How to remove duplicates from the Catalogs/Collections?

[LRAT]

I created a couple of new catalogs five days ago and populated these with my pictures.
I've got 34,110 pictures in total and gave them all the same colour code.

Now, when I check: Browse - Color Class than I see that the same Color Class contains 68481 pictures.
When I open them then I see all the pictures at least twice.
They got the same name, path, size, metadata, etc. So, they are identical.
How do I remove the duplicates from the Catalog without going through each individual picture?
And how do I prevent this from happening again in the future?
It seems PM6+ doesn't keep track of the pictures already inside a catalog and happily adds identical copies.

[ahoward]

Is it possible that when you added those ~34k pictures to your catalog, the "Add/Modify" box was checked for more than one catalog? The counts that you see will correspond to the total number of items in all catalogs with the "Search" box checked, so if an item was added to 2 catalogs, and the search box is checked for both of those catalogs, and that image has, for example, a Red color label, the Browse menu will show that there are 2 items with a red label, even if it is just one source file.

[LRAT]

Hi ahoward,

I don't think that box was ticked as I've never seen that one. Could you please explain where to find that Add/Modify-box?

I have added two screenshots that show the discrepancy in total picture numbers.
Hopefully that makes it a bit clearer.

[ahoward]

The Add/Modify checkbox is next to each Catalog in the Organizer Panel: https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001077444-how-to-find-your-catalogs-using-the-organizer-panel

It is also in the Catalog Management window: https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001179060-catalog-management

And the Scan to catalog window: https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001157493-scan-to-catalog

It looks like one of our support agents has reached out to you by email to schedule a live support session with you via TeamViewer. I'd recommend following up on that email so that these issues can be looked into at once rather than seperately.

[LRAT]

Thanks ahoward,

I'm so sorry for all this, yes, these tick-boxes were right in front of me and I missed it.
Yes, the Add/Modify boxes were ticked.
I didn't realize that, when the box is ticked, that it will add duplicates to the collection.
Now, the question is how to undo this?
I am about to contact the PM support team but due to work commitments next week I'm trying to work out a suitable time for next week.
Yes, I will accept that invitation for a live support session.
Thanks.

[LRAT]

Hi ahoward,

First and for all: I feel like an idiot!
All my problems related to the duplication of pictures seems to be caused by my incapacity to understand the difference between Catalogs and Collections and the functionality of the Search and Add/Modify boxes.
I just played around with various settings and now I understand why I had duplication of pictures. It is caused by the fact that certain pictures are added to different collections and PM shows all pictures in each Catalog when ticked.
I'm not sure if this thread would be beneficial to other PM+ forum members.
Please feel free to remove this listing if you wish.
My apologies for wasting your time but at least I learned something.