How to review duplicates in iPhoto Trash

Question

How to review duplicates in iPhoto Trash

For some reason, I have over 220,000 photos in my iPhoto trash. When I first got my IMAC, I took my Ibook external hard drive and attempted to move my photos from there onto my mac. What it did was make my iPhoto run really slow and seemed to mess it up. I always have a pop up box that says when starting: "You have 34 photos that did not import, do you wan tot import them now? " This happens every time I open iPhoto. Any ideas on why this happened, please let me know. Back to the problem, when things were changed a few months back and iPhoto changed to a new version of iPhoto, i seemed to get 6-10 duplicates of pictures. I have Duplicate Photo Fixer Pro but what I WANT to review is everything in my iPhoto TRASH. Because I have a feeling that there might be some things in there that are not supposed to be deleted. I also have black images on many of my photos in the main library, when I did not have that before. I'm thinking I have a glitch.

But with 220,000 in my trash and 33,000 in my main library, I'm lost as to how to compare all of them for duplicates, and keep only one of each.

Please advise.

Therese

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jun 26, 2015 11:43 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,785 points

Jun 27, 2015 12:10 AM in response to CorneliusByTheSea

Back to the problem, when things were changed a few months back and iPhoto changed to a new version of iPhoto,

Therese, which version of iPhoto are you using? Could it be, that the "New version" you are running now is not iPhoto but the new Photos.app, just to be sure?

In Photos, the Trash is the Recently Deleted album, and it is sorted by date, so duplicates will appear side by side. And you can selectively click photos to restore them. In iPhoto you can also sort the Trash by date to show duplicates side-by-side.

But with several thousands of photos it will be impossible to scan for duplicates manually. Only, none of the third-party tools I tried will include the Trash when searching for duplicates. I just tested again with Photo Sweeper and it ignores the Trash.

Make a backup of the iPhoto library.

If you are using iPhoto you could simply try to empty the iPhoto Trash. This will move the trashed photos to the System Trash and you can restore them from there to a set of nested folders on your Desktop. Then try to reimport them to iPhoto by dragging folders into the iPhoto Library. iPhoto's duplicate detection will prevent duplicates from being imported, and warn yu. if you try to import a duplicate.

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Answer 2

Jun 27, 2015 6:37 PM in response to léonie

That would be awesome! When I look at my About iPhoto, it says it is: 9.5.1 (902.17)

I just remember a few months back iPhoto changed and an update was installed or something like that. I had to click to accept the new iPhoto. It was definitely an update of some kind because I didn't ask for it.

So what you are saying is:

1) I back up iPhoto library first (how do I do that? On an external hard drive?)

2) If I empty the trash in iPhoto, it will just go to the iMac trash? and I can retrieve the photos from there to go back into a new iPhoto library that I build? And if so, how do I make these nested folders? I'm glad it can detect if there is a duplicate being added back in. That will be so great. My iPhoto has never worked right since trying to download my external hard drive of photos into it when I first got my iMac.

Do you think this is make the black images reappear in the new library? I've read that others tried a new library and for some it worked, and for others it didn't.

Thanks again for helping me.

Therese

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,785 points

Jun 27, 2015 10:20 PM in response to CorneliusByTheSea

1) I back up iPhoto library first (how do I do that? On an external hard drive?)

Connect an external drive and drag the iPhoto Library to that drive in the Finder. It will create a copy on that drive. If it is a new drive check the file system. The drive will need to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled). You can format drives with Disk Utility as described here: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture

2) If I empty the trash in iPhoto, it will just go to the iMac trash? and I can retrieve the photos from there to go back into a new iPhoto library that I build?

Yes, the photos will go to the iMac trash in the Dock, unless your iPhoto Library is on a network drive without a trash.

Where is your iPhoto Library?

Do you think this is make the black images reappear in the new library? I've read that others tried a new library and for some it worked, and for others it didn't.

It will depend on why you are seeing black thumbnails. Sometimes the s caused by a corruption of the database files in the library. Then repairing or rebuilding the library can help. But it also can be caused by a corruption of the image files themselves. Then repairing the library will not help, but you have to restore the photos from a backup.

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Answer 4

Jul 1, 2015 6:08 PM in response to léonie

Okay, I got another external hard drive, Seagate with 2T. I am formatting it for IMAC, and am following your directions. It has these two names on the left side of the disk utility: 2TB SEAGATE BUP SLIM BK MEDIA, AND SEAGATE BACKUP PLUS DRIVE.

When I click erase after selecting the first one, it give me a box that says "are you sure you want to erase the disk seagate bhp slim bk media? erasing a disk deletes all data on all it's partitions. This disk has 1 partition: "Seagate backup plus drive".

Knowing there's nothing on this new HD, the only reason why I didn't click erase is that it says it will delete the partition. Am I wrong here?

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Answer 5

Jul 1, 2015 9:57 PM in response to léonie

I got it to work. Now I just need to see if I can move the iPhoto library over to this new hard drive.

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,785 points

Jul 1, 2015 10:21 PM in response to CorneliusByTheSea

Good morning. We see to be in different time zones. That makes a discussion difficult.

I got it to work. Now I just need to see if I can move the iPhoto library over to this new hard drive.

Drag the library in the Finder to the new drive. Then double-click it to open it in iPhoto and test it before you delete the original from your internal drive.

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Answer 7

Jul 1, 2015 11:01 PM in response to léonie

Yes, you're in Germany i think and I'm in Los Angeles but that's okay.,

i have started the process,

it says it will take 20 hours. I'll let you know. Thank you!!! I will be so nervous emptying the trash of iPhoto but I will contact you then for help.

Talk soon!

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Answer 8

Jul 2, 2015 7:58 AM in response to CorneliusByTheSea

Okay, I have moved the 449.23 GB iPhoto library to the external seagate HD. I checked and opened it, and I see my iPhoto screen with the same number in the photos, trash, etc. I believe those in albums are just pointing to the ones in photos from what I understand from research. But I also have about 50 GB of photos etc, in the pictures tab in finder in addition to the iPhoto library. What do I do with those to make sure they get backed up too? If I delete iPhoto library, does that delete these extra pictures that are in folder in the pictures on the left side of the screen under music, movies, etc?

I read another apple support post from Terence I think who said that when the iPhoto library is emptied, it goes to the finder trash (I'm thinking that is the iMac trash can in the lower right of the screen). You said that the files will stay there, I can rebuild a new iPhoto library and put those back being warned if there are duplicates. Is this right? He said that :

jeffmaggieSep 1, 2012 11:00 AM

I deleted my iPhoto Trash folder and do not see the "Put Back" option in the contect menu in the Finder Trash window. I can see the 2 items listed as iPhoto and .apfoo

I can see all the photos in finder and was wondering...if there isn't a fix, could I just get all the photos I want, put them in a folder and then add the folder back to iphoto? Would they drop in the correct places?

Mt Lion

iPhoto '11 9.3.2 (670.63)

Thanks

jeffmaggie

No it can't be done. Why not? Because as well as deleting the files from iPhoto you also removed their records from the database, erased their edit history, and destroyed their thumbnails and previews. So, even if the files were to be put back in their various folders that won't replace all of that.

Either: Restore from your back up or import these images to iphoto and start over.

Regards

TD

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Would you advise me on this? I'm also confused between the iPhoto library and the PICTURES tab that in on the left side of the finder screen. I see my iPhoto library when clicking on the PICTURES tab and opening it but these others 50 GB of photos as well under it.

Now that iPhoto library is backed up, can you walk me thru how to recreate a new library and move these deleted photos supposedly in the finder trash back into the new iPhoto library?

Thanks so much.

Therese

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Answer 9

Jul 2, 2015 7:59 AM in response to CorneliusByTheSea

Also, the black images are the same in the back up.

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