Swatch duplications

[geoffemm]

O/S Windows 10 Pro Version 1809 (Build 17763.475)
Processor Intel i7 8700K
Memory 32GB DDR4 2400 Dual
Motherboard Gygabytes AORUS Z370 Gaming K3 Revision # Rev 1.0
Graphics card ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 Turbo 8GB From aria pc 02/06/2018

Ok, so in the first instance, when I open up my PSP 2018 application, I get a message framed in a box that has the option to either ‘ok’ or ‘copy to clipboard, before I can precede any further. The message reads: ‘Swatches’ then lists items and their locations. In the bottom portion of the box it states, ‘Duplicate items detected. Some may not be available. To fix, rename the items or change file locations preferences. This warning will not be repeated for these items.’ Can anybody explain what this means in layman’s terms, and if they are duplicates, do I really need them cluttering up my system?

Thanks in anticipation,
Geoffemm

[ehume]

I ran into the same issues. It comes from Windows 7, 10, etc. interfacing with PSPs. I fixed this with PSP 2018 by the laborious task of finding every directory/folder that brushes, brushtips, swatches, etc. were in and transferring them all to a master folder (always a step up from the subdirectories) using ctrl-X. When the OS asked me if I wanted to overwrite dupes, I said yes. Then I would delete the sub-folders. Every time I opened a tool in PSP and got a duplicate notification I would press copy, then open a new MS Word document, paste the contents of my clipboard, and save the document. Then I went to the sources indicated in the Word file, and moved everything into the master folder, overwriting as necessary. In the end, I had no dupes.

While you will not likely notice a dupe-caused slowdown with your rig (as a former 8700k user I appreciate the CPU, and 32GB RAM will definitely help), you might notice a slowdown on really large images. In any case, it is good to expunge duplicates.

[LeviFiction]

Duplicates are just a file with the same name as another file in two different locations making PSP confused.

In PSP resources are stored in very specific folders on your harddrive. There are the default contents that PSP comes with. And then there are the folders made for your custom content like swatches and brushes. PSP looks for each type of resource in very specific locations. You can get a list of these locations by going to File -> Preferences -> File Locations.

It'll open up a dialog where you can see a resource type in a long list on the left, and the different locations PSP looks for these resources on the right. PSP will also look in the sub-folders of these locations if you have that option turned on.

This is important because it means that two completely different items can have the same name and be considered duplicates.

For example, I have several subfolders for my swatches. If I create a brand new swatch with different settings but use the same name as a current swatch file. Even if it's in a different folder PSP will see the filenames are the same and will report a duplicate. It doesn't look at the contents of a file, just whether or not the file has the same name.

There is any number of reasons you might have two different files with the same name in PSP's search path.

Take this as an example, you have two copies of PSP. You've pointed the file locations of one of them to the Program files of another. These two programs come with the same files. So one works just fine, but the other complains about duplicates because it's finding two files with the same name in its search folders. In this case, they truly are duplicates because the Program Files folders have the exact same default resources.

Another example is downloading content from the web and pasting it into a subfolder, Windows won't catch this if two filenames are the same. But PSP will complain.

As ehume mentions, PSP lets you copy the list of duplicates to the clipboard where you can then paste them into notepad or word, or wherever you want. These will tell you where it found a file with a duplicate name. And what type of file it is. I don't recommend just dropping them into a master folder as they may, in fact, be different files with the same name in which case you're losing one of the when Windows overwrites one with the other. It's important to first establish if they are duplicates, and if they are actual duplicates, not just files with the same name, figure out how they got there. It's not really usual for duplicates to show up on their own.