If you’ve found your way to this article, it is probably because you have found yourself with a tangled up folder structure or a lot of missing folders/images. Untangling this can be quite time consuming and tedious. But once completed the reward can be quite satisfying.

(Catalog=Workflow Flow Chart)

Some of the common issues that users face include:

Multiple Catalogs
Missing folders
Missing image files
Misnamed folders
Folders and files physically on disk are not showing up in LrC
Folders nested inside themselves (e.g. a 2020 folder inside another 2020 folder)
Folder under wrong parent (e.g. Folder “2020-03-15” is inside folder “1990”)
Same folder in multiple places (e.g. Folder “2020” shows up on two different drives or under two different parent folders perhaps with the same images and perhaps with different images or some of each
Duplicate images
More than one folder for the same purpose (e.g. “Dad’s 50^th B’day party” and “Dad’s 50^th Birthday”)
Inconsistent folder naming (e.g. “2025-06 Yosemite” and “2025_06 Yosemite” – note “dash” vs. “underscore” in date
Can’t import photos as LrC says they are duplicates but the one already in LrC is marked as “missing”
Can’t move images from one folder to another folder using the Folders Panel as LrC says they are already there but in LrC they are not.
LrC shows some folders as being on a backup drive

After years of helping clients untangle such messes (see: , https://www.danhartfordphoto.com/lightroom-help), I’ve discovered that no two clients have messed up their folder structure in the same way. Each case is unique in many regards however almost all include some form of duplicate folders, inconsistent naming, folders under wrong parents and missing items. In addition most also include extra images on disk that LrC doesn’t know about – sometimes in folders LrC does know about and sometimes in folders LrC does not know about.

Going over every possible situation with detailed steps to fix each one is an entire book not an article (I know, I just tried). Instead, I’ll touch on the most common problems and provide an idea of what caused the problem, and how best to remedy the situation.

Multiple active catalogs

In this case we are not talking about catalogs from a linear progression of catalogs created due to LrC version updates or making a replacement copy of a catalog (like in the list below).

12 Sequential Catalogs

In these cases once the new catalog is created it becomes the active master catalog and the ones before it in line become obsolete and are no longer used for new images or edits to existing images. In other words the current active master catalog has all your images in their most current state and has entirely replaced the catalogs that came before it.

The multiple catalogs we are talking about here are situations where for whatever reason you have multiple catalogs that you switch back and forth between where the same folders or images may be in more than one catalog with the same or different edits and/or metadata.

Unless you have a good reason for multiple active catalogs this is a bad idea. But, there are some good reasons to have multiple active catalogs. For example a catalog for each photographer using the same computer, a wedding photographer may have a catalog for each wedding, or you may have a personal catalog and a work catalog. Having a catalog per year IS NOT A GOOD REASON FOR MULTIPLE CATALOGS. Neither is having catalogs based on subject matter.

11 Multiple Active Catalogs

I will cover how to merge multiple active catalogs into one grand master catalog in a separate article. However, pending that article, I should caution you that if the same folders or images are known to more than one LrC catalog if you move, rename, or delete any such folders or image files (or any of their parent folders) while cleaning up one catalog, those folders and images will become ‘missing’ in the other catalogs. Therefore if the same folders or images are in more than one catalog it is a good idea to get them all merged into one grand master catalog first. Then go about cleaning up the messed up folder and images

Overall methodology considerations

Don’t kill yourself

It is much better to work on your clean up for a few hours and then take a break and come back to it later that day or on another day. Trying to plow through the whole thing all at once is not a good plan. You’ll get frustrated, tired, and start to make mistakes. It is also OK to continue using LrC for your normal work between clean up sessions however if that is your plan, make sure you go through the “Stop making it worse” section below.

If your folder organization is based on high level “year” folders, do one year at a time. I also recommend working through the years in order (either direction) rather than randomly picking years. I also recommend putting a color label on each year as you complete it as a marker of your progress.

34 Folder color Label

Start new folder hierarchy

Depending on how bad a mess you have, you may want to create a brand new Master Photos parent folder (maybe even on a new disk drive) and as you clean things up move the fixed folders to be under this new parent. While using this method you’ll have the old messed up folders that you haven’t repaired yet under one parent and as they are repaired they will be in this new hierarchy. Once done you’ll have all your image folders under this new master parent and the old folders should be gone or empty.

Stacked image

During the clean up processes, it is important to assure that you are seeing all your images, even those in collapsed stacks. There are two ways to do this.

One is to select all images in the “All Photographs” collection and “Expand all Stacks”.

Another option is to create an empty regular collection (let’s call it “Empty Collection”) and each time you change to a different source folder, Ctrl + click (Win) or Cmd +click (Mac) on this empty collection to have it also selected along with whatever folder you are working on. This will cause all images to show in the grid regardless of stacking.

13 All photos selected

See Including images buried in stacks in the grid (2022) for more details on this.

Color labels

I find that using color labels during clean up projects to mark files and folders that I may need to come back to or that have been processed is quite useful. If you choose to do this, start by making sure that the colors you use are not already being used for something else.

Stop making it worse

The first step is to stop making your mess worse. Once you stop making it worse, you can continue your regular work in LrC in between your clean up sessions.

There is one golden piece of advice I can give you that is quite important.

SLOW DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION!

For folder messes, there are two main causes:

Renaming, deleting, or moving image files or folders containing images known to LrC using tools other than the LrC folders panel – and this includes similar changes to any parent folder of those image folders all the way up to, and including, the drive letter (Windows) or the volume/drive name (Mac).
Not using the “Destination” panel in the Import Dialog correctly.

Proper folder management

If you need to rename, move, or delete a folder containing images known to LrC (or any parent of such a folder), do so from the Folders Panel in LrC and not using File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac).

Rename Folder: Right click on the folder name in LrC and select “Rename”. Be careful as this option is right above “Remove” which starts with the same letters, has the same number of letters and with a quick glance can be easily mistaken for “Rename”.

Move Folder: First, expose enough parent folders in the LrC folders panel to make visible the folder you want to be the parent folder for the one you are moving. If it doesn’t exist then the next higher parent. Do this by right clicking on a folder and then selecting “Show Parent Folder”. Repeat with successively higher level folders till the desired folder is shown.

If the new parent already exists and is visible in LrC, just drag the folder to its new parent.

If the new parent folder under which you want to move this folder does not exist, right click on the next higher parent and select “Create folder inside xxxxxxxxx” to create it. If this generates this error
35 Folder Duplicate Name Msg
a folder with the same name already exists under that parent which may or may not contain the same images as the folder you are trying to move. If the duplicate of the folder you are trying to move is not visible in LrC, see section Have it all in LrC. Once the duplicate of the folder you are trying to move is visible in LrC, See: Same folder in multiple places.

Delete/Remove Folder: In the LrC Folders Panel, right click on the folder name and select remove. If the folder contains images they will remain in the folder on disk so you may want to delete all the images in the folder first, then remove the folder. It’s a bit vague but in most cases if the folder is empty after removing it from LrC, it will be deleted from disk. However, if there is anything (including system files like “.ini” or “.db” files) in the folder it will not be deleted from disk.

Proper image management

Use LrC not Finder/Explorer to manage images known to LrC.

Rename Image file: If it’s just one image, select it and then in the Metadata Panel of the Library Module, type over the “File Name” field. If you need to do a bunch in a batch, select the ones you want to change and click the ‘F2’ button on your keyboard (or menu: Library -> Rename Photos). This will bring up the bulk file rename template tool. From here you can select a naming template or create a new one to use. Be careful as this cannot be undone with the “undo” command or speed key.

Move images: In the Library Module grid, select the desired images and drag them to the desired folder in the Folders Panel. If it complains that the image is already there, see Handling Duplicate images.

Delete/Remove Images: In the Library Module grid view (or film strip), select the desired images and then click the backspace (Mac or Windows) or delete key (Windows) on your keyboard. Then choose to either just remove them from Lightroom (leaving them on disk) or to remove them from LrC and delete them from disk.

My advice is to try and have LrC know about all the images that are in folders known to LrC. Therefore either leave the image in LrC, delete it from disk or move it to a “garbage” folder you create.

Proper use of import destination panel

I’m not going to provide a full tutorial on the Import Dialog Destination Panel but the key is that if you are using any import mode other than “Add”, PAY ATTENTION to the destination panel.

05 Import Dest 3

If you are using LrC managed date folders (“By Date” option), make sure the selected folder in the Destination panel is the one ABOVE the year folders. LrC will show you the folders that will be created (light gray font) for the images selected in this import.

If you are not using LrC managed date folders (“Into One Folder” option), and the destination folder already exists make sure that it is the selected folder in the Destination Panel.

If you are not using LrC managed date folders, and you want to create a new folder to receive the images from this import, check the “Into Subfolder” box, type the new folder name in the box on that same line and select the parent folder under which you want the new folder to go. The new folder that will be created will be shown in light gray.

Have it all in LrC

If you find yourself with the sort of problems I listed, it is also quite likely that (excluding backups) there are also many folders and/or images on disk that LrC is not aware of. I find it best to get all folders with images into LrC so you can see them all in one place as you progress through your clean up process.

There are two flavors of this situation. One is where LrC knows about a folder but not all the images within that folder and the second is where LrC doesn’t even know about the folder. Let’s tackle the first flavor first.

I find it easiest to do this one folder at a time (or one year at a time if your folders are organized by year).

Make sure “Show Photos in Subfolders” is turned on (menu “Library -> Show Photos in Subfolders”, or right click on “+” sign on the “Folders” panel header and select “Show Photos in Subfolders”)
In the Folders panel select a folder (which can be a parent folder)
Right click on the folder and select “Synchronize Folder…”
You’ll then get a pop up like this (wait for it to finish counting)
19 Sync Folder 1
Right now we are only interested in the top (Import new photos) section. If that count is 0 then LrC already knows about all the images in that folder as well as all its subfolders and we can just “Cancel”. Otherwise, make a note of the image count and be sure the check boxes are as shown above and click “Synchronize”.
This will take you to the import dialog with those images being shown in the import dialog grid
The image count above the top right corner of the grid should match the count in the prior screen shot. Use the pre-selected “Add” mode, select “New Photos”, and CHECK “Don’t import suspected duplicates”. Then click “Import” at the bottom right. If you get error “Can’t import some images as they are already in LrC, Ignore it for now.
20 Sync Folder Import dialog
Once the import completes, go to the “Previous Import” collection in the Catalog Panel. Select all the images and put a color label on them (let’s use purple) to identify them as the newly imported versions. This may come in handy later if you need to decide which of several versions to keep and which to trash.
Right click on the same folder and click “Synchronize” again. If the result is zero stop there. But, if it is not zero it means that this folder contains images that are already in the Catalog but not necessarily in the same folder. Continue with the following steps.
Click “synchronize” to go to the Import Dialog. Use the same settings as before but this time UNCHECK the “Don’t import suspected duplicates” box. Import these images. These are images that are duplicates of images already in the catalog but are in different folders than the folder you are synchronizing.
Go to the “Previous Import” collection and mark all these images with a different color label (let’s use “red”). This will be your way of knowing that they are duplicates that should be dealt with later.

The above steps will account for previously unknown images in known folders but it does not account for folders which are completely unknown to LrC. To bring those unknown folders into the mix, you can manually compare the folders shown in LrC with those shown in Explorer/Finder and then import any folders on disk that are not in LrC. But here’s a more automated method to do that:

Launch the import dialog
Select as a source for the images an entire disk drive (or a very high level folder)
Use the “Add” mode with “Don’t import suspected duplicates” option turned on.
This will bring in all photos not currently in the catalog including ones in folders currently unknown to LrC.
After the Import go to the Previous Import special collection, select all the images and set a color label on these images (let’s use Blue)

It may be the case that some of these new folders also contain images already in LrC and therefore were skipped in the import. If that is a possibility and you want to root those out, keep going with the steps below.

Select one of the blue images, right click on it and select “Go to Folder in Library” This will be one of the new folders – make a note of which folder it is.
Remove the blue color label from the images in that folder
Now Click “synchronize” on this folder to go to the Import Dialog. If the count of new images is greater than zero, then this new folder also has some images already known to LrC in which case continue by clicking “Synchronize”
19 Sync Folder 1
In the ensuing Import Dialog, use the same settings as before but this time UNCHECK the “Don’t import suspected duplicates” box and import these images. These are images that are duplicates of images already in the catalog but are probably in different folders than the folder you are synchronizing.
Go to the “Previous Import” collection and mark all these images with a different color label (let’s use “red”). This will be your way of knowing that they are duplicates that should be dealt with later.
As these “red” images are duplicates of images already in LrC (but in other folders) you probably just want to get rid of them but first check to assure that they are indeed duplicates and the one already in the catalog is not ‘missing’ and is also not just an SP (Smart Preview). If the other image is missing or just an SP, see Handling Duplicate images. Otherwise, select these “red” images while viewing them through the Folders Panel and delete them. Don’t just remove them from LrC, delete them from disk.

Misnamed folder

In your clean up effort you may want to rename a folder, perhaps to conform to a consistent naming convention. To just change the name of a folder, use the LrC Folders Panel and right click on the folder name then select “Rename” (be careful as “Rename “ is right above the similar looking “Remove” in the list and it’s easy to click the wrong one). Then type the new name in the pop up box.

You may be surprised if you get an error saying that the typed folder name is already in use.

21 Rename Folder A

In this case you need to see if any of the same images are in both folders. If the folder you are trying to rename has subfolders that you want to retain, you may want to perform the rest of these steps on each of the subfolders individually.

For images that are ONLY in the folder you wanted to rename, select them all in the grid and then drag them to the properly named folder. Drag from inside the image itself – not the gray area around the image – it will move all the selected images.

For images that are in both folders, see Handling Duplicate images in this document.

Images that are already ONLY in the properly named folder should just be left alone.

Once all the images that need to be moved – including any in subfolders - are in the desired folder, any left in the folder you originally wanted to rename can be deleted. First, still using the LrC Folders Panel, select those images and delete them (delete from disk, not just remove). Next remove the folder from LrC by right clicking the folder name in the Folders Panel and selecting “Remove”. Finally, using Explorer/Finder, check to see if the folder was deleted. If it was not, take a look at what’s left inside the folder and deal with as desired then delete (move to trash) the folder on disk.

Folder Marked as Missing

The Lightroom Queen has an excellent blog on how to deal with missing files and folders here https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/ but I’ve included some additional information.

You may have folders marked as missing. A missing folder is grayed out and has a “?” (Not an “!”) on the folder icon in the Folders Panel. Starting with LrC/15.0 when you have a missing folder, all of the parents of the missing folder are marked with an “!”

08 Missing Folder

There are several causes of this such as not using the Folders Panel to do folder maintenance, moving to a new computer where the PC or Mac user name is not the same or a drive letter (Win) or volume name (Mac) has changed. This also occurs if the disk drive containing that folder is not currently connected to the computer. Another cause is deliberately choosing to use Explorer of Finder to do a mass change for performance or other reasons and neglecting to re-link the folders afterwards.

The LrC catalog maintains a list of all the folders containing images known to LrC. This list includes the name of the folder and the path to that folder on disk. This list is what you see in the Folders Panel. If a folder in this list is no longer accessible using that path and folder name, then it is considered as “missing”. This is just another way of saying LrC cannot currently access that folder using the information it has about where on disk it is.

Disconnected Drive: If the drive containing the folder is not plugged in, then plug it in.

Mac Volume Name Changed: On a Mac, if the drive or Volume name changed, you can change the name back to what LrC expects using Finder or re-link any of the Missing folders which will fix them all (see "Re-Link Folder" below).

Windows Drive Letter Changed: On Windows if the drive letter changed you can re-link any of the folders on that drive which will fix them all (see "Relink Folder below). To avoid this problem repeating over and over, it is suggested that for each external drive that has images known to LrC, you tell Windows to always use the same drive letter for that drive rather than just picking the next available letter in the alphabet each time you re-boot the computer. Pick a letter at least half way down the alphabet. Most people use “P” for “Photos” and then go on from there for additional photo drives. Do an Internet search for “Change Drive Letter” for instructions on how to do this. You will need to do this on each Windows computer on which you will use those drives.

Re-Link Folder: See The Lightroom Queen blog https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

Missing Files

The Lightroom Queen has an excellent blog on how to deal with missing files and folders so I’ll refer you to that article rather than repeat all that info here https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

Folder nested inside itself

This is a common problem when not paying attention to (or understanding) the Destination Panel in the Import Dialog (see “Proper use of import destination panel”).

09 Recursive folder 1

If you find that you have this situation, follow these steps.

Turn off “Show Images in Subfolders” (it’s in the “Library” menu or right click on the “+” sign on the “Folders” panel header). Now the image count on folders in the Folders Panel only reflect image files in that specific folder and do not include image counts from sub folders.
Assure that the higher level redundant folder doesn’t also have the same subfolders as the lower folder. If it does see Same folder in multiple places or Folder under wrong parent. Check both the LrC Folders Panel and your disk drive. If there is a folder on disk that is not showing in LrC, see Have it all in LrC.
If the subfolder (lower of the two) has any images other than in subfolders (i.e. the count on the lower folder is not zero – “3” in my screen shot), drag those images to the parent (upper) folder of the two (or to one of its subfolders).
15 Recursive Folder 2
Drag subfolders from the lower folder to the upper folder
10 Recursvie Folder 3
If you get this message it means that a copy of the folder is already on disk directly under the top version of the folder.
36 Folder Already Exists msg
you didn’t pay attention to step 2.
Now that the lower folder has no images and no subfolders we can remove it from LrC by right clicking on it in LrC and selecting “Remove”.
The prior step, may not delete the folder from disk. Using Finder/Explorer navigate to that folder. If it is empty delete it (Win) or move it to the Trash (Mac). If it is not empty and there are images in it see section Have it all in LrC, and Handling Duplicate images
If it has other non image files in it, deal with them as appropriate for whatever they happen to be (you can ignore “*.ini” files and most other system type files)

Folder under wrong parent

For example, folder “2020-03-15” is inside of folder “1969” rather than folder “2020”.

16 Wrong Parent Folder

This often happens due to using previous values in the Destination Panel of the import dialog for a new import or selecting the wrong destination folder when using the “By Date” option in the import dialog. The fix is quite simple. In the folders panel drag the folder to its correct parent.

However, this can generate an error if a folder with the same name already exists there which seems to quite often be the case with my clients. In this case see; Same folder in multiple places

Same folder in multiple places

This is usually caused by importing the same things multiple times to different locations which many times happen when the first import went to some unexpected place and you didn’t think it worked so you did it again to the correct place. But there are many other ways this can happen. Below is an example of this where folder “1969-08a El’s Bike Trip” showed up on two different drives (volumes) perhaps with the same images and perhaps with different images or some of each.

17 Same folder 2 places

In this case the folder in both locations have the same name but this is not a requirement for this problem. As long as both folders are designed to house the same range of images then this section of the blog applies.

To resolve this:

We already assured that all images in known folders are known to LrC so there should be no images in either folder on disk that are not being shown in LrC.
Manually determine if the two folders contain the same images or not. I do this by:

Selecting all the images in Folder A and putting a color label on them.
Select all the images in Folder B and put a different color label on them.
Click on one of the folders to select it
While holding down the <ctrl> key (Win) or the <CMD> key (Mac) click on the other one. This will intermingle the images from both folders in the grid.
Sort the Grid by Capture Date or File Name
Visually scan the grid to see if there are duplicates

If they contain all the same images, with the same edits in each folder, just delete the folder that is in the wrong place from LrC using the folders panel and from disk using Finder/Explorer if it remained there.
If they contain the all same images but have different edits where the folder in the correct place has all the edits you want to keep and the folder in the wrong place only has edits you don’t care about, remove the folder from the wrong place using the LrC folders panel and then delete it from disk using Finder/Explorer.
If they contain the all the same images but with different edits where the folder in the wrong place has all the edits you want to keep and folder in the correct place has only edits you don’t care about, remove the folder in the correct place using the LrC Folders Panel and delete it from disk using Finder/Explorer. Then using the Folders Panel in LrC drag the folder from the incorrect place to the correct place.
If they contain only some of the same images or have different edits where you want to pick and choose which edits to keep, see: Handling Duplicate images.

Finding Duplicate images

There are all sorts of ways you can wind up with duplicate images in your catalog. In most cases it is due to multiple imports of the same image – especially if you have “Don’t import suspected duplicates” in the import dialog unchecked. But this can also happen if you “import from another catalog or your Lightroom Sync process was moved to a different catalog. But however these redundant images got there dealing with them is pretty much on a one by one basis.

Also see https://www.lightroomqueen.com/clean-duplicate-photos/

The first problem we run into when dealing with duplicates is just what we mean by “duplicate”. There are basically three realms of duplicates.

Images which stemmed from the same shutter click and have the same edits and metadata. These are ‘true duplicates’.
Images which stemmed from the same shutter click but have been edited differently or have different metadata. These are ‘derivative’ images.
Images that are visually similar but stemmed from different shutter clicks (perhaps a camera burst mode) or came from different scans images that came from the same shutter click decades ago. These are ‘visually similar’ images. In the latter scenario, they are only ‘visually similar’ as they will not have much (if any) duplicate metadata.

For case 1 and 2 (from same shutter click – not scanned in)

We can assume that the EXIF (camera) metadata is the same amongst the “duplicates”. This includes things like capture date/time, camera make model and serial number; lens info, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, Etc. For these types of duplicates one can use a plugin such as Teekesselchen (open source donationware) or Duplicate Finder which detect duplicates based only on metadata and mark potential duplicates in any of several different ways. However, it is up to you to determine which version to keep and which to toss. Remember, some may be valid duplicates created for various purposes.

Teekesselchen screen shots
37 Teekesselchen Panels

Once a set of duplicates are identified, using whatever criteria you desire pick the one you want to keep and see Handling Duplicate images. Then, if needed, move the keeper to its proper folder.

For number 3 (visually similar images)

There are also many 3^rd party products that use varying degrees of intelligence to detect “visually similar” images. Most of these run outside of LrC so have additional considerations in getting the results reflected back in LrC. Some claim some sort of LrC interaction but read the fine print. However a few of them such as “Excire Search” run as a plugin inside of LrC. As with the standalone products some use ‘perceptual hashing” to detect visually similar photos which is an older technology and some use newer AI based “semantic analysis” methods.

Duplicate Photo Cleaner
22 Dup tool - Dup Photo Cleaner

Duplicat Photo Fixer Pro
23 Dup tool - Dup Photos fixer Pro

Visually Similar Duplicate Image Finder (VSDIF)
24 Dup tool VSDIF

Excire-Search has many modes for finding duplicates including starting with an example photo for which you want to find other visually similar images. In their nomenclature, “duplicates” is mostly based on metadata and while good for ‘true duplicates” and ‘derivative images’ and for burst mode shots, it doesn’t work well as well for other ‘visually similar” situations.

Below is their control panel to find ‘duplicate’ images.
26 Excire Search for Dups Panel

And the control panel for “visually similar” (they call “search by example) images. The only way to get this technology is to select a reference image and then let it find others that are visually similar. Below is this control panel and an example result.

33 Excire Visually Similar Result

In my limited testing of several products using both technologies I was not overly impressed. I ran my tests using images scanned from prints, negatives and slides. In many cases there were two or more prints made from the same negative at different times in the past which I scanned at separate times. Each of 5 different programs found different ‘matches’. Some matches were completely different with absolutely no ascertainable similarity and some seemingly exact duplicates were not flagged as matches at all. So, don’t expect perfect results but many times it’s good enough to then finish the job manually using the suggested dup groups from the tool. I finally landed on Excire-Search using their one by one “Search by Example Photo” mode to help me weed out duplicate scans from the same negative and it’s working quite well, with a good results presentation (as collections) of the results. I’m still trying to get a better understanding of this product.

But this article is not about reviewing these products, so I’ll leave it there.

When using a program outside of LrC, you can typically have the program delete the selected dups from disk or have it mark the images in some way (keyword, star rating, flag, Etc.). Ones that run inside of LrC as a plug in can typically put suspected duplicates into a collection of each group of suspected duplicates.

18 Excire dup Search collecitons

If you have the external program delete the duplicate images from disk they will then become “missing” in LrC. This may be OK if you first assured the there were no other ‘missing images’ in LrC before you use the external program. Then after letting the external program delete images run the “Find all missing images” in LrC again and remove all it finds.

On the other hand, if the external program sets metadata such as reject flag or adds a keyword to images targeted for deletion, first make sure that you are not using that feature for something else and before you run the program save metadata to disk so that all your other metadata is in or with the image files. Then run the program and afterwards return to LrC and read metadata from disk to bring that info back into LrC.

Now see Handling Duplicate images,

Once you’ve purged LrC of the unwanted duplicates, the remaining images should be moved to their proper folders if they are not already there.

Handling Duplicate images

Whatever methods or tools are used to find potential duplicates, there must be a method to determine what to keep and what to toss.

Here are some considerations to use when deciding what to keep and what to get rid of.

Were the duplicates created for some still valid purpose and therefore should not be deleted?
Are there different edits between the duplicates?
Are there differences in metadata such as star ratings, pick flags, titles, captions, keywords, Etc.?
Is one of the duplicates in more desired collections (including Publish Service collections) than perhaps the others are?
Are some of the duplicates being synced with Lr/Cloud?
Are some of the duplicates marked as “missing” or are they just an SP (Smart Preview)?

The result for each group of duplicates should be an understanding of which you want to keep and which you want to toss. But don’t be too hasty in deleting the “tossers”.

Keeper is ‘missing’ but a duplicate is not missing

Use Explorer/Finder to move the physical image file from the folder where the duplicate you’ll be trashing is to the folder where LrC thinks the keeper should be. Once you do this the image will no longer be marked as missing in the desired folder. Be sure you move the correct image by verifying not only the file name but also look at the image in Finder/Explorer to assure it matches the one in LrC. Then remove the unwanted one form LrC.

All are ‘missing’

See Missing files.

You want to keep more than one as physical files

If you have valid reasons to keep more than one and the belong in different folders, drag them to their proper folders. If, on the other hand, you want them in the same folder they must either have different file names on disk or all but one must be a VC (Virtural Copy).

If they are physical files on disk (not VC’s), and you want to keep them as separate physical files but in the same folder they must have different file names. If they have the same file name, rename one or more of them using the LrC Folders Panel so the names are unique and then drag the ones from the incorrect folder to the correct folder.

You want to keep duplicates as VC’s’

If you want to keep more than (for example, they have different edits) but would rather the various iterations be VC’s stemming from the same original image rather than separate images do this.

Decide which one you want to be the master image. which must not be missing nor should it be a VC.
If you want a new unedited version to be the master…
1. Select any of the images
2. Reset the image (“Reset” button at bottom of right panel group in Develop Module) but don’t do anything else in the develop module
3. Back in the Library Module, make a VC of the just ‘reset’ image (R-click, select “Create Virtual Copy”)
4. Go back to the develop module and on the original image (not the VC) click the top entry in the History Panel (on the left side) to reapply any edits that image had before the ‘Reset’
5. Back in the Library Module, select the VC then in the “Photo” menu select “Set Copy as Original” to make the VC the original and the original becomes the VC
For each additional duplicate physical image that you want to become a VC…
1. In the Library Module select the original (master) image
2. Create a VC of the original (master) image (R-click, select “Create Virtual Copy”)
3. Select the duplicate image
4. Use menu “Metadata” -> “Copy Metadata” and select what metadata you want to keep. Click “copy”
5. Select the new VC, and use menu “Metadata” -> “Paste Metadata”
6. Select the duplicate image
7. Use menu “Photo” -> “Develop Settings” -> Copy settings” and select what edits you want to keep. Click “copy”
8. Select the new VC, and use menu “Photo” -> “Devlop Settings” -> “Paste Setting”. Then click “Copy”
9. Delete the duplicate image using the folders panel

Folders and files physically on disk are not showing up in LrC

See Section: Have it all in LrC

Can’t move images due to already existing in the destination folder

This is where you are trying to move images from one folder to another (using the Folders Panel) and LrC says that it can’t since they are already there. This means that an image with that file name is already in the destination folder on disk whether or not LrC shows it as being in the destination folder. When you attempt this you will get this error message

38 Already Exists at Dest Msg

If the image it is complaining about in the destination folder is on disk but not known to LrC:

Using Finder/Explorer, make sure that it is indeed the same image your are trying to move
If the one you are trying to move in LrC is a real file that is not missing and is not a VC (Virtual Copy) or just an SP (Smart Preview), using Finder/Explorer remove the image from the destination folder. Then you should be able to execute your attempted move using LrC.
If the one you are trying to move is ‘missing’ or is just an SP, using Explorer/Finder, move the one in the destination folder to the folder where LrC is showing the image you are trying to move. This will make it no longer ‘missing’ at which point you can re-try the move operation.
If the one you are trying to move is a VC, that is not something LrC can do as VC’s must remain in the same folder as their master image. You can move the master image which will bring the VC along with it, but you can’t move just the VC.

If a copy of the image you are trying to move is already shown in LrC as being in the destination folder you have the following options:

To keep just the version in the source folder. If the version in the source folder is “missing” or is just an SP, use Explorer/Finder to find and then copy a version of the image file to the source folder on disk. Then, using the LrC Folders panel, remove the version in the destination folder and delete it from disk. Then try moving the image again using LrC.
To keep just the version in the destination folder. If the version in the destination folder is “missing” or just an SP, use Explorer/Finder to find and then copy a version of the image file to the destination folder on disk. This should make the image no longer missing. Now, using LrC, remove the version of the file in the source folder and delete it from disk.
To keep them both as physical image files. If they have the same file name and you want them in the same folder, use LrC to rename one of them. If it’s just a single image, select the one you want to rename and type over the file name in the Metadata Panel. If it’s a bunch of images select them all and use the “Rename File” tool (F2 on the keyboard). Then try moving the image(s) again using LrC.
To make the duplicate into VC follow these steps:

If the version in the destination folder is “missing” or just an SP, use Explorer/Finder to find and then copy a version of the image file to the destination folder on disk so that it is no longer missing(make sure it’s the correct image)
Select the version of the image in the destination folder and make a VC from it ([Win] <Ctrl> + <Apostrophe>, [Mac] <Ctrl> + <Apostrophe>)
Select the VC you just created, go to the Develop Module and click the Reset button at the bottom of the Right Panel Group

The following steps copy both the settings (edits) and metadata from the source image to the new VC in the destination folder. A faster method, if you’re familiar with it, is to use the Sync Metadata and Sync Settings buttons to do this copy. But this requires having both images selected at the same time which unless you know how to do it with the images being in different folders can be tricky. If you know how to do that, go for it, otherwise follow the individual steps below.

Now go back to the Library module and select the version in the source folder.
Copy the settings to your clipboard using menu “Photo -> Develop Settings -> Copy settings” (or Ctrl + Shift + C (Win), Cmd + Shift + C (Mac)). In the pop up select all (or pick and choose) and click “Copy”
39 Copy Settings
Select the VC in destination folder and paste the Develop Settings using menu “Photo -> Develop Settings -> Paste Settings” (or Ctrl + Shift + V (Win), Cmd + Shift + V (Mac))
Go back to the one in the Source folder and copy the metadata to your clipboard using menu “Metadata -> Copy Metadata”. In the pop up select all (or pick and choose) and click “Copy”
40 Copy Metadata
Select the VC in destination folder and paste the Metadata from the clipboard onto the image using menu “Metadata -> Past Metadata”
If there is any other info like participation in Collections or Publish Services on the one in the source folder that you want to retain, update the VC in the destination folder with that information.
In the Library Module, remove and delete from disk the version in the source folder
If you’d like to swap which is the master image and which is the VC, Select the VC and then use menu “Photo -> Set Copy as Original”

Can’t import duplicate of a photo already in the catalog

This is when you are importing new photos and LrC hides (or dims) the image in the import dialog unless you uncheck the “Do not import suspected duplicates” checkbox.

In this case don’t do the import. Instead in LrC look for that image using its file name or capture date/time. If the one already in LrC is marked as missing, again don’t re-import it. Rather move/copy the image using Finder/Explorer to the folder shown in LrC for the missing photo. Once you do the copy, it will no longer be shown as ‘missing’ and you can then drag it to the desired folder using the LrC Folders panel.

LrC shows some images as being on a backup drive

This is the case where some images are in a folder which is on a backup drive or in a folder identified as a backup folder. There are many ways this can occur but the goal is to have LrC point to images on your normal images drive or folder. LrC should not be aware of images on backup drives or in backup folders.

In general, using the LrC Folders panel, drag the folders for those images from the backup drive or folder to their proper location. You may need to see other sections of this document to deal with duplicate, misnamed, or missing folders.

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LR030 – Cleaning Up Folder Mess

Have it all in LrC

Same folder in multiple places

Finding Duplicate images

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