These are probably stupid, and discoverable via google, but it's late (for me) and I can't focus on google. I'm looking on my wife's mac, and trying to eliminate some of the crap/duplication. One thing I'm seeing is she has a bunch of movies, which we actually use through Airplay on Appletv as it works great with the kids. But, I'm noticing while all of the movies show up in itunes on the file finder, some of the movies are also in a separate folder just in her documents, and then there are a few that are also repeated just on the desktop. How do I tell if these are duplicates so I can delete and free up some space, or just "icons" ultimately pointing to the same file? Second question which I know many have asked on the internet, but just to confirm. What is the best way to back up iphoto photo's? Can I back up individual photos? Do I have to back up all of iPhoto? And if in 5 years I want to go back and look at some of the photos, do I effectively have to use iphoto again? These things are just more intuitive to me on a PC.
I think ****ty itunes duplicates the files in its playlist. Its in their preferences... Search for files in spotlight. Or finder. Or if youre a apple hax0r in terminal Code: find / -name '*.mov' -print
when you import movies and music from other locations, it doesn't move the file, it adds the file to your itunes library. To find the file the iTunes is using, ctrl-click (right click) on the item and select "show in finder" to reveal the file's location. Any other versions of this file would be duplicates that aren't being used by iTunes, and could theoretically be removed. As for backing up photos.... Of course you can back up individual photos, or your whole library, but unless you use photostream to do so through iCloud (how big a library we talkin'?), or using the "flickr" interface there (or the photobucket workaround) you'd be doing it manually, to the best of my knowledge. There are a number of ways you could separate photos to be backed up, and then drag those to whatever backup method you wanted to use. You could always use them later in whatever supports the format of the pictures you take, 99% likely jpg.
The files are in a file structure, just like a PC. The difference is, for something like iPhoto, they are put in a 'container'. In your pictures directory, right click (or 'ctrl' click if you don't have right click on) the icon called iPhoto Library. Select "Show Package Contents" and it'll have all your original imported photos in a directory there. For the movie files, if you are just looking for duplicates, use the search function (spotlight is the magnifying glass in the corner). Type in the filename and it'll show you a list of everywhere that file is located. You can then do the "Show in Finder" option Dave listed above to find them and delete any duplicates. Also, you can right click/Ctrl-click on any file and choose 'Get Information" to see the file size. Any shortcuts/'icons' only would have much smaller filesizes.
You're welcome. That's probably likely, as I believe iTunes will make a copy when it imports into the library. (IIRC this is a function you can turn off if you want).
Rokkit, a follow-up on this. When I do what you suggested, it takes me to a number of files/folders, including the folders: Data Masters Originals Previews Thumbnails All five folders seem to have copies of pictures. Masters has both JPR and CR2 pictures - the CR2 when they were taken with DLSR and we had CR2 turned on. For example, I have a photo titled: IMG_7228 Data has IMG_7228.jpg (54 KB) and IMG_7228_2.jpg (54 KB). I have no idea why the version 2 was created... it appears to have been created at the same time Masters has IMG_7228.CR2 (12.8 MB) and IMG_7228.JPG (3.9 MB) Modified has IMG_7228.JPG (3.3 MB) Originals has the same as Masters, IMG_7228.CR2 (12.8 MB) and IMG_7228.JPG (3.9 MB) Previews has the same as Modified, IMG_7228.JPG (3.3 MB) I'm only comparing for one photo, but this looks to be consistent. Is this common for iPhoto? I know we can get rid of the CR2 if we wanted, but leaving that aside, there appears to be a lot of duplication? Thoughts?
Jay, I'll try and have time to look at it for you tonight, but quick thought: if you look at the actual library in iPhoto itself, do you have multiples of these pictures in your albums/photo roll? I'd really only use the iphoto container for pulling originals for copy or backup purposes. Otherwise using iPhoto itself to manage the collection would be fine, as removing photos from that would take care of a lot of that (previews, thumbnails, etc.). It almost sounds like it's related to your import settings somehow, as well. You can check that under iphoto-preferences-advanced.
Keep in mind that iPhoto keeps originals when you make changes to them, so you will have multiple copies of the same file, but, each will generally be a bit difference. For example original - no red eye - no red eye, enhanced - cropped, etc.
I thought the questions about dupes was for movies... not photos. I would be wary of de-duping or streamlining my photo library manually outside of the app. What does that have to do with duplicate media, photos, and backing up?
^Hidden settings/preferences in applications that assume it knows what you want to the point where it doesn't ask or notify.
Masters has IMG_7228.CR2 (12.8 MB) and IMG_7228.JPG (3.9 MB) .CR2 is a RAW file. check your camera settings to see if you're shooting RAW+JPEG. If you don't work with RAW files turn it off so you can save space on your memory card.
