Lightroom Classic's new Duplicate Finder tool
/You can read the article below about the testing I did, but you can also check out this short video in which I go into a little bit more detail about the process. Let me know if you have any questions.
If your Browser won’t let you watch it directly, click on the Watch On YouTube link in the lower right of the video (just refresh to bring it back)
Well, it only took a little over nineteen years, but Lightroom has finally created its own built-in duplicate finder. I wish I could say I was excited about it, but after testing it out, I am pretty underwhelmed by the results. That said, I think it's worth a look, as it can do some basic housekeeping for your Lightroom catalogs.
The good news is that while it's not the most complete or thorough duplicate finder out there, it is extremely easy to set up and use, so at least you won't be spending a lot of time learning it — you can be up and running in a matter of minutes and have results shortly after.
While you can set up a new catalog to automatically look for dupes using the Metadata tab in the Catalog Settings (Catalog Settings/Metadata tab/automatically detect duplicates for all photos), most of us will be starting off with a catalog full of images that we've been using for a while. So the easiest thing to do is to go to the toolbar and simply click on the Duplicate Finder icon. If you don't see the toolbar, hit the letter "T" on your keyboard, and it will bring it up. Simply click on the button, and you will be prompted to begin scanning the catalog for suspected dupes.
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How long it takes to complete the scan will depend on the size of your catalog and the power of your system, but the good news is it works in the background, so it won't interfere with anything while you're waiting. If the Duplicate Finder button is still selected after the scanning is completed, you'll see the results pop up in the window. Each image will appear with a stack of duplicates. The original one is the one displayed on top and is usually the image that was first imported into Lightroom. If you click on the stack icon, you'll see the duplicates displayed.
Lightroom will only select duplicates that are exact matches in terms of pixels. So as long as it's the same pixel dimensions, and regardless of whether you've made edits or crops to one but not the other, they will still be displayed as duplicates, since Lightroom only considers the underlying pixel information, not any added metadata, edits, or crops.
When it's time to remove the duplicates, select the image(s) or all the images in the Duplicate Finder window, and either hit the Delete button or right-click (control-click on Mac) and choose Remove Duplicates. You will then be prompted as usual if you want to just remove them from the catalog or delete them permanently from your hard drive.
Lightroom is going to leave the original one, the image you're seeing on top of the stack, and delete any duplicates under it. As I mentioned, Lightroom will choose the earliest version as the original; however, if you want to switch which dupe is to be deleted, unstack the stack by clicking on the icon and then right-click (or control-click on a Mac) on the image you want to keep, and choose Set as Original from the drop-down menu.
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Unfortunately, at this time, there's no way of batch selecting only the dupes and marking them with the delete button so you can review later. You have to unstack each group manually and then select the dupes to mark with a delete flag if you want to do it that way.
Important note: Version 15.4.1 was just released and fixes a major bug. Prior to that, in 15.4, deleting the dupes would also inadvertently delete the originals as well. I'd call that a major problem, but it has been fixed, so make sure you upgrade to the latest version that fixes this.
On the catalog I ran it on, the Duplicate Finder only found 15 dupes. However, I know for a fact that I have hundreds more in the catalog that I manually found myself. So as to the accuracy and thoroughness of this Duplicate Finder, at least in my case, it did a pretty poor job. I ran it on another catalog I have, and it did a much better job, but I'm not sure it's ready for primetime. But give it a run-through yourself and see if it can help you with a little house cleaning.
For me, the ultimate Duplicate Finder for Mac is Photosweeper, which allows you to import a Lightroom catalog and do a very thorough job of finding and deleting duplicates.
If you would like some personal instruction in Lightroom's Duplicate Finder, the AI-Assisted Culling and Batching feature, or any other new or old tools, send me an email, or give me a call (310-312-6640), and we can set up a time to go through it and set up a workflow for you.
