delete all duplicate images

[gperoutka]

In Image Browser EX, is there a way to delete duplicate images en masse, rather than one at a time?

[Mykolas]

Hi gperoutka!

Thanks for posting.

If you hold the CTRL key, then click on each image you want to delete, it will select all of those images you click on, then you can delete them all at the same time. 

[RobertTheFat]

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@inactive010823 wrote:

Hi gperoutka!

Thanks for posting.

If you hold the CTRL key, then click on each image you want to delete, it will select all of those images you click on, then you can delete them all at the same time. 

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Not quite. You don't want to hold down the CTRL key while you click the first image. Because if you do, any images that already happen to be highlighted will be included in the deletion.

You should also be able to click the first image in a contiguous sequence, then Shift-click the last one. This should highlight the entire sequence, which you could then delete with one click of the Delete key. I don't know whether that works in Image Browser; I believe that it doesn't work in at least some releases of DPP. (It does work in almost every other Windows program ever written.)

Incidentally DPP V4 offers no confirmation of a deletion about to occur and no "undelete" capability. I hope that IB doesn't share that misfeature.

[Skirball]

If you have a lot of duplicates - hundreds or even thousands - I'd recommend downloading Lightroom (you can get a 30 day free trial) and getting a delete duplicates plugin (there are several).

[gperoutka]

Bingo!  Thanks, Skirball.   I have lightroom and that is exactly where the issue of hundreds of duplicates lies.  So, if there is a plugin that can solve my problem, please share!  Where do I go to get a plugin?  App store? iTunes?   Which plugin do you suggest?  This is the solution I've been looking for!

[Skirball]

A couple years ago I had a database SNAFU and had several hundred photos duplicated.  I really can't remember what the plugin was called, I think it was the one listed below, but really can't say for sure.  It did a decent job, didn't delete anything it shouldn't (I backed up everything just in case), and got most the duplicates.  I still had to do a little manual cleanup, but it saved me a lot of time.

Here's a recent review of a plugin called Duplicate Finder.  Looks decent to me.  So long as you backup your files just in case, you really don't have anything to lose.  Give it a shot, let us know how it works!

http://www.lightroomfanatic.com/tutorials/advanced/finding-duplicate-images-lightroom-catalog/

Edit: I guess I should have read the article more closely.  Scroll to the bottom of the article, and click on the link to the previous week's article.  It's kind of brilliant really.  All you do is use the export function to export all your files, in original format, to a new folder, but you use Lightrooms built in duplicate detection function to only copy single files.  So even though you just created a whole folder of duplicates, that new folder shouldn't have any.  So you can double check that everything is there, and then delete the old folder.  Note: I would triple check that everything is there, and make sure it's the original RAW file, not a jpg (if you're not well versed in Lightroom's export panel, I would have a good look at it).

I'm sure the plugin would work, but I'm kind of impressed by the simplicity of Adobe's solution.

Edit 2: I forgot to point out, this only works if you haven't changed the file names.  Otherwise, you have to do it manually.

[peterson]

Why don't you try Duplicate Files Deleter? It will do a thorough search of your hard disk and find out the two or more duplicate files of the same file which may be stored at different locations. It will give you a comprehensive list of all those files and you can decide for yourself what you want to do with them. It's easy to use. Hope it will help you.