'Duplicate' pictures in Google Photos

[SpookDroid]

Hi people of AC,

Anyone else noticing 'duplicates' of their pictures in Google Photos? I'm not sure if it's just HDR pictures (and if so, I can't seem to find a way to disable the phone saving more than one picture), but for some reason I don't think that's the cause. I've seen this reported a couple times on the Photos forums and it seems to be only on S7's... Here are my 'symptoms':

1) Duplicate photos seem to be random (might be HDR, but since I take HDR in Auto, I have no way of knowing which ones were taken that way)
2) Details on the duplicate pictures differ. One has the full device path just like the other pictures, leading me to think that's the actual and non-duplicated file, and then the other one only has the file name, no path, and most of the time, a smaller file size, which makes me think it's just the online version. But why are they duplicated?
3) This is where it gets strange. The pictures aren't really duplicated. If I access Photos online or on another synced device, the pictures aren't duplicated, it's just showing up that way on the Edge.

Weird, huh? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[DustBow]

Did you ever figure this out? I'm having the exact same issue on my M8. I'm thinking it's a Google Photos app bug where it is showing both the original file and the cloud backup?????

 

[SpookDroid]

No one chimed in And nope, so far it's still doing it, and randomly it seems. So I've just given up and since I don't really use Photos in my phone, I stopped worrying.

 

[DustBow]

Yeah, it does seem random, every time I think I figure out what might be the cause, I'm proven wrong.....I'll just use the HTC Gallery app, I noticed the Gallery app only shows the pics with the longer name and file path (which are probably the real photos) and when I deleted some of the duplicates via Google Photos app, I deleted the "longer path ones "and left behind the "image name only" pics and those do not show up in the Gallery. So it's definitely a bug on the Google Photos app and backup system somewhere......

Might just delete the app and reinstall - hopefully that wouldn't wipe out the backup cloud in the meantime

 

[Rukbat]

Photo apps show what's on the phone, so if you have a photo in internal storage and a copy on the SD card, even if the last folder name is the same in both cases, you'll see 2 albums of that folder name, each with the picture in it. Media Scan has no way to know that you changed one pixel in the picture and want to keep that copy - or didn't. It works on name/size/location/date, etc. IOW, directory information.

 

[SpookDroid]

Problem is there is no duplicate in the SD Card; the duplicate in Photos has no file path. At least in my case all I keep in SD are movies and those aren't backed up to Photos. And like I said, the Web version only shows one picture, no duplicates.

 

[DustBow]

Yep, exact same issue. Are we really the only 2 people experiencing this? I started having issues within the last month. Had to be after an update.... Debating trying a app delete and reinstall

 

[Base_UK]

No, I had it as well. Not occurred for a while now but I went on a trip shortly after getting the phone and took about 500 photos over 2 weeks, were quite a few duplicates in Google photos, but not in there Samsung gallery app. Was very annoying

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[DustBow]

It's a bug with the cloud backup.
I deleted the app, rebooted my phone and then reinstalled the app. Same problem.
So I turned off the cloud backup and took some pictures. No duplicates; kept checking throughout the day and no duplicates appeared. Turned the cloud backup back on and duplicates of the new pictures were there when I checked later.

So for some reason the app is showing both pics on the phone (longer file path) and the cloud (image name/number only) even though that setting is turned off.

 

[SpookDroid]

Is anyone seeing the duplicates in the web version or in other synced devices or just in the S7 Edge? In my case, the duplicates are just in the Photos app on the Edge. If I go to another device or the web version, no duplicates there.

 

[DustBow]

I'm using an HTC One M8 on Verizon. Issues started roughly 2 weeks ago.
Duplicates just seem to be on the Google Photos App on my phone

 

[SpookDroid]

So it's the app and not device-specific. Great! :S haha well, I hope you guys are reporting the bug to Google as well, otherwise they can't fix what they don't know about!

 

[captg8r]

Same issues on S7 Edge. Could it be tied to the issue that Photos app has when you try and delete an image that is on the SD? When I try that it tells me that it can't delete image because the app doesn't have access to my SD card. Which is not true.

 

[SpookDroid]

Same issues on S7 Edge. Could it be tied to the issue that Photos app has when you try and delete an image that is on the SD? When I try that it tells me that it can't delete image because the app doesn't have access to my SD card. Which is not true.

Different issue. System apps have full access to SD card contents while 3rd party apps, like Photos (unless you have a Nexus), only have read privileges and can only write to their own folders. Since the pictures are created by the Camera app, Photos cannot delete or modify contents of said folder.

In my case, I don't even have those pictures on the card, they're all saved to internal memory (and if you take my advice, never store camera pictures in SD card, only those you've already backed up elsewhere).

 

[Travisimo]

I just recently got my AT&T S7 Edge and went on a trip over the weekend. Took over 200 photos, and almost all of them are duplicated in the Google Photos app and when I log into Google Photos on the web. All of the details if I click on the information icon are the same. The only photos that do NOT seem to be duplicated are ones taken in special modes like the Wide Selfie mode or in another app other than the Samsung camera app.

Very annoying. No fix for this yet? Never had this problem on previous Android phones or even on my iPhone 6S Plus that I just switched from.

 

[SpookDroid]

I just recently got my AT&T S7 Edge and went on a trip over the weekend. Took over 200 photos, and almost all of them are duplicated in the Google Photos app and when I log into Google Photos on the web. All of the details if I click on the information icon are the same. The only photos that do NOT seem to be duplicated are ones taken in special modes like the Wide Selfie mode or in another app other than the Samsung camera app.

Very annoying. No fix for this yet? Never had this problem on previous Android phones or even on my iPhone 6S Plus that I just switched from.

Are your pictures duplicated in the web version as well? In mine they're not, just in the app. The backup is OK, no duplicates. Did you move the pictures to SD card after taking them, maybe, and are the SD card folders also being backed up? If the picture's filepath changes, that is enough for Photos to consider it a different picture/file, even if the filename is the same.

 

[Travisimo]

Are your pictures duplicated in the web version as well? In mine they're not, just in the app. The backup is OK, no duplicates. Did you move the pictures to SD card after taking them, maybe, and are the SD card folders also being backed up? If the picture's filepath changes, that is enough for Photos to consider it a different picture/file, even if the filename is the same.

Yes, the duplicates were on the Web too. I didn't move the photos, they were all taken on the sd card. I went in and manually removed the duplicates. Then I deleted all photos off of my phone using the gallery app. I have taken a few new photos and it doesn't seem to be doing it now. Not sure why it did it with all the photos from my trip.

 

[mbmccormick]

Is there an active thread on this issue on Google Product Forums? Can you share a link? Would like to report the issue as well and stay plugged in to updates. Happening on my AT&T Galaxy S7 as well: duplicate photos on Photos app on phone only, not on the web app.

 

[Travisimo]

Is there an active thread on this issue on Google Product Forums? Can you share a link? Would like to report the issue as well and stay plugged in to updates. Happening on my AT&T Galaxy S7 as well: duplicate photos on Photos app on phone only, not on the web app.

There are quite a few threads about this issue on the Google Photos product forums. I solved my issue for now by doing the following:

1) Backed up my photos to my computer.
2) Deleted the duplicate photos from the web version of Google Photos (yes, mine were duplicated on the web too).
3) Deleted ALL of my photos from my Galaxy S7 Edge phone.
4) Uninstalled the Google Photos app (which actually just downgraded it because it is a system app).
5) Updated the Google Photos app and turned backup on.

Now the problem isn't happening (yet). I don't know what the deal was, but it was a real pain having to delete over 200 duplicated photos. I still think it's some kind of bug because of taking the photos on the SD card, but I can't say for sure.

 

[luckywabbit]

I have this issue as well on my S7 Edge. The duplicates happen in batches. For example, a group of photos taken at a particular time are duplicated, and some are not duplicated in other times taken. I am not going to remove duplicates as that is a headache in and of itself, at least not for now.

I have duplicates show up in my phone's Google Photos app in the beginning, but later also started to notice the duplicates show up on the web version of Google Photos. On the phone, I notice two versions, one pointing to the file on the SD card, and one with only the name (no path). On the web, I see two versions of the same filename, but no other difference, except maybe the timestamp. If I go through the Drive (web app), and go to the parent folder, I only find one of the files (no duplicate files).

In my case, I don't even have those pictures on the card, they're all saved to internal memory (and if you take my advice, never store camera pictures in SD card, only those you've already backed up elsewhere).

I currently store all my photos and videos direct to SD, what is the reason for not storing on SD card (aside from the fact that I notice slower saving speed of photos and videos even though I have the the fastest Samsung SD card 128GB). Isn't it a hassle to have to move your photos/videos later to SD card as you run out of space?