Media Items - How Many?

RootsMagic
1

Happy Christmas to all !! All I want for Christmas is to understand how many media items/links I’ve got, can anyone help please?

Apologies if this subject has been explained before, if so I’ve missed it. I read a post here some days ago about media items and I’ve now have tried to reconcile the numbers to make sure everything is where it should be etc. A useful but confusing exercise.

I copied all the filenames from my Windows media folder which contained 525 items into a spreadsheet. I then ran RM’s multimedia report and saved it as another Excel file, and compared these two spreadsheets. Both listed 525 items - so far so good. But this is where I came unstuck; the Enhanced Properties List shows a count of 530 Media items and 683 Media links.

I understand why there may be more links than items (although I’ve not checked the 683 number in detail) but can’t for the life of me work out why RM thinks there’s 5 more items than I can identify. I’ve played around with switching off and on the various options in RM’s Multimedia List report - but just confused myself even further.

Can anyone please suggest where I’m going wrong? Thank you.

2

Is there a count for Unused Media?

3

Unused media count is 0, as is missing media items too

4

possible the same filename was added twice and it created two media IDs for same physical file . This can happen when this option is used to add same file name more than once – that is one possibility

image
image1087×260 11.1 KB

I would run the database tools then close RM , then rerun enhanced and see values

If you are only looking at count total File Explore Folder Properties should tell you that

image

If you downloaded media via tree shared they could be in a different folder that is another possibility. (there could be at least one additional folder not part of default media folder)

5

‘possible the same filename was added twice and it created two media IDs for same physical file . This can happen when this option is used to add same file name more than once – that is one possibility’

What about same file name but different file extensions .jpg and .jpeg?

Steve

6

that is a a great question – my guess if added via drag N drop or add exist file name you would likely not to have any issue. I use drag n drop 99.5% of the time. The only way to confirm you do not have duplicates would be to run a script outside of RM UI. (Read ONLY / view duplicate). That is something RM does not support or endorse. Many users with programing skills take advantage of the open SQLITE database for such things that can not be done in RM.

Behind the scenes the table has these relevant columns

image

I am not suggesting you have duplicate media only that I have seen other user database bases where that occured

7

Based on the information you have provided, it’s extremely likely that you have a few media files linked into RM more than one time. It could be 5 media files linked 2 times each, or it could be 3 media files linked 2 times each and 1 media files linked 3 times - that sort of thing.

The only way I can think of to find the duplicate file names from within RM is via eyeball. I don’t think there is any way to export the full media list to to Excel or anything like that, and running a multimedia report will not do the trick.

Go to the main media tab, and eyeball the list. But make sure it is sorted by filename, not by caption. Your files linked more than once are likely to have different captions each time. So you want to see your duplicate file names sorted together, not your captions sorted together.

I prefer Add New Media to Drop New Media for reasons that don’t matter to this discussion. But Add New Media does have a bug or a design flaw that can lead to the same media file being linked more than once. Drop New Media does not have this problem. As a result, I am paranoid about checking to see that a file I’m about to link is not already linked.

My workflow to avoid duplicate media files is to copy the full media path to the clipboard for the file I’m about to add. Then, I go to Add Existing Media and paste the full file path. If I don’t get a hit, then that means I’m not adding a duplicate. So I switch to Add New Media and do the link for the new file. I paste the full file path a second time, and I’m done. In other words, I don’t have to go searching for the file name from within the Add New Media dialog.

After you find the duplicate media links, cleaning them up is non-trivial. You can’t just merge the duplicates. Instead, you have to decide which of the duplicates you are going to keep. Then add to the duplicate you are going to keep the tags from the duplicate you are going to delete. Only after you have preserved the tags in this manner is it safe to delete the duplicate media link.

I understand how fraught and recommended against it is for users to run SQLite scripts. But just in case, here is a script which would find your duplicate media links for you in case you would be able to run it. For more information, go to SQLite Tools for RootsMagic This is a user site not supported or endorsed by RootsMagic. Indeed, RootsMagic recommends strongly against it. This particular script is just a report. It doesn’t modify your RM database in any way. In particular, it doesn’t merge the duplicate media links. It only reports on them.

SELECT MM.MediaPath, MM.MediaFile, COUNT(*) AS MediaCount
FROM MultimediaTable AS MM
GROUP BY MM.MediaFile
HAVING MediaCount > 1
1 Like
8

If you use the Multimedia list and save as an Excel workbook you can highlight the list to show duplicates.

In Excel open the list and highlight the Media column by clicking at the top. then on the Home ribbon click on Conditional Formating, then Highlight Cell Rules, then Duplicate Values. that will highlight all the duplicates. You can then tell if they are added more than once and what they are attached to.

9

I would love to be proven wrong, but I don’t think Excel will solve this particular use case. There are problems in two directions,

In one direction, the MultiMedia List will not show any unused media that might be duplicate. It also will not show any duplicate media tagged to sources, citations, places, or place details if those items are unused. In other words, the MultiMedia List will only show media that is tagged to people or families or names, or to sources, citations, places, or place details that are linked to facts (or to people or families in the case of sources and citations).

In the other direction, the MultiMedia List as filtered by Microsoft Excel’s Highlight Cell Rules and then Duplicate Values will identify media files with more than one media tag. It’s like a media file for a death certificate that is tagged both to the Death fact and also to the citation for the death certificate. The media file for the death certificate itself is not duplicate. Rather, the media file has more than on media tag. This use case is to find duplicate media links rather than to find multiple media tags for the same media file.

10

thejerrybryan, Jerry,

11

I agree with that statement but will clarify something. If you use an ODBC connector – the built-in “Get Data” tools within EXCEL (that use DAX and/or M-code behind the scenes ) can be used. There is probably something on the site SQLite Tools for RootsMagic for that also (I have done both EXCEL or PBI for things like that)

Kevin

12

I agree. That would work.

Using Excel with an ODBC connector is tantamount to using SQLite code directly against your RM database. That’s why it will work. An ODBC connector could be used with Excel or with Access or with numerous other tools. It could also be used to update your RM database directly without going through the RM user interface. For that reason, using an ODBC connector with your RM database has the same dangers as running SQLite directly with your database.

The problem with using Excel with a report produced by RM to solve this problem is not with Excel. The problem is that the Multimedia List produced by RM doesn’t include all the data needed to solve this problem.

1 Like