Duplicate Images

golfeng said:

in my Pictures folder I have 16,000+ image files plus the Aperture Library. The Aperture Library has 16,000+ images in it also. I think all are duplicated. How did this happen? Can I delete the non Aperture Library images? How do I stop making duplicates.

The Pictures folder is almost 125GB
The Aperture Library is 17.76GB
It also has an iPhoto folder that is 48.98GB. The images are not complete duplicates with Aperture.

I have had several cameras over the last 7 or 8 years and there are duplicate image numbers, i.e. IMG_0183 (1).JPG, IMG_0183 (2).JPG etc... due to new cameras and rolling over the image count on my oldest camera.

Any good ideas for cleaning up this mess?

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You need specialized software for this and even then it's not fool proof. Try this: http://brattoo.com/propaganda/#aperture

Also, your workflow is a mess.

I'm a strong advocate of NEVER using the file name given by the camera. That's a sure way to get duplicates and _IMG1111(1)'s in your setup.

I STRONGLY suggest you tell Aperture to rename your files upon import using a year & month prefix. For example, if your camera names your file IMG_2345 and you took the photo on August 15th, 2013, you should have aperture name your file: 0815132345 (monthdayyearIMG#). That way you reduce your chances of have the same file number for your files and created dupes.

With your setup now, it's impossible to tell if you truly have duplicates or that the software used a unique name to keep from overwriting a file that was already there.

golfeng said:

in my Pictures folder I have 16,000+ image files plus the Aperture Library. The Aperture Library has 16,000+ images in it also. I think all are duplicated. How did this happen? Can I delete the non Aperture Library images? How do I stop making duplicates.

The Pictures folder is almost 125GB
The Aperture Library is 17.76GB
It also has an iPhoto folder that is 48.98GB. The images are not complete duplicates with Aperture.

Click to expand...

If your Pictures folder is 125GB and your Aperture Library is only 18GB then it's pretty clear that they have not all been duplicated. Therefore no, definitely do not delete the non-aperture images as you'll lose over 100GB of images.

Razeus makes some good suggestions above - tidying up your import workflow will definitely help prevent you facing this problem again in the future.

For the present though, be very careful when deleting any duplicated files. If you have 2 copies of an image then you obviously want to try & delete the one that Aperture is not referencing.

Hope that helps.

I would be very careful that you are either 100% managed, or 100% referenced before you start deciding what to delete.

Then it will be trivial to change your library into whatever final form (referenced or managed) that you prefer.

Personally... I would probably start with Managed. That way you could organize your projects easily (letting Aperture do all the file work)... and then if you decide to move to managed, you can just switch to Referenced, using your current organizational hierarchy... and then continue following that format for future imports.

/Jim

You might want to read this as well:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/08/deleting-zombie-photos-from-iphoto/

...sometimes iPhoto doesn't delete photos when you empty the iPhoto trash. It just removes them from its database so they're no longer visible without deleting the actual image files. Those files still use up disk space—to the tune of 10 GB, in my case.

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