Same Edmond. Also installed Nokia Camera Beta and no more duplicates. Link to beta app doesn't show in Store, got it via Nokia Camera beta updated with UI tweaks | WMPoweruser
Duplicate photos in camera roll
- Thread starter Chris Sandiford
- Start date
Also want to add -- I just tried taking a cinemagraph, and no duplicate cinemagraphs either. Looks like in my case, Nokia Camera (not the beta) was the culprit.
Jan Tomsic
New member
I haven't gotten any duplicates on my 925, my wife on the 720 has, though. I fixed it like this:
- took the sd card out to backup everything and format it
- updated to Lumia Black and performed factory reset right after it (so I could use wifi to restore backup and all)
- after reset I reinserted the card and
- formatted it with the phone
- left the card in the phone and copied pics, music etc. through USB cable.
- I don't take the card out at all, all copying is performed through USB cable from now on.
No duplicates so far (since 720 black update), and I've tried all cameras (WP, Nokia, Cinemagraph, Smart...).
I'm also using all those cameras and refocus and anything there is on my 925, and I haven't had any duplicates.
- took the sd card out to backup everything and format it
- updated to Lumia Black and performed factory reset right after it (so I could use wifi to restore backup and all)
- after reset I reinserted the card and
- formatted it with the phone
- left the card in the phone and copied pics, music etc. through USB cable.
- I don't take the card out at all, all copying is performed through USB cable from now on.
No duplicates so far (since 720 black update), and I've tried all cameras (WP, Nokia, Cinemagraph, Smart...).
I'm also using all those cameras and refocus and anything there is on my 925, and I haven't had any duplicates.
But in my case, inside 'pictures' i have a folder 'me' which contains my pics, it keeps on duplicating random photos every now and then in that. I delete one, it shows only one deleted, but after a while other goes down too 
Removing cover art isn't a nice option . Here's what i did when almost my whole music library got duplicated. I initially formatted the card, and all the obvious stuff. Got duplicates again. i realised that the phone has cached my music data somewhere (the 'others' storage) and thus it doesn't forget about it completely even when its gone (there's a way to make it forget it, there was some post on wp central about music tips on windows phone, it told how exactly to format). I instead created a new folder in sd: 'pc music', and copied my music there. It worked ! No duplicates since 3 months ! Though whenever i download new music, it goes to music folder, and i remember 2-3 times i did get duplicates of songs kept in music folder, but my pc music folder is safe !
. Here's what i did when almost my whole music library got duplicated. I initially formatted the card, and all the obvious stuff. Got duplicates again. i realised that the phone has cached my music data somewhere (the 'others' storage) and thus it doesn't forget about it completely even when its gone (there's a way to make it forget it, there was some post on wp central about music tips on windows phone, it told how exactly to format). I instead created a new folder in sd: 'pc music', and copied my music there. It worked ! No duplicates since 3 months ! Though whenever i download new music, it goes to music folder, and i remember 2-3 times i did get duplicates of songs kept in music folder, but my pc music folder is safe ! As for photos, i had the duplicate problem in a folder called 'me', which incidently contained my outlook contact photo too. I deleted the me folder, made a new 'my pics' and copied all my pics there. Then i made a copy of the pic i wanted to use as my contact pic, and kept it just in 'pictures', no subfolder. Now, i have a duplicate of that contact pic, and no other duplicate
I seriously think Microsoft caches too much data, that's what occupies most of that 'other' storage. The other day, i deleted some 20 pics using a file manager. Then i opened gallery and they were still there. What's more, i could even view them !! :-o i restarted the phone and they were gone. Its all due to caching of data to smoothen your wp experience, only that it sometimes leads to nasty duplicates.
No, it's not a nice option, but it really worked for me. This is what I did: I've splitted my files, my music on the sd card and my photos on the internal storage. If you have mp3 files with cover-art that causes the duplicate error, you have only double entries on your music location. Then you know if it has something to do with your music files. If you save them together on the same storage (no matter what; sd card or internal memory) then you also have duplicates on your photos. I suggest you to separate them and let me know where you still have the duplicate problem.Removing cover art isn't a nice option
I had the same with my 1520 on black. Started pretty much after I inserted the SD card (but still had storage set internally). When you view the storage in windows explorer you will see files with 0 size. I deleted these, but still it didn't repair the picture cache. If you deleted a duplicate, it actually deleted a different picture (for me anyway). I did what was suggested above. Copied all photos to computer, then back again. Unfortunately, this messes up all the timestamps and the videos won't display in the order they were recorded. I did try to move my camera roll files to a different folder, and back again, but it refused to pick them up. I changed to Nokia camera beta, and no more problems, though I think that was just coincidence...
This is a perfect solution.
In most of the devices, to save from having to read content of a folder every time, the device creates an index of the files present and sometimes the index may go haywire which causes these problems.
A way to avoid them in future will be to ensure that you delete every file only from within the Windows Phone OS. And never delete files using the phone when it is connected to a computer. In that case, delete using the computer.
Just as a test, connect your phone to computer, navigate to Screenshots and then take some screenshots on your phone. Refresh Windows Explorer. I bet you won't be able to see the new screenshots Now disconnect the phone and reconnect it again and navigate to Screenshots. This time you can see it. Now delete the screenshots using your phone. Notice that the thumbnails in windows explorer will disappear. Disconnect and reconnect. When you open the folder this time, you can see that the files have been deleted. Viola!!!
They are system files, no virus. Don't worry about them. Read my last post for the solution and reason.
Can you also delete that folder with a memory cardreader instead of using another phone?
There's a simpler way.VERY SIMPLE !
Download the trial of pocket file manager ( i recommend buying it, it is a complete solution, with ftp) and go to settings and tick the 'show hidden files'. Then go to your memory card and you'd see the WP folder. Delete the file inside it (or if you have a trial, you can only move the file to some other useless location, trial cant use delete option), and then restart your phone. VOILA ! All hubs rescan your memory card ! Tried myself !
Download the trial of pocket file manager ( i recommend buying it, it is a complete solution, with ftp) and go to settings and tick the 'show hidden files'. Then go to your memory card and you'd see the WP folder. Delete the file inside it (or if you have a trial, you can only move the file to some other useless location, trial cant use delete option), and then restart your phone. VOILA ! All hubs rescan your memory card ! Tried myself !
That's not at all possible for me. I have just 150 MB free on my 520, and my photos are huge ! I'm having a lot of trouble with them recently, thanks to my adventures.
I thought i'd format my memory card externally, and keep my phone without it for a while (it cleared 400+ MB of cache on a side note). I did this because i wanted my music back into the music folder. Then i inserted the card again, and connected my phone to the pc, and copied all my photos and music back. The music has no duplicated now, and all my music is in the music folder only now. Sadly, the images part was too bad. Earlier i had no duplicates in images, but now i have atleast 2-3 copies of every image on my phone. I keep very few in camera roll, most of them are in folders/albums. And each album has duplicates of every single photo. I spent a lot of time trying to fix it, i even renamed all the folders, but it didnt work !
and now every screenshot i take, every image i save, every picture i take, is duplicated... I gave up on it, and have let it remain as such since 2 weeks, been scarce on time. Any suggestions ?
OrangeBerry02
New member
This worked for me ... only trouble was that I did not have a non-Windows phone so had to use my Windows 8.1 laptop. Before deleting the WPSystem folder I had to go to Control Panel ... Folder Options ... select the View tab ... scroll down to and deselect "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)".
After doing what I had to I naturally reselected "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"!! I don't trust myself!!!
Additional note: I think the "Wait for some time while the configuration file is re-created" may be crucial. I disciplined myself not to go and look for photos, videos etc for at least two minutes.
My sincere thanks to Pranav Vaidya ... no way did I want to do a hard reset!
9 June 2014: The last word! In the event, this did not work out for me. I thought I had sorted the duplication problem but found when I took a string of photos every 3rd or 4th produced a duplicate! Bit the bullet and did a hard reset (far less painful than I had imagined) and so far, so good!
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Of course i have this problem too. I had 'Nokia Smart Cam' installed... That created multiple pictures. (I deleted the app) I downloaded 'Nokia Camera' (i guess i deleted it) took a picture.. had just 1 picture.. I switched it to the other one that showed multiple frames on the 'Nokia Camera' app.. It says 'smart sequence' before taking you to take a picture. Now just a bit ago it was taking duplicate pictures.. now it isn't. Just took another picture.. still no duplicates.. hmm.. other picture apps i have.. is the Cinemagraph, Creative Studio and Panorama. Just thought maybe i'd share.
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