Select originals of dublicates

[ben]

Hello,

i unfortunately ended up with many duplicate files, after i switched to a new smartphone which re-copied many images into my image folder.

Thanks to iMatch i can search for duplicates. 
In mainly all cases, my original files are the ones that i would like to delete.
The original files are the ones that i selected to search for dublicates.

Now, how can i select the original files in the result window?
It seems i can show the duplicates only, but not the originals. Am i missing something?

Thanks for help
Ben

[Mario]

There is no built-in feature to delete originals. Usually you only delete matches.

Maybe you can "grab" the originals with a filter?
Maybe, after selecting the originals, pin them or dot them or bookmark then, and then run the dupe search?
Use the option to show the originals side-by-side with the matches, which makes them available for the Filter Panel and Quick Filter ribbon.

[ben]

That worked like a charm.
Thank you Mario.

Is it worth writing a FR? -> "Create a possibility to easily select the original or matching files"

For those who need to achieve the same:
- I marked all files that i selected for checking for dublicates with a blue pin
- I ran the "search dublicates" command
- I filtered for the blue pins and could easily delete them.

I just went through 4000 dublicates and it took less than an hour.
Great feature ! :-)

Ben

[Mario]

Is it worth writing a FR? -> "Create a possibility to easily select the original or matching files"

I don't think so. It is so easy to somehow "mark" the originals in the rare case you want to actually delete originals and then just filter out matches. Not everything needs a dedicated feature, menu entry, keyboard shortcut, ...

[PandDLong]

I had this problem but came up with a different solution after trying a few things.

I realize your problem is solved - which is great - but for future reference and should others find this thread, here is an alternate approach.

To delete the Originals and keep the duplicates.

1. Use Search Duplicates
2. In the 'Search Results Duplicates' file window (without including originals in the results), select all.
3. Do another Search Duplicates
4. In the new 'Search Results Duplicates' file window (which is effectively a reverse of the first), select all and Delete.

This will not necessarily work in the situation where an original has two or more duplicates and you want to keep all "duplicates" and only delete one original.


Michael