I need help with ±50K+ photos.

[xJustxMegx]

Hi there,

I recently deleted my Google account and I made a backup of all my photos. I think it are around 50K photos, also a lot of memes. 😛 Is there a way to open them all, check if I want to keep it or delete it?

Thanks!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Hi there,

I recently deleted my Google account and I made a backup of all my photos. I think it are around 50K photos, also a lot of memes. 😛 Is there a way to open them all, check if I want to keep it or delete it?

Thanks!

You mean manually? Preview would do that fine. If you believe there are lots of duplicates though, there is software that can sort them for you I believe.

 

[Slartibart]

there are various tools for finding duplicates, etc. - e.g. Geequie (req. brew on macOS), DigiKam, personally I recommend dupeguru which works absolutely great (or findimagedupes in the command line together with Geequie). On the commercial side, e.g. Excire Foto offers that (and more) and has a 14 day trial.
The tricky bit is to find similar resized images as well as RAW support - but there are a bunch of free or commercially available solutions - what OS do you use? What image formats do you want to compare? But in any case, for e.g. JPEG, PNG, Gif, … any tool will probably ease the pain dramatically compared to manually approaching this. 🙃

 

[xJustxMegx]

Hi both,

I'm running MacOS 15.3.1. I'm not sure if there are a lot of duplicates, but also pictures I don't want to lose. So what would be the best solution?

 

[Fishrrman]

"I'm not sure if there are a lot of duplicates, but also pictures I don't want to lose. So what would be the best solution?"

Whether it's 500 or 50,000, you're gonna have to check 'em just like Johnny Cash built his Cadillac:
"One pic [piece] at a time" ...

 

[xJustxMegx]

So, that means I'm ****ity ****ed.

 

[mollyc]

you could try a program like aftershoot, but the problem is that only you know what images would be deemed as keepers. an ai program can cull, but you’re still going to have to go the the rejects to make sure it didn’t make a mistake. it’s too subjective.

AI Photo Culling Software – Select the Best Shots in Seconds | Aftershoot

Cut culling time by 90% with Aftershoot Selects — AI-powered photo culling that automatically flags the best images, removes duplicates, and speeds up your workflow. Try it free.

aftershoot.com

i’ve never used this program but it is well respected.

personally i would load them into smaller folders and flag them in lightroom classic so i can go the reasonable batches at a time and then delete the unwanted ones at one time.

but if you are really worried about accidentally deleting a “good” photo, you’re going to have to look at every photo individually.

 

[AlumaMac]

You might want to try PicArrange. It groups images by content which might help determining which photos you want to keep/delete. You can also AI search photo content with words/phrases. So if you searched for "text" it would bring up all your memes that you could then sort through, etc.

 

[xJustxMegx]

Awesome! I'll take a look at some programs later.

 

[chown33]

You might be able to make a coarse cut with a selection by file format, e.g. PNG or GIF -> memes pile, anything else -> photos pile.

You can use Finder Smart Folders (Find followed by storing the Find criteria) to select all the PNGs or GIFs.

 

[mtbdudex]

Awesome! I'll take a look at some programs later.

I made this thread over a year ago.
Good luck, let us know your progress & solution
Testimonial for: Cisdem Duplicate Finder & "Similar" image cleaner

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/testimonial-for-cisdem-duplicate-finder-similar-image-cleaner.2413307/

 

[xJustxMegx]

I made this thread over a year ago.
Good luck, let us know your progress & solution
Testimonial for: Cisdem Duplicate Finder & "Similar" image cleaner

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?share_fid=13661&share_tid=2413307&url=https://forums.macrumors.com/index.php?threads/Testimonial-for%3A-Cisdem-Duplicate-Finder-%26-%22Similar%22-image-cleaner.2413307/&share_type=t&link_source=app

 

[mtbdudex]

View attachment 2482676

I reposted with a safari link

 

[xJustxMegx]

Thank you! I'll take a look later.

 

[xJustxMegx]

We wait.

 

[xJustxMegx]

That application is amazing! I deleted around ±20K pictures.

 

[Apple fanboy]

That application is amazing! I deleted around ±20K pictures.

But how do you know it didn’t delete anything you wanted?

 

[xJustxMegx]

It were a lot of screenshots/double images.

 

[mtbdudex]

That’s why I made that testimonial post.
I tried other apps, that one by far was best.
Glad it met your needs.

FWIW - my father in his middle 80’s constantly would end up with duplicates/ triples etc on his devices.
As his son and “tech guy” I got stuck cleaning his pictures - and non picture files.

 

[xJustxMegx]

There are still doubles, but a lot is gone.

 

[ChrisA]

Hi both,

... but also pictures I don't want to lose. So what would be the best solution?

You will never find an app that knows which photos you think are important. Only you can do that.

The simplest thing you could do is import them all into the Apple "Photos" app. Then you look at each and give a start rating of 1 to 5 stars.

One tip, WRITE DOWN you rating criteria. I use something like this
zero- I've not yet looked
1 - very poor for technical reasons or just a worthless subject
2 - questionable quality or unimportant subject
3 - photo that might not be perfect but the subject is important to you
4 - a high-quality photo that is important to you
5 - publication quality, something you should be showing off

Then you can make albums that automatically populate themselves with rules like 5-star phots from summer 2011 trip to Spain.

There is not many other options, you are going to have to look at each photo and rate it and maybe add keyword tags.

 

[xJustxMegx]

I'm ****ed lol.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Photos also have its own built in duplicate finding function.

 

[xJustxMegx]

I'm happy I deleted a lot already, just need time to do the rest.

 

[mtbdudex]

I'm happy I deleted a lot already, just need time to do the rest.

The “similar feature” in that app is your friend.. do your task in chunks, I’ve been there so feel your … frustration