Adobe Community: How to Avoid Duplicate photo Uploads with Elements 11 on Mac?

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1. swharton07,

Jan 27, 2013 2:29 AM in reply to RocklinDavid

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Unless Macs are radically different PSE will not load duplicates when you import unless they have a different file name.

I am a PC person.

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2. RocklinDavid,

Jan 27, 2013 11:08 AM in reply to swharton07

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I just tried to import three files that I already imported yesterday and they came right in, no warnings, no issues. Again, I think you are supposed to tell Elements NOT to import duplicates in Preferences (according to online help) but the option to check the "Do Not Import Duplicates" button does not seem to exist in my version of the software. There might be a workaround, but I have not been able to figure it out. This software is becoming VERY dissapointing.

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3. swharton07,

Jan 28, 2013 5:09 AM in reply to RocklinDavid

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I am running PSE 11 on a PC and don't have the "don't import duplicates" in preferences.

The only other thing I can suggest(at least at this point) is to verify, via the information panel(right of the tags), that the duplicates due truely reside in the same location from organizers perspective. Another way to do this would be to copy several pictures to a unique folder, import and then import again(this would be the best, no eyeball errors then). If Organizer truely imports the same picture twice and at the same location I would first do a repair/optimize of the catalog(whether it needs it or not) and try again. If this doesn't resolve it you will need to call Adobe for help.

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4. MichelBParis,

Jan 28, 2013 5:51 AM in reply to swharton07

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In my PC, Win7 (but it was the same with PSE6 and PSE10 on XP):

Sorry, my PSE11 is in French.

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5. Barbara B.,

Jan 28, 2013 6:56 AM in reply to MichelBParis

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The preference is not there in the mac version. However it is in the downloader itself, in the advanced window, via this button, which lets you see duplicates, supposedly:

It's not active there since I had no duplicates. However, in my experience it's not very reliable when it is active, frankly.

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6. RocklinDavid,

Jan 28, 2013 8:26 AM in reply to Barbara B.

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Thank you to all for your time and energy looking to solve this issue. Here is a screen shot of my Preferences. Obviously it is quite different than the version on the PC. I think Adobe has given up on many details for Mac users.

I also tried importing three shots into a specific folder, then doing that again right away to see if it would notice the duplicates. It did not. It just imported them and named them with an extra "-1" at the end.

This is such a basic thing, I am flabbergasted that Adobe has left it out. I will try and contact Adobe directly, but I don't have much hope.

Thanks to all for the help.

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7. swharton07,

Jan 28, 2013 1:38 PM in reply to RocklinDavid

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One last try if you don't mind.

Copy the pictures to a folder, not from the card or camera. Then import the pictures twice. This will take a different path in the software and may resolve the problem.

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8. RocklinDavid,

Jan 28, 2013 1:48 PM in reply to swharton07

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Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately it didn't work. The import dialog for files and folders does not have any options and since the Mac version of Preferences doesn't have the option to ignore duplicates, it loaded it right up. I used the same photo when I "chated" with Adobe online. They took control of my computer and an hour and a half later, after importing the same photo four times, they finally gave up. It's a software glitch and a Mac thing that they can't figure out. It is such a basic thing that it blows me away that they havn't figured it out.

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9. MichelBParis,

Jan 29, 2013 12:08 AM in reply to RocklinDavid

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I am not sure it's only a 'Mac thing'.

With PSE11 in Windows 7, I have done the following steps. I have created a new catalog and imported the files from a card. I have edited half of those pictures from the organizer, adding bogus keywords and writing them to files so that the file size in Mb is slightly changed on my computer. I have reimported all the files using the checkbox mentionned above, the result is as follow:

- The downloader shows the thumbnails of the files to be copied to the computer. If PSE thinks it's a duplicate, it shows a small icon on the thumbnails. If I still keep them selected for import, it will import them and rename them if they are to be imported in the same folder. I have chosen the option to create subfolders by date automatically. That means renaming is necessary since I can't have duplicate file names in the same folder. In my case, all the files, including those having slightly different file sizes in Mb were considered as duplicates.

- Now I get a message that the files have been copied to the computer, but that they have not been imported in the catalog since they are already there.

So, I can't easily avoid re-downloading files twice in the computer easily, but the files are not imported twice in the catalog.

I have read somewhere that the criteria for PSE to think files are duplicates are :

- date taken (very selective for digital cameras, precise to 1/100th of a second)

- file size in pixels (more relevant for scans) ; the file size in Mb in my experiment was not a valid criteria.

- and ???

I am not sure about file names, but I am quite confident that the path of the file is not taken into account.

I'll have to run other experiments to find if the process has been changed from my older PSE versions (6 and 10).

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10. swharton07,

Jan 29, 2013 2:29 AM in reply to MichelBParis

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I also ran a test. I normally import from a folder. I created a catalog. Imported pictures from a folder, modified several, saved them and then reimported the same file. None of the pictures reimported and no duplicates were created. I received the message that these pictures were already in the catalog.

I don't have a card available currently so I can't test that.

I am now puzzled by your having the duplication problem when doing your imports for a folder since I can't replicate the problem.