Help - older photos being "overwritten" by new ones!

A few days ago I was showing someone a blog entry which is a few months old. About half of the photos embedded in the entry were not the correct photos, but others that I have uploaded since.

At first I thought it was maybe a problem with the same photo ID being used more than once, so that the "photo markup" embeds the wrong one, but then I looked at the photos themselves and realised that the new photos have the original caption, and the original photos no longer seem to be there at all!

I hope this is something you can sort because it would take ages to go through all my entries looking for these then re-upload and re-embed all of the photos.

This is a good post to see it: http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?CommentID=64217

And this is an example of a photo: http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=50706

As far as I can tell the problem only seems to cover a smallish time period, starting from the photo above.

written by

The Happy Couple on July 15, 2009

Oh I should have mentioned that there is quite a strong possibility that all the new ones are actually my wife's photos, which would have been set to be a different trip. If you think that might be significant I can ask her to help me do a more thorough check.

written by

The Happy Couple on July 15, 2009

I've just found one where the thumbnail is the old photo, but it appears as the new photo when I click on it: http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=50788

That means it could be affecting more than I've realised.

:-(

written by

The Happy Couple on July 15, 2009

Ah, yeah. That's actually sort of intentional, but every once in a while it ends up biting somebody. I take it you both have the same brand of camera and that the autogenerated filenames are starting to overlap?

Usually, when people upload the same named photo twice it's either the same one by mistake or the same one rotated. You're right though, it does it silently, so if you don't know it's happening you can do some damage.

written by

Jason Kester on July 16, 2009

Yeah same brand but different model. We got them nearly the same time so that filenames will definitely overlap.

Is there anything that can be done to recover the ones that have gone? Or am I going to have to do it manually :-/

I can understand why you have done it, but I don't think it should happen when uploading to a different trip, perhaps?

Or if you are checking the photo meta-data how about checking the model too? - and the file size, for that matter, which will almost never be the same for different photos?

And what can we do to avoid it when she uploads her next batch? Will renaming the files work, or does it look at original filename or something?

written by

The Happy Couple on July 16, 2009

You said before nagging is good so... I'm not as bothered about a fix yet, but it would be great if you can tell me whether renaming the files will prevent the same thing from happening again.

written by

The Happy Couple on July 23, 2009

Sorry to leave you hanging.

Yeah, the quickest workaround would be to rename the files before uploading them. Ideally your camera would have a setting to change the prefix it puts on the files.

If I find time, I'll see if I can get something in place to at least warn people when a file is about to be overwritten.

written by

Jason Kester on July 23, 2009

OK, we are up and running again.

But now I am ready to nag more! Do you think you'll be able to recover the original photos (whilst retaining the ones that replaced them)? - or will I have to do it manually?

I just want to know whether it's worthwhile hanging on for a fix or if they're lost forever...

Thank again
Michael

written by

The Happy Couple on July 29, 2009

I hate to say it, but I think they're gone. That's one area where we don't keep any history, so once you've uploaded a new photo by the same name, it will replace the old one irreversibly.

Sorry for the slow response on this. I'd like to put a fix in place for this, but at the moment I'm bogged down with a bunch of other (paying) work. I'll keep you posted!

written by

Jason Kester on July 30, 2009

Oh well, these things happen!

Will I be able to fix the original ones simply by uploading them again, so that this time the filename replace will work in my favour?

written by

The Happy Couple on July 30, 2009

OK - I tried it out with one and since that worked I went ahead and did the rest of them. Now I just need my wife to re-upload hers and we'll be sorted. Whew!

written by

The Happy Couple on July 30, 2009

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Help - older photos being "overwritten" by new ones!

Heading South?