Photos duplicated? Both .jpg and .JPG copies.

[RichardB3]

Hey, everyone. I'm a newbie when it comes to my Macbook, and I've been raised on PCs all my life. Recently, the other person who uses my Macbook has pointed out something I can't figure out on my own: All the photos that have been put on the computer (it seems only the ones that were imported from a digital camera or other storage device) have been duplicated. The duplicates have the same name, as one photo would end in .jpg, whereas the other would be .JPG. The weird thing is, this never happened before, and even photos imported onto the computer from over a year ago have apparently duplicated. I have a feeling that she somehow fiddled with some sort of setting or something like that, but I'm stumped. I used a duplicate-file-finding application, and none of the "duplicates" it found were the ones I'm speaking of. I'm not sure what happened, but it would be nice to see only one of each photo, and prevent it from doing this in the future.

For anyone who's curious, I'm running OSX 10.6.8 on a Macbook from... 2009, I believe? (Sorry, I'm typing this from my desktop PC. If anybody needs more specifications, I'll gladly go look them up.)

 

[Kaveman]

Unless you have done something strange .jpg and .JPG are the same extension.

iPhoto makes a small thumbnail of each photo it stores, but you should never see them as the are stored away in the iPhoto Library.

There is nothing standard on a Mac that would do this, there are millions of Macs that have run 10.6.8 and I think if there was something that would do this it would have shown up before now.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Exactly where, are you seeing the duplicates? Within the iPhoto.app for example, in the library window?

 

[RichardB3]

It happens in the Finder, especially when I go to "All images". Never seemed to happen before recently. The below image demonstrates the issue.

 

[Cory Cooper]

If you look closely, the color is different on each pair...as if Enhance in iPhoto has been run and then all the photos have been exported.
C

 

[RichardB3]

Okay, I see what's happening here. Look below. The left photo is naturally small (as if it were used as a thumbnail), whereas the other photo is full-size when the window size is stretched out (I had to make the window small since the thread wasn't accepting the file size of the screenshot). I suppose these are the thumbnails that Kaveman mentioned, but I'm not sure why I'm seeing them.

 

[RichardB3]

I noticed that too, Cory. Unfortunately, some pictures in there are newly placed on this laptop and iPhoto has not been open/run since the addition of these photos. I'm starting to believe that for some reason iPhoto's thumbnails of these photos are being shown. Oh, and to correct something I said earlier, this also happens no matter what option I choose in Finder (Today, Yesterday, Past Week, and All Images).

 

[RichardB3]

Also, while looking through the enormous amount of photos, it appears that this is done for all image types. For example, I found a .gif image, which also had a duplicate in the form of a .jpg.

Also, Cory, once each of the two images are open, they don't seem to be of different shades, so I don't think it has anything to do with iPhoto's "enhance", but simply the fact that two photos of different sizes are being shown in the Finder as thumbnails.

 

[Kaveman]

Kaveman mentioned, but I'm not sure why I'm seeing them.

iPhoto has not been open/run since the addition of these photos.

Images shows all images on the drives, its not very discerning as to where they are.
Same with All Movies, If you have a large modern game you will see all the cut scenes clips.

If you want to use those type of sidebar folders then make smart folders instead.

You may find if you run iPhoto and it claims its Tumbs this might stop, but I doubt it.

 

[Kaveman]

When you click on the file and do Get Info it will show the full path to the file, check 2 files and it will tell you where they are this will reveal why there are 2.

 

[RichardB3]

When you click on the file and do Get Info it will show the full path to the file, check 2 files and it will tell you where they are this will reveal why there are 2.

Okay, both photos originate from iPhoto. The small "copies" comes from the "Data" folder of iPhoto, and the original photos come from the "Originals" folder of iPhoto. Would you suggest that I locate and empty the "Data" folder?

 

[Kaveman]

No! iPhoto will just make them again, and it could well break the iPhoto Library.
As I said open iPhoto and let it update the Library, see if that helps.

Otherwise there is nothing you can do. The Images folder is a smart folder that list every image on your drive, those Thumbs are images on your harddrive, that's why they are listed there.

 

[RichardB3]

If only it were as easy as I suggested, eh? I've opened iPhoto a few times now, even restarted the Macbook, then opened iPhoto. No luck so far.

 

[Kaveman]

Yes, I suspect this is why they dumped those folders in Mountain Lion, no real use as they show everything even stuff you don't want to see.

 

[RichardB3]

Will it help if I updated to Mountain Lion? (Also, would you suggest it in general compared to what I have now?) I put extra memory into this old macbook after I upgraded to Snow Leopard, so I'm sure this thing can handle it now. (Yeah, when I got this thing from a friend, it didn't even have SL.)

 

[Kaveman]

Will it help if I updated to Mountain Lion?

I would help in the way that Folder in the Sidebar just doesn't exist on Mountain Lion. So you can't look in it and see all those images. Why not just not click on that Folder? Ignore it.

Mountain Lion is better, but make sure your MacBook will run it!

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

I ignore those folders in the side-bar ... I don't care to see the gajillion image files that live on my hard drive & I'm not surprised ML has dumped them!

 

[RichardB3]

Well, I just figured out something. All of the photos that are replicated in my Finder are not even in iPhoto. The photos themselves originate from folders from iPhoto, but they're not shown in iPhoto, not even in the trash of it. (Things just got a lot more confusing, folks.)

 

[RichardB3]

I ignore those folders in the side-bar ... I don't care to see the gajillion image files that live on my hard drive & I'm not surprised ML has dumped them!

Yeah, I intend to ignore those folders from now on. I'd still prefer to fix the problem, if possible. However, I suppose the new question is: How come most of the images that are in the sidebar aren't really in iPhoto? What might have happened?

What I'd like to do is to retrieve those photos, completely wipe my iPhoto application clean, then put them back on there. My idea would be to drag them all from the Finder into a new folder, clean out iPhoto entirely, then import them to iPhoto. How does that sound?
(Sorry if it sounds ridiculous to any of you, I'm incredibly new to Macbooks. Unfortunately my college education on computers didn't cover any Apple products. )

 

[Kaveman]

Photo are not stored in iPhoto, they are stored in the iPhoto Library, which is in the Pictures Folder in your Home Folder. The Library is a very complicated set of Folders inside a "Package" these packages are not meant to be edited from Finder, only from within iPhoto.

Sorry if it sounds ridiculous to any of you

I'm sorry to say, it does.

If the photos are in iPhoto just leave them there if you want them, if not Trash them in iPhoto and then Empty the iPhoto Trash.

If you start removing photos from your iPhoto Library any other way you will break your Library and then it will become a nightmare. If you are not understanding with this what iPhoto is doing, then trying to wipe things is a good way to loose a lot of files.