Why are there 2 .mov files for some videos in my Photos library?

[Fuzzyreets]

Hi folks. I'm working on reorganizing and cleaning up my Photos library, specifically the videos. I exported all of them to 1080p (not using the Unmodified setting because I wanted to convert the 4k to 1080 to save space) and I notice tons of the videos have a filename.mov and also a filename.mov (1) file. The file with the (1) suffix is a bit smaller than the file without the suffix. I want to know what the purpose of this is and how to stop this from happening in the future. Thanks.

 

[MacInWin]

I have a question for you. Normally the 1 comes in the filename, as in filename.mov and filename1.mov. I've never seen it where the number is in parens or after the extent of the name (the .mov part). So can you clarify that for us?

Assuming it's file.move and file1.move, then the files with the 1 are "duplicate" in the sense that they have the same name, so the system appended the 1 to differentiate them from the originals. That happens with ANY file type when you save a file with the same name as one already there. Theoretically, you should have been given an option to overwrite the older or keep both. Overwrite would have eliminated the older, replaced it with the new. Keep both then adds the 1 to make a new name.

I tried to duplicate a picture in Photos and it didn't append or change the name in Photos, so I presume you are doing this from outside the app, or that you are NOT copying the file to Photos when you import it but leaving it in place on the drive. You might tell us how the import was done.

 

[ferrarr]

Did you watch both versions of the file, and are they both exactly the same?

 

[Fuzzyreets]

I have a question for you. Normally the 1 comes in the filename, as in filename.mov and filename1.mov. I've never seen it where the number is in parens or after the extent of the name (the .mov part). So can you clarify that for us?

Assuming it's file.move and file1.move, then the files with the 1 are "duplicate" in the sense that they have the same name, so the system appended the 1 to differentiate them from the originals. That happens with ANY file type when you save a file with the same name as one already there. Theoretically, you should have been given an option to overwrite the older or keep both. Overwrite would have eliminated the older, replaced it with the new. Keep both then adds the 1 to make a new name.

I tried to duplicate a picture in Photos and it didn't append or change the name in Photos, so I presume you are doing this from outside the app, or that you are NOT copying the file to Photos when you import it but leaving it in place on the drive. You might tell us how the import was done.

Hey thanks for the reply. I'm not sure that's what is occurring here and I do know what you are saying to be correct. After closer examination, it appears that one of the files is the primary and the other one has changes. For instance, a few I looked closer at were movies I know I took in Slo-mo and one fo the files was in slow-mo and the other was not so it appears that Photos/Camera app on iPhone retains a non modified and the other file contains the modifications to the movie. I'm pretty sure that is what is at play there in some form. I'm just keeping the larger of the two files which is always the modified file from what I see so far.

 

[Fuzzyreets]

Did you watch both versions of the file, and are they both exactly the same?

See my response from 1 min ago.