I somehow uploaded several hundred photos from my iphone to dropbox. Not sure how I did it, but now I see a lot of duplicate photos in dropbox (carousel).
Hey everyone,
You can use Dropbox’s Find duplicates option on dropbox.com to quickly locate duplicate files (including photos) and delete them in bulk: https://help.dropbox.com/organize/find-duplicate-files.
If your photos are only “similar” rather than identical copies, you may need to sort and remove them manually.
When I vew a photo ON MY MOBILE DEVICE via dropbox app does it upload again??? Is that why the exact same photos duplicate?
Or is it that each time I connect my phone to computer is it re-backing up/uploading all photos I have stored on my phone, even if they're already in Dropbox?
I know that if I download a photo to my phone and edit it, that it would upload again, but these are the EXACT SAME photo files with a number added to name (xxx1.jpg xxx2.jpeg)
Hi, Hap!
Thanks for writing in our Forum!
Unfortunately, there's currently no way to automatically detect and delete duplicate photos. The only thing you can do is to remove them manually from your account. Either via the Dropbox or Carousel website or via the Dropbox desktop application.
If you want to make sure that you remove all the duplicate photos you can use the following steps:
1) Go to www.carousel.com (please log into your account if you haven't already)2) Navigate to the item that appears to be duplicated3) Click on the little check mark icon overlying the thumbnail of the duplicate (which you can find on the top right of each thumbnail)4) Click on the three dots icon on the top right of the screen and choose "Show in folder" 5) Note the location of this file in your Dropbox6) Repeat steps 3 to 5 for another instance of the item that appears to be duplicated7) Delete the redundant copies from their location
Hope this helps!
Hi Francessca, could you also address my related question as to what is causing my photos are duplicating? ....or do I need to post it separately...
Hey if you able to access some other third party tools can use duplicate photos fixer app easily available on mac app store also. just run it and add your drop box folder in the software its automatically scan all duplicate photos and mark them to delete as per your choice you can delete them if found duplicates click here for <a href="http://www.duplicatephotofixer.com/Photofixer.aspx">delete duplicate photos </a>
Dropbox has become ubiquitous digital drawer of the netizens of the planet. The 8-step guide to remove the duplicates is tedious and ineffective. It's not an impossible job to equip Carousel (or Dropbox interface) with a tool to find and eradicate duplicates. Or point users to install third party tools to do this mundane job, if such utilities are indeed available. May it happen. Amen.
One of the apps needs have built-in duplicate detection.
First they create the problem, then they sell you the solution.
try this DuplicateFilesDeleter
I am furious with Carousel and the stupidity of not being able to delete duplicates. Which duplicate finder are you all using and does it really work?
I had the same problem but once I downloaded carousel I was able to erase the duplicate pictures.
It work perfectly fine.
I love how dropbox is already using file hashes to save storage space, but somehow cannot use the same thing to detect exact duplications within the same drive.
A simple MD5 hash will just simply do this simple trick.
The system inadvertently uploaded from my hard drive a huge number of photos. They are in the Dropbox photo folder in a random-like fashion. Additionally, I get messages that I am out of space. How can I remove swiftly these unwanted photos.
Please advise. Many thanks. GH
This happened to me last night. On my Iphone all my pics are showing duplicates. When I logged on to dropbox from my desktop ALL my files are showing a duplicate! So I need to manually delete these?!?
Jennifer I had the same problem a few months ago, once I downloaded carrousel I was able to delete the duplicate pictures.
Well the good news is that they are dumping Carousel. So now perhaps they will do the fixes they need to do for photos in Dropbox.
Try this If your iTunes or iPhone is clean you can delete everything in your DB file and then sync again with your devices (iCloud, mac/pc, iPhone etc). If on the other hand you have duplicates on your devices as well the same in DB, do this: Download an app from the app store that detects duplicates, run the proper steps using the app of your liking, turn off auto syncing with DB before starting this process. after deleting duplicates from your device login to DB and (keeping auto sync turned off in DB) and delete all from DB. Then turn back on DB and sync from cleaned up device.
I may have made this sound confusing. sorry
While not directly related to the issue in the thread, I thought it might be helpful to share that there is an app for Mac OS X called Duplicate Detective, which is available on the Apple App Store. I usually copy all files from my Dropbox/Camera Uploads to my NAS and upload to Amazon, Google etc for safe keeping with multiple copies. I also use Duplicate Detective on my folders to identify exact duplicates. It does this by calculating a checksum (md5) on the binary, not by filename, so it is able to identify identical files regardless of name or where it is in the folder hierarchy.
Another useful tool is EXIF Renamer http://www.qdev.de/?location=mac/exifrenamer which i use to rename photos to a consistent format, based on Dropbox format.
Once you've connected Dropbox to your computer with the Dropbox app, you can sync the photos and then use this guide to clean up the local folder. All changes will then be sent back to Dropbox and "Voila!" you've removed your duplicates.
http://www.howtogeek.com/117559/how-to-banish-duplicate-photos-with-visipic/
It even has functionality to loosen the matches and find rotated images. Fancy. It found that over 10% of my photos were duplicates, and deleted the smaller resolution versions of each.
I use Duplicate Files Deleter as it is very effective. It is 100% accurate and performs the scan quickly.
I'd like to know where the local photo folder is in Dropbox. If I could find this I would simply drag onto Gemini... But I have a feeling this is easier said than done. I hate when tech becomes too technical. I like folders.
Please solve the "remove duplicates" problem.
I have to many pictures to be able to sync to my desktop.
Can someone help me understand how the duplicate photos are getting into DropBox so I can avoid future duplicates?
Here's what I've found - I had uploaded the "pictures" folder from my computer to Dropbox which included the Photos library.photoslibrary folder (maybe the folder that apple uses to sync devices?). This folder has multiple copies of each photo I've taken (master file, original file, and sometimes edited file). When I view pictures using the "pictures tab" in dropbox, I end up being shown the multiple copies of all my photos from both the Camera Uploads files (automatically from my iPhone into dropbox) plus the Photo library copies of the images.
I'm not sure what to do about the issue though - I don't want to delete the photos library folder from dropbox without downloading it back to my computer (however, I don't know the file size and can't determine if it will fit on my hard drive or not). As a result, I feel that the dropbox "photos" tab is basically unusable for me as it displays way too many duplicates.
I go to Dropbox camera uploads, then in the search box type "-2" and it pulls up many duplicates. Have to watch it because sometimes the -2 is an auto-close-up and sometimes its a part of a date tag (2015-12-20 for example. But it did shorten the process considerably
This is absolute insanity! Deleting the dupes is not only tedious but an endless job! As soon as I delete them, Dropbox starts uploading them again from my phone! This not only chews up my mobile data, but it also maxes out my available space. I have contacted Dropbox support about this, only to get useless, canned responses. I have searched for solutions anywhere online, only to come up empty.
Could this "flaw" be 'by-design' to force basic users like me to pay for an upgrade to Pro? Please, please, please FIX THIS already... I am a programmer and this is really NOT that hard to do!!
I totally agree.... It is awful that no way has been created yet for deleting duplicates
In the file with the duplicates select every image that you want to delete by clicking ABOVE the name/text of the image. Do not click on the name or it will open the file. On a Mac you keep the command button pressed as you click-select every image (each box turns pale blue once selected) which means all these selected image turn blue. Finally, after selecting all, right click for the list that includes 'delete' and press this. I don't think there is a quicker way.
You miss the point, Alex. We need a way to "Find" the duplicates in order to delete them. I can do this on my laptop with a duplicate fixer app, but would like an app or function to do that on my IPhone, which is what I use almost exclusively. Thanks for trying.
absolutely annoying!
since > 1 year, i also get duplicates downloaded for nearly every picture. the original for example is "2016-07-25 12.41.44.jpg", the duplicate is named "2016-07-25 12.41.44-1.jpg"
either dropbox is able to fix this bug until the end of my subscription period, or i will change to another cloud service.
I love dropbox, but for the last few months I've been stuck in a cycle of the same photos being uploaded over and over from my iPhone. This did not happen with Carousel, and I think is only happening since Carousel was shuttered. I've followed the advice Dropbox has provided me - delete and reinstall, but that only ever works for the first couple of hours after the reinstall after which the cycle kicks off again.
It is exceptionally frustrating.
