pranaone

Q: consolidating, checking & eliminating duplicate photos & movies

I was recently at a client's house, and I go back in a few days. I am trying to consolidate photos for a client. They have photos across many devices.

 

  • iMac with a 500 GB drive, 2 partitions (one was 'Image', as I recall), running El Capitan
  • MacBook Pro, with a 250 GB drive I think..., also running El Capitan
  • iPad II
  • 2 iPhone 6s (6 plural, not '6S'!)
  • several external hard drives, around 8 T total, which probably have photos that are already on some of the devices and machines above

 

I'm more of a PC/Linux guy, and looking at the photos folder on the iMac, it seems the photos are 'encapsulated' in one file, unlike the 'loose' jpgs I usually see on a PC/Linux.

 

How does one consolidate, check and eliminate duplicates from all those devices, which probably stem from different versions of Photo/iPhoto?

Posted on Apr 18, 2016 1:19 AM

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Q: consolidating, checking & eliminating duplicate photos & movies

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 18, 2016 3:27 AM in response to pranaone
    Level 10 (105,685 points)
    iLife
    Apr 18, 2016 3:27 AM in response to pranaone

    It would help to know,how the client is using the photo applications.

    Did the client previously use iPhoto and migrate the iPhoto Libraries to the new Photos for Mac application?  This migration will not duplicate the storage for the phots. The image files will be copied as hard links and do not use extra storage, as long as the libraries remain on the same drive (see: Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support, Six Colors: The (hard) link between Photos and iPhoto)

     

    If the client is now solely using the Photos for Mac application, I would migrate all remaining iPhoto Libraries to Photos for Mac, and move the original iPhoto Libraries to an external drive.  Keep them, until it is clear, that all libraries have been migrated successfully and no problems with missing images occur.

     

    Then use a tool to scan the libraries for duplicates.  Power Photos can search for duplicates across multiple libraries, also Photo Sweeper.

    Photos does not have a built-in duplicate cleaner. 

  • by pranaone,

    pranaone pranaone Sep 9, 2016 5:34 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 9, 2016 5:34 PM in response to léonie

    Thanks and sorry for the delay. I never heard back from that client, so I don't know how they were using the photo applications.

     

    The links were very helpful, thank you for that. I had a new client today who has 2 Macs. A 10 year old iMac, with 10.5.8 and a newer Mac, about 3 years old.

     

    Similar situation, a lot of photos, on the new Mac, on the old iMac (which I backed up onto an external drive with Time Machine), and on a small USB drive.

     

    Before finding this post again, I found and had my client buy Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro, http://www.duplicatephotosfixer.com/, for $.99. I ran it a few times, and it found about 100-200 dupes.

     

    First few times it found over 20,000 photos. Then I ran it with an external drive with the iMac backup plugged, and it found 37,000 files, but did not complete the dupe finding process. Maybe there were too many to check.

     

    Some were in /pictures, some were dropbox, etc. I couldn't tell easily which folders were involved.

     

    When the search completes, can I see which high level folders have the photos? I I don't need to know down to the last level, just wanted to know basically where they were, like in Pictures, Dropbox, desktop, etc.

     

    I've never imported iPhotos into Photo. If I go back, sounds like that what I should do.

     

    I copied photos from the USB drive to a hard drive, then I started importing them into Photo. Importing was very slow.

     

    Then I ran Disk Utility and repair, it took almost an hour, and did not seem to complete. I stopped that. I feel I need a better game plan to fix any OS issues and consolidate the photos.

     

    Is there a better program to manage photos and where they reside on the hard drive, or do I have to manually ensure photos are in the best location and configuration on the hard drive?