I am new to all of this - so I am really sorry if this topic has already been to this board and I could have found it by searching. I just didn´t know how to call the problem exactly.
I am looking for a solution to list all doubled jpg files and then delete the ones which are not in any iphoto library if the jpg is also in the iphoto library. If the jpg is not in the iphoto library, the outside pics should only be reduced to one if there more than one. Lets keep the older one for example. I suppose there must be a dynamic solution to this problem, I am sorry if I am wrong @ applescript and I´d better use the automator - just tell me - I have no idea.
Here´s what I did - so you can see what the mess looks like. As most of the multiple pics are named like they came out of the flash card - I searched for DSC in the finder. The finder listed something like this:
DSC1.jpg
DSC1.jpg
DSC2.jpg
DSC2.jpg
DSC3.jpg
DSC4.jpg
plus all the aliases
Unfortunately I have about 3000 pics and I´d be busy the whole vacay if I´d try to delete manually. I´d be really happy if I get some help. thanks in advance!!
EDIT: maybe a folder variable would be good so I don´t have to test it on /
I am sorry to admit that I am still a little confused about your posting; I am not sure precisely what it is you are trying to do. It appears that you have photos inside and outside of iPhoto, but only some are the same? Are there some photos that are only inside, and some that are only outside?
I also think I understand that you are trying to clean it up so that you only have single copies of each photo, right? But do you want all of them in iPhoto, or not?
This may be an AppleScript job, but may not. If you have the latest iPhoto (5.0.4), you have some pretty heavy duty tools available to you already, like Smart Folders. Those things alone can clean up a lot of messes in a hurry. Look into it.
Be sure to post back with any more questions or clarifications; your situation sounds very interesting.
thx for your reply. i am sorry if my post was confusing. maybe that´s cuz the problem itself is confusing, too .
Anyway you´d exactly the right guess what i´m trying to do.
unfortunately it´s not my mac so i can´t tell you right now what version of iphoto is installed.
the installed OS is mac os 10.3.6 and its an ibook which is about 2 years old.
i have just switched to mac very recently but somehow if already become the doctor for my friends… maybe because of my past fixing pcs.
and i am not gonna complain about it because fixing the windowses was far worse…
anyway i am very new to mac os and feel i need help myself for this jpg problem.
somehow i think my friend with the jpg problem is not the only one to have it, but maybe she might be the first to notice it because of her old ibook what a small HDD. There must be some mac users around who dont use their iphoto correctly because some don´t recognize that pictures are easily copied just by dragging them out of iphoto. and trying to clean the mess up, is only going to make it worse if you have never been to your photo library with your finder and don´t know that the structure looks like…
the end is to have all photos in iphoto, but only saved once .
what i want to do now is keep all the photos which are stored in iphoto and delete those of them which are saved somewhere else, in other words: i want to delete the copies elsewhere if the photo is already saved in iphoto.
if that wasnt enough there are some photos which are stored somewhere outside iphoto , some of them stored twice or three times outside.
i want to import these to iphoto and then delete the outside copy…
maybe the solution could be to copy *.jpg to my powerbook via lan and then delete all the photos on the ibook but saved photos back in to one folder which would eliminate the doubles and triples and then import the new folder to iphoto.
right now i dont like the idea because it sorta makes the old structure useless and i have to make a completely new one. and last but not least i´d learn nothing about a dynamic scripting solution.
thx very much for replying and in advance for further replies…
This should be a pretty simple solution, although slightly time consuming. The first thing to do is to get everything into iPhoto. Make a folder on the desktop, and then use the Finder to search for all .jpg files. Dump them all into the folder, including duplicates. Once that is finished, open up iPhoto, and choose Add to Library under the File Menu.
iPhoto automatically checks for duplicates when importing, so that will clean out that folder nicely. Once that is done, you should be able to delete that folder from the desktop without any worries, since iPhoto writes new files in its own tree structure.
As for the duplicates in iPhoto, that can be a little trickier, and I may need some time to put a script together for that. I do a lot of iPhoto scripting, but I have not dealt with the duplicate image issue yet, so please be patient.
whooha! thx for that!! i think that´ll work somehow.
i just hope i don´t get any problems with another folder because the little ibook is packed to capacity…
i wont be impatient , i am just curious about the script. i just asked for help and already got a lot, i am not expecting anything, i am just curious.
a script would be really off da hook.
at my place people dont work on christmas so just take your time, and let me know if you found out something!
You may not need a script after all. Remember that once all your photos are in iPhoto, the only way to remove them completely is to place them in the trash, then empty the trash. This can only be done from the Library source, not a folder. You can, however, use a Smart folder to find all the photos you want to trash. For instance, if iPhoto made a duplicate image, it will contain the word [copy] in the title. You can select that parameter in a smart folder, then do a batch rename, or batch rating, or keyword, or something to set them all as unique. You go back to the library, go to View, then Sort, then plug in whatever you set up in the smart folder, and all the images there should be the ones you want to delete. Select All, move to trash, and then BE ABSOLUTELY SURE they need to go, and empty the trash.
Slightly time consuming, but probably easier than a script.
If iPhoto did not make the duplicates, try making a smart folder that contains the underscore character (_) in the filename (not the title). When iPhoto has two copies of the same image (that it did not create), it will add a _1 or a _2 to the filename. That should narrow it down nicely, even if some of the native filenames also contain the underscore character. Then do as above with the batch rating or renaming, view, sort, and trash.
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