[Victoria TX]

I've been encountering a very odd situation. Some of my photos seem to be spontaneously duplicating and being renamed. Let's say, for example, I have three pet photos: Shadow, Tinker and Tramp. I'll name each file individually as it's scanned and save it in the desired folder. Then I'll go into the folder and discover multiple copies of the same three photos, but all three might be renamed Shadow, then multiple copies of the next file for no apparent reason. I THINK this started when I downloaded and started using Picasa, however, I also installed and started using PSE 9 at the same time while retaining PSE 5 on my computer. Based on input from this forum, I've not used the PSE 9 Organizer at all. It's almost like there is some kind of odd continuous loop.

I spent hours tagging and organizing hundreds of files in Picasa so definitely hate to even think about uninstalling that and repeating the download/install process. The most recent photos were scanned vs. transfers from my digital camera, but I don't recall if that was true when I've noticed the odd behavior previously. It is really, really annoying to have to go back and try to find the "real" Shadow, Tinker and Tramp files and delete the duplicates. I keep my security software up-to-date so don't think a virus is in play. I haven't had a chance to do much experimentation as to attempting to duplicate...you should forgive the term here...the scenario that gets the loop started. Any idea as to why my photos seem to be propagating madly??? (Windows Vista, Canon MX700 Scanner)

Victoria Melting After 32 Consecutive Days of Triple Digit Heat in Texas

[BarbaraC1977]

I believe Picasa makes smaller "thumbnails" of your images at the various sizes/resolutions you use to look at them in Picasa. Those many files are stored in a Picasa database. If you're searching the computer, you may find all of them. Hope this helps.

(Picasa's db took up enormous space on my computer with these; I've figured other ways to do its job now.)

[Sara Arell]

BarbaraC1977, on 02 August 2011 - 04:53 PM, said:

I believe Picasa makes smaller "thumbnails" of your images at the various sizes/resolutions you use to look at them in Picasa. Those many files are stored in a Picasa database. If you're searching the computer, you may find all of them. Hope this helps.

(Picasa's db took up enormous space on my computer with these; I've figured other ways to do its job now.)

I agree, Barbara - I have been noticing something similiar going on with my Picasa -

[PBarnes]

I've heard of others having this problem but have never run into it myself. Sorry that I can't be of any help.

[mimes1]

Are you using an external hard drive? I bought a Seagate a number of years ago, and loaded the software that came with it. What I discovered was that it was set to automatically duplicate anything I loaded onto it. Ugh. It took a while but I deleted all the duplicates then uninstalled the software. Now I use it just as a drive - no belles and whistles and no more duplicates.

[Belle]

Is this in the PSE organiser that you are talking about. I have the same problem. Either duplicating or losing files. Frustrating. I don't use PSE organiser anymore. Only windows 7 Picture LIbrary.

[LaLo1103]

I'm not going to be of much help resolving the duplicate problem, but instead of making yourself crazy manually deleting the duplicates you can always try a double killer. You should be able to find one free on internet (just Google double killer). When the software runs, it'll pull up all the files that are the same name and size. It'll also show what folder they're in. Then you can click to choose which ones you want to delete.

Hope this helps a little!

[teecee]

LaLo1103, on 03 August 2011 - 07:30 AM, said:

I'm not going to be of much help resolving the duplicate problem, but instead of making yourself crazy manually deleting the duplicates you can always try a double killer. You should be able to find one free on internet (just Google double killer). When the software runs, it'll pull up all the files that are the same name and size. It'll also show what folder they're in. Then you can click to choose which ones you want to delete.

Hope this helps a little!

This is great to know Laura! Thanks for posting it!

[Victoria TX]

I will do some more research when I have time, but helped deliver a litter of bouncing baby Bearded Collies Sunday so my focus this week is on playing puppy auntie. No, it's NOT PSE organizer at fault unless the organizer is somehow pulling the photos from my scanner folder. I believe it's related to Picasa.

I do have an external hard drive, but I back up intermittently rather than continuously. I leave it unplugged and disconnected between backups because, this horribly dry summer excepted, Texas lightning is notorious for taking out computer equipment and an EHD plugged into the same outlet will get fried at the same time as the computer & there goes your back up, sometimes literally in smoke. =:-o The duplicate killer sounds like a possible option because it was really tedious ferreting out one copy of each file to retain when the wonky software creates 20 extra files with the same name, but actually renaming the other photos. Thanks so much for the input, one and all. Love this supportive forum!

Victoria