Deletes wrong files and doesn't block all duplicate uploads

  • CONCLUSION:

    Use with caution because there are no safeguards to prevent you from deleting non-duplicate (original) files, or avoid altogether until the author makes some needed updates.

    PROS:

    • Deletes duplicate image files already in Media Library.
    • Blocks duplicate image files from uploading.

    CONS:

    • Doesn’t provide any way to visually distinguish duplicates in libary from originals.
    • Doesn’t prevent you from deleting original images.
    • Doesn’t block all duplicates from uploading.

    I had such hopes for Media Deduper.

    Just installed it and tried it on my new WordPress website to try to remove duplicate images I had already uploaded. It identified duplicates, which I deleted. Unfortunately, it didn’t highlight the “primary” or “original” or “oldest” files and I ended up accidentally deleting the originals along with the duplicates.

    I then tried a test. I copied an image already in the media library (water-garden-01-900×507.jpg) to my Windows Desktop. I then duplicated the image 2 times on my desktop, and attempted to uploaded those three images. The file names were as follows:

    • water-garden-01-900×507.jpg
    • water-garden-01-900×507 – Copy.jpg
    • water-garden-01-900×507 – Copy (2).jpg

    Media Deduper blocked (correctly) upload of the original file and the copy ending in “Copy.jpg”, but failed to block upload of the duplicate ending in “Copy (2).jpg”, which begs the question: what method is being used to determine if something is a duplicate or not?

    SUGGESTIONS:

    1. Highlight the original image files (different background color) so they can be distinguished from the duplicates.
    2. Correct the duplicate identification algorithm.

    I would love to give this plugin a great review, however losing a bunch of my media files doesn’t endear Media Deduper to my heart. This is a new-ish plugin and I appreciate the problem the developer is trying to solve with it, therefore, I would be more-than-willing to review this again once some improvements and fixes are made.

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  • Hi CodeSlayer,

    Thanks for your feedback and suggestions.

    The first one, regarding highlighting duplicates in the regular media browser, is something we’ve now added to our roadmap for deduper — it’s a good idea to visually distinguish within the normal media library admin.

    As for the duplicate identification: It’s undergone extensive testing and uses a pretty standard algorithm for file data identification (md5). We’ve been unable to replicate the problems you’ve reported. Would it be possible for you to provide us with the exact files you were testing with? I’d want to check them manually for any corruption or irregularities that would have the md5 hash turning out differently between them.

    Sorry you deleted originals. We tried to clearly explain in the FAQ for the plugin here on www.ads-software.com as well as in the help available within the WP admin that the duplicate list makes no assumptions about which duplicates are “primary” and should be preserved, but it sounds like some UI enhancements are needed to further mitigate against unintentional data loss.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
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