I have an external SSD with about 700K photos (about 1.4TB), including many duplicates. Unfortunately, I have not been careful and consistent enough in organization over the years, and the photos are scattered in numerous folders, sometimes nested rather deep. Many have Finder tags, but not all; file and folder naming is only semi-consistent, etc. They are a broad mix of scanned film photos (hence with no EXIF dates to help) and more modern digital photos.
I want to designate one primary folder (PF) to reorganize photos properly and have started that process using chronology as the main organization framework. I need advice on how to proceed efficiently - should I first eliminate duplicates in the PF and then do the same on the entire collection? Should I work on the rest (outside the PF), folder by folder, and then work on all at once to find duplicates across different folders? Should I start with the deepest nested folders and work outward to include higher level folders?
I’ve been using Duplicate File Finder (DFF) Pro to find duplicates. It’s thoroughness and accuracy is impressive, and it has a large set of rules to control how duplicate searches are made, but if anyone has other app recommendations, I’m interested. I have also at times used PhotoSweeper, Gemini and Duplicate Detective, but none seem as good to me as DFF. Where I most need help is in designing an efficient plan.
Any tips on a general approach to this problem will be welcome!
I want to designate one primary folder (PF) to reorganize photos properly and have started that process using chronology as the main organization framework. I need advice on how to proceed efficiently - should I first eliminate duplicates in the PF and then do the same on the entire collection? Should I work on the rest (outside the PF), folder by folder, and then work on all at once to find duplicates across different folders? Should I start with the deepest nested folders and work outward to include higher level folders?
I’ve been using Duplicate File Finder (DFF) Pro to find duplicates. It’s thoroughness and accuracy is impressive, and it has a large set of rules to control how duplicate searches are made, but if anyone has other app recommendations, I’m interested. I have also at times used PhotoSweeper, Gemini and Duplicate Detective, but none seem as good to me as DFF. Where I most need help is in designing an efficient plan.
Any tips on a general approach to this problem will be welcome!
