Identify a duplicate file in another database?

In DT2, I could’ve sworn I was able to see duplicate files in other (open) databases - under Instances in Get Info. But that’s not the case with DT3, so I’m probably mistaken. I know replicants are always within the same database, but because I could duplicate a file directly into another database - I thought I could identify a duplicate item in multiple databases. Is there another way to accomplish what I’m trying to do?

That would be really useful. I would like to see that capability to find all duplicates across all my databases. Consider this a feature request.

Welcome @melton

et al: Development would have to weigh in on this, but that is not currently possible.

I think too that this was possible in V2.
Can you confirm this or am I wrong ?

The recognition of duplicates was always limited to the same database. Now it’s actually possible to find duplicates or very similar items via the See Also & Classify inspector in all opened databases.

Thanks for clearing that out.
Good to know that there is no step backward and I just remembering wrong.

Yup, thanks Christian - that’s really helpful to know, especially when there’s a limited # of items.

But in one database, I have many, many files that I think are duplicates (left from years ago when I imported my Evernote PDF files into DT) - and using the See Also & Classify inspector would just be too tedious and take too long. So I moved the backup items into my main database, expecting them to be identified as duplicates because I know many are. But none show up as dups.

So i looked more carefully and noticed that, for example, a PDF of a scanned document has the identical name and creation date - but the size is slightly different. I guess that explains why it doesn’t show up as a duplicate - but I’m at a loss why these “identical” files really are not.

I guess the bottom line is now I can’t easily flag these duplicate items - and confirm they really are dups - before I get rid of them.

Yes - the stricter recognition of duplicates option in Preferences > General considers file type and size. If the size is off, it’s not considered a duplicate.

@jpb001. You’re right. If DT already knows about the duplicates then it should be possible to offer f.e. a column with this information for easy usage. Feature Request :slight_smile:

It does only inside the same database. And See Also & Classify is way too slow for such a column.

Jim- I completely forgot about the stricter recognition of duplicates option. Just unclicking that alone found about 500 duplicates. I realize it’s cruder, but was really handy in this case where I was looking at really old items that I knew were duplicates, even if the file sizes varied a bit. Thanks!

Christian- I can easily see the dups because of the different colors. But still curious what you mean about a duplicates column (in the same database). I don’t see that as a column option.

You’re welcome :slight_smile:

And the duplicates column was a suggestion from @Andreas76. Criss stated this would not be a performant option to add.