Pictures

[Sailor]

There is a vast wealth of information here and I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction. For some time now have been finding that when I go back to look at pictures I find 2-6 copies of the same photo and have to start deleting them. I am also now finding photos stacked on top of each other. Every anti virus, anti malware and cleaning system I have run says the computer is clean ( obviously it is not). I have had two experts check it out and they can't find anything. Has anyone else run across this?

[SilvrT]

Are you referring to the pics on your computer? If so, are you using a picture cataloging program or just Windows Explorer / Windows Picture Viewer?

[Sailor]

It is the pics on the computer. I don't now what it was on my old computer but I had the same problem. They are now on Lenovo which came installed on this computer.

[SilvrT]

It is the pics on the computer. I don't now what it was on my old computer but I had the same problem. They are now on Lenovo which came installed on this computer.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, Lenovo is a computer manufacturer.

 

So, where do you go to look at your pictures? Do you open Windows Explorer and click on Pictures? or do you go to them a different way such as in Windows 10 go to Start, All Apps, Photos and then they come up in a big screen that looks like this ....

 

[SilvrT]

If it's like the above, it could just be your settings....

 

[Sailor]

The computer is Lenovo and it came with Lenovo photomaster pre installed. All photos automatically go to photomaster. This problem also existed on my previous computer so I think when the pictures were transferred so was a virus. I go back through the photos and find anywhere from 1-6 duplicates. Now some photos are being overlaid on top of others and I can't separate them. It is a nuisance to keep going back and deleting all the duplicates.

[SilvrT]

The computer is Lenovo and it came with Lenovo photomaster pre installed. All photos automatically go to photomaster. This problem also existed on my previous computer so I think when the pictures were transferred so was a virus. I go back through the photos and find anywhere from 1-6 duplicates. Now some photos are being overlaid on top of others and I can't separate them. It is a nuisance to keep going back and deleting all the duplicates.

 

First of all, can you view your photos in Windows Photo Viewer or via Windows Explorer? If so, do they look OK there? If so ....

 

Then I'd suggest backing up all your photos to a USB stick or some other external device and uninstall Lenovo Photomaster. Then just use Windows Photo Viewer or Windows Explorer.

 

Sounds more like an issue with Photomaster.

 

FWIW, Photomaster is just a photo organizer / cataloger.

[camos]

For some time now have been finding that when I go back to look at pictures I find 2-6 copies of the same photo and have to start deleting them.

When you have multiple instances of a pic in the same dir they will all need a unique name. If you check the names it is likely you will see one with the original name and all the rest will have Copy 1 of...Copy 2 of... etc. This can easily happen in several ways the most common is to mis-mouse when selecting and accidentally dragging which will copy a file to the same dir it was already in ending up with Copy of....

 

 

I am also now finding photos stacked on top of each other.

That is likely a Win10 sort thing which I am not familiar with other than trying it for a week on my old school PC and not liking it.

[camos]

The computer is Lenovo and it came with Lenovo photomaster pre installed. All photos automatically go to photomaster. This problem also existed on my previous computer so I think when the pictures were transferred so was a virus. I go back through the photos and find anywhere from 1-6 duplicates. Now some photos are being overlaid on top of others and I can't separate them. It is a nuisance to keep going back and deleting all the duplicates.

Some photo viewers act like a database and will display the same pic as multiples if that pic is in several different dirs which makes the same pic uniquely named.

 

It is not necessary to uninstall the Lenovo photo viewer to use Win PicViewer. Just open the PicViewer, navigate to the dir your pix are in and open them directly. Even easier, open Windows File Explorer and go to your Pic dir and view the files as thumbnails. If there are multiple copies in the same dir that would indicate an oopsie but if there are only individual pix then that would indicate what you are seeing is just the way Lenovo photo viewer works.

 

Knowing where the multiple copies of the pix are located will be helpful in sleuthing what is going on.

[Kretz]

Sailor, I hate the "automatic" photo cataloging programs that file photos according to some arbitrary algorithm, that I may not want to use.

What I did some time ago is:- under the windows directory "Pictures" I made separate "folders" with titles that I understand & I put my photos in there.

You can make as many "folders" & sub-folders as you want.

As an example I have under the windows "pictures" directory

Folders called: 2016 Photos---> Motorcycle Pics---> Trip to Sunshine Coast.

................................................................---> Vancouver Toy Run

................................................................---> Ride to Hope

....................................---> Garden Pics ---> January

............................................................---> Feb

............................................................---> March

 

Basically I file my photos the same as any other file, in directories (folders) & sub (directories) folders.

I don't like some programme doing the job for me (in a way that I may not want or understand)

Hope that helps

[Sailor]

What makes me think this is a virus rather than a software or computer problem is that it first appeared on my old computer a few years ago. I forget what brand it was but it had windows 7. I discovered it when the computer ran out of space and I found multiple copies of all pictures on it. I would delete them but they slowly came back.

When I transferred the pics to this new computer it was ok for a year then the duplication started again. This is a different computer with a different system. I just did a search on line and found this is a virus, now all I have to do is figure out how to get rid of it. There are downloads that say they will get rid of it but when I go on them it does not say where it comes from which makes me a bit leery of downloading them.

Thanks for all the help.

[baylensman]

What makes me think this is a virus rather than a software or computer problem is that it first appeared on my old computer a few years ago. I forget what brand it was but it had windows 7. I discovered it when the computer ran out of space and I found multiple copies of all pictures on it. I would delete them but they slowly came back.

When I transferred the pics to this new computer it was ok for a year then the duplication started again. This is a different computer with a different system. I just did a search on line and found this is a virus, now all I have to do is figure out how to get rid of it. There are downloads that say they will get rid of it but when I go on them it does not say where it comes from which makes me a bit leery of downloading them.

Thanks for all the help.

 

I don't know if you have and "cloud" type storage attached to your phone or computer. You have to double check the settings on both. Had and issue where i would download a photo from "Myfiles" to my phone to forward to someone. my phone would copy this once when i dowloaded then once in the sent folder ( at this point 1 copy in "Myfile" 2 copies on phone) my phone is set to auto back up to several sources. 2 copies of the photo go to my cloud storage "myfile" and also to my google and samsung phone back ups. ( now 3 copies in "Myfile")

 

If i needed the same photo again for a different installer and forgot it was already on my phone or I was to lazy to search. i download again then send (now 4 copies on my phone and after back ups 5 copies in 'Myfile" and 2 more to each google and samsung.

 

I'd get tired of memory issues go back into my phone and clean out all my duplicates and some originals. well my phone would do its outback up thing and sometime in the next 24 hours i'd get a message about file transfer pending and I just hit okay now all 5 photos of the same shower come back to my phone in the Photo directory not spread out in the sent directly and upload directories.

It was a cycle until i changed the settings on my phone and computer to "not back up from other sources" that way i had one copy on my phone until i told it to save and one copy on my "myfile" account

[camos]

What makes me think this is a virus rather than a software or computer problem is that it first appeared on my old computer a few years ago....... just did a search on line and found this is a virus, now all I have to do is figure out how to get rid of it. There are downloads that say they will get rid of it but when I go on them it does not say where it comes from which makes me a bit leery of downloading them.

Thanks for all the help.

Kerry, not saying it can't be a virus but presumably you have an anti-virus program installed and yet you find it necessary to search the Internet for information. Your resident and up-to-date AV prog should have identified a virus as soon as it showed up. That's curious don't you think?

[Sailor]

Kerry, not saying it can't be a virus but presumably you have an anti-virus program installed and yet you find it necessary to search the Internet for information. Your resident and up-to-date AV prog should have identified a virus as soon as it showed up. That's curious don't you think?

 

I have Avast and Malware.I think this thing hides in pictures and is one that can reinstall itself.The interesting thing is that there are some applications dealing with this thing but I do not know which to trust.I do not have a phone or any other device and do not know much about computers.

[camos]

I have Avast and Malware.I think this thing hides in pictures and is one that can reinstall itself.The interesting thing is that there are some applications dealing with this thing but I do not know which to trust.I do not have a phone or any other device and do not know much about computers.

I would think any good AV program would also scan the pic data files for malware. I've never used Avast but have heard it is a good one. If you are on Shaw, they offer a MacAfee Security suite to their customers for free. It seems to work well and there is tech support for it from Shaw and/or MacAfee depending on the issue. Just need to log into your account and there is a link to the download under Security.

[Sailor]

I know the AV's also scan pictures but while they are excellent none are 100% guaranteed. According to google this seems to be some type of Trojan. There is always something new coming along.

[SilvrT]

Sometimes it requires more than one A/V program to find and eradicate a virus.

 

There have been times when I've used 3 different A/V progs to clean up a users computer.