affecting is the Photos list in iPhoto. Albums, Events and Journals are OK; everything in the Photo App itself is unchanged and there seems to be no impact on disk space. Can't actually see why I would need to use the Photos list in iPhoto anyway.


I won't spend too much time organising photos into albums or journals just now in case the inevitable fix ends up requiring a re-install or in some other way blows away the iPhoto index.


Still intrigued to know what's causing it (and hoping someone in the know from Apple is monitoring this thread and taking the issue seriously).

Mar 14, 2012 10:51 AM in response to Drick55

Workaround For Duplicates


I have duplicates after I create a custom folder in the Photos app. If I take photos from the camera roll put them in an album created on the iPad, launch iPhoto, then I see duplicates.


If I get rid of custom albums in the Photos app, I don't see duplicates in iPhoto. This is one work around I'm using.


Also, I don't see duplicates in the events, albums or Journals section of iPhoto. I'm sticking to those areas to work around the duplicates. This seems like an easy work around and I can use iPhoto with no problem.


I love iPhoto! Thanks Apple!

Mar 14, 2012 4:24 PM in response to Drick55

I have the same problem. All photoes grouped in albums are duplicating in Photos View every time, when iPhoto updates media library. Those of photoes not grouped in Albums in Photo.app are OK and not duplicating.

I've played a little with iPhoto and Photo.app on my iPad and figured that only photoes in albums are duplicating every time. It doesn't metter when you create an album - i've first saved some photoes to Camera roll in iPad - so everething were OK, than i added those photoes to newly created album in Photo.app - those photoes became duplicating. Than i've deleted the album in Photo.app - photoes stopped duplicating every update, but remeain in "duplicated" state.

Reinstalling iPhoto doesn't work. The photoes that are in albums start duplicating again every library update.


So it's bug of iPhoto media library database update.

I think the photo files itself doesn't duplicate (so no big memory lack), there's only duplicated links to the same file and thumbnails in iPhoto Photo view.

Mar 15, 2012 5:01 AM in response to Drick55

This is happening to me too since the most recent upgrade. The upgrade corrected the previous issue of not being able to delete photos from Photo Stream, but now all my pictures stored under Photos are in triplicate with no trash barrel icon visible with which to delete them! The upgrade did not impact photos on my iPhone-only on the iPad.

Multiple versions of same photo

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.