Author Topic: Catalog Duplicates  (Read 4016 times)

Offline fourdogslong

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Catalog Duplicates
« on: January 07, 2022, 07:05:55 PM »
Hi,
I own PM 6 plus and I somehow managed to import some photo twice into the catalog and now they appear twice side by side.
Is there a way to remove duplicates and more importantly how can I make sure this doesn't happen again?

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2022, 09:37:25 AM »
I own PM 6 plus and I somehow managed to import some photo twice into the catalog and now they appear twice side by side.
Is there a way to remove duplicates and more importantly how can I make sure this doesn't happen again?

Do the duplicate images have the same path?  In other words, do they have the same name and do they exist in the same directory?

-Kirk

Offline fourdogslong

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2022, 08:51:13 PM »
Yes they refer to the same exact files.

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2022, 10:46:01 PM »
Yes they refer to the same exact files.

And you only have one catalog?

-Kirk

Offline fourdogslong

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2022, 10:57:17 AM »
Yes, just one catalog, but at some point I did a full catalog sync of my main Pictures folder and that's when the duplicates arrived.

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2022, 11:14:59 AM »
Yes, just one catalog, but at some point I did a full catalog sync of my main Pictures folder and that's when the duplicates arrived.

Can you give me the full path to a few of the duplicate images?

Thanks,

-Kirk

Offline fourdogslong

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2022, 05:35:09 PM »
Ok, so if I click on Reveal in Finder on the first picture the path shown is:
/Users/Mathieu/Pictures/2006/Gala, Bal et après-bal des finissants du secondaire de Gabrielle/02-Select/1994-05-21_041.jpg

On the duplicate the same procedure shows:
/Users/Mathieu/Pictures/2006/Gala, Bal et après-bal des finissants du secondaire de Gabrielle/02-Select/1994-05-21_041.jpg

I used the OS function "copy as pathname" to give you the full path.
So as you can see they're exactly the same picture but they're shown twice in my catalog.

Here's a screenshot that shows the duplicates in PM6, I painted over the people's face for privacy.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2022, 07:08:13 AM by fourdogslong »

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2022, 07:53:08 PM »
Thanks.

Would it be possible for you to share the catalog database (no proxies) with me so I can investigate?

-Kirk

Offline fourdogslong

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #8 on: January 12, 2022, 07:10:18 AM »
Yes I'll try to do that tonight but I'm getting a new computer and I plan to rebuild a new catalog from scratch since my photo collection isn't that huge.

That should solve the problem but I just want to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2022, 09:27:55 AM »
Yes I'll try to do that tonight but I'm getting a new computer and I plan to rebuild a new catalog from scratch since my photo collection isn't that huge.

That should solve the problem but I just want to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Me too, but I'll have to investigate to try and figure out how it happens.  So please save that catalog.  I only need the catalog.pmdb file at this time.  I may also need the catalog state database too, but I'll need to know what OS you use on your computer in order to give you details on how to provide the file to me.

-Kirk

Offline fourdogslong

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #10 on: January 12, 2022, 05:38:54 PM »
I'm on Mac OS Mojave at the moment, v 10.14.6.
I found the catalog file in my document, I'm uploading it right now and sending you a link via private message.

Thanks for the help.
BTW, I'm moving to windows in the next days or weeks, except for the Photo Mechanic Catalogs folder under my document, is there any other preference file in OSX that can be copied over to windows so that PM behaves the same?

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2022, 05:51:40 PM »
I'm on Mac OS Mojave at the moment, v 10.14.6.
I found the catalog file in my document, I'm uploading it right now and sending you a link via private message.

Thanks.  I got the file.  I will investigate tomorrow.

BTW, I'm moving to windows in the next days or weeks, except for the Photo Mechanic Catalogs folder under my document, is there any other preference file in OSX that can be copied over to windows so that PM behaves the same?

You can use the Export/Import buttons in the Preferences dialog to help you retain your settings.

See: https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48000341456-how-to-export-photo-mechanic-preferences-to-move-computers

-Kirk

Offline fourdogslong

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2022, 06:17:09 PM »
Excellent, thank you.

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #13 on: January 15, 2022, 09:35:58 AM »
It appears that the duplicates are occurring because of inconsistencies in the representation of the path to the files themselves.  Particularly, it is the character 'è' in your sample path that is being represented in two ways in the catalog.

How old is your catalog?

If you were to create a new catalog and only Scan to Catalog the "/Users/Mathieu/Pictures/2006/Gala, Bal et après-bal des finissants du secondaire de Gabrielle" path to it, and then do a Catalog Sync on the new catalog in "Full" mode, does the problem happen again?

Thanks,

-Kirk

Offline fourdogslong

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Re: Catalog Duplicates
« Reply #14 on: January 15, 2022, 07:12:30 PM »
Interesting, I'll give it a try when I get some free time. The catalog is a year old maybe.
Thanks