Catalog Duplicates

[fourdogslong]

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?

[Kirk Baker]

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

[fourdogslong]

Yes they refer to the same exact files.

[Kirk Baker]

Yes they refer to the same exact files.

And you only have one catalog?

-Kirk

[fourdogslong]

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.

[Kirk Baker]

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

[fourdogslong]

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.

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks.

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

-Kirk

[fourdogslong]

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.

[Kirk Baker]

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

[fourdogslong]

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?

[Kirk Baker]

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

[fourdogslong]

Excellent, thank you.

[Kirk Baker]

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

[fourdogslong]

Interesting, I'll give it a try when I get some free time. The catalog is a year old maybe.
Thanks