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Delete duplicate photos in iphoto?

neveleven

neveleven

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 24, 2007
74
0
Hi, I somehow lost half my photo album and eventually searched spotlight with 'jpeg and jpg'. This not only found them, it found literally thousands more, many of them duplicates. Does anyone know if there is an easy way to restore the missing Photos. My idea is to import the lot, and then hopefully try and remove all duplicates like itunes does. Any suggestions would be much appreciated, (and save me a headache).
 
I have exactly the same problem.

I found out from previous threads about a program called "iphoto diet", i tried to use it on Leopard but the program couldn't identify iphoto library.

Any other suggestions?
 
Likely the duplicate photos are in different folders. When you import pictures into iPhoto, it first saves a copy into an Originals folder. Then it saves a second copy into a folder called Modified.

If your pictures are still around, chances are you can get to them by navigating to your Photos folder and selecting the iPhoto Library. If you're running iLife 06 or earlier, the procedure is easy as opening the folder, locating the subfolder called Originals, and reimporting those. If you have iLife 08 you'll to right click, and select Show Package Contents first.

I'd suggest creating a new iPhoto Library in the event it was somehow currupted, leading to the misplacement of your photos in the first place.
 
First, to recover your photos, I'd try rebuilding the library. You will find the directions on the Apple support site. If the steps at the top of the KB support don't work, look toward the bottom and follow the manual rebuild. It states that it may create duplicates. That is certainly true -- created 4 of some photos for me -- but the good news is that I got my photos back!

Then, you will need to deal with dupes. At this point, iPhoto Diet may well work for you, since all your photos will be in the same library.

Good luck!
 
Fleetwood Mac said:
Likely the duplicate photos are in different folders. When you import pictures into iPhoto, it first saves a copy into an Originals folder. Then it saves a second copy into a folder called Modified.
Click to expand...

Just a small correction here -- a second copy is not automatically added to a folder called Modified. That only happens when a photo is modified -- edited, cropped, rotated, etc. I have lots of photos that have not been touched since they were imported and they are only in the Originals folder. We don't need to reinforce the misleading idea that photos are automatically duplicated, using twice the space they need.

Having said all of that, once you get your photos back, stay out of the finder. Doing things to /with your photos in that library will certainly result in corruption or loss. Do anything / everything to/with your photos from within the app itself.
 
I have had a LOT of problems with iPhoto duplicates. I don't know why Apple doesn't address this issue.

This blog tutorial on iPhoto duplicates helped me fix the problem.
 
getting rid of duplicates with iPhoto

i have ruined my iPhoto library about 3 times and spent at least a hundred hours trying to get rid of duplicates and was about to give up when i discovered something yesterday which 100% solved the problem!

what i discovered is that when you go into iphoto and right click on a photo and then click on "show photo" you are taken to the Finder and low and behold - you get to look into the iphoto library itself
what i did was just started to view the photos from the finder and copy the photos i wanted - i then pasted them in a folder i created on my desktop

i did this for all 1449 photo's - only took about 1 1/2 hours
and i got rid of almost 14,000 duplicates

i then deleted my iPhoto library and opened iphoto then copied all my photos from the desktop folder and there you have it

then i resyced time machine and even copied my photo's into a 8GB flash drive

there isn't a single duplicate

i searched far and wide for a solution and i have never found one on the web

johnrfeeney@hotmail.com
 
iphoto files

Turns out a right click (control click) on the "iPhoto Library">show package contents|| also reveals all photo files.
 
Same problem but worse

on top of the fact i literally have at least 3 duplicates of EVERY image in my iphoto library (no idea how it happened though) i know have the thumbnail images and the face thumbnails as ACTUAL images in the library and events. i've tried to delete them manually but there is just too many, there is at least 3 of each per photo, and 3 for each duplicate. my iphoto library increased to over 3000, when i MAYBE have a total of about 1000 photos total that are legitimate ones. anyone have a clue what i can do?
 
Removing duplicate photos in iPhoto?

Hi,
I am a new user to Mac, having moved from the Microsoft "Dark side" last Friday - I copied my pictures from my old PC to my iMac, then opened iPhoto which imported them. Unfortunately it appears that I had copied them twice into 2 separate folders (they may not be called folders on mac - haven't sussed all the terminology yet). Anyway, so when I imported the photos there are now 2 copies referenced for everything.

i have deleted one of the offending "folders", but iPhoto still shows two entries for everyone, which is annoying.

Is there a way of getting iPhoto to clear all its contents, so i can repeat the action to scan my hard drive, therefore just adding the single version of my photo.

I don not believe this is anything to do with the fact that the preferences enable me to create a copy of the photo in the iPhoto library, although i can't be sure.

I am on lion. but don't know how to tell the iPhoto version.

All help will be appreciated.

Rich:confused:
 
In iphoto, folders are called Projects. You mat well find that duplicate "Projects" have been created.

If so, Open iphot, look to the left hand pane, and inspect the contents of the projects /albums delete as required.

Enjoy your Mac.:)
 
I've used and recommend "Duplicate Annihilator".

It has several different methods to compare files. It will also label the duplicates so you can put them into an album and verify that they are, indeed, duplicates. From there you can delete them. I like that it gives me the option to delete them or not.

It did my photo library 15000+ photos in about 3 hours and found 75 duplicates.

link
 
I'd recommend to use PhotoSweeper. It's really fast and powerful, you may find and eliminate not only duplicate photos, but similar photos as well. I've used it to get rid of duplicates in my iPhoto and Aperture libraries.
 
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