File naming/numbering questions

Question

I have a group of problems with file numbering that I don’t know how to solve.  My goal is to have an organized system.  I’m open to suggestions about how to solve the situation I’m in and what to do in the future.
I keep my images in LR, primarily in one catalog of 13,000+ images.  After I set up my initial file numbering system I didn’t pay any attention to it.  What I did was to set up a system as follows: Myname_Date(YY)Date(MM)Date(DD)_Filename Number Suffix.
This worked fine for a year or so.
Then I went on a trip and came back with about 2500 images on both media cards and on a portable hard drive. Many, but not all of the images on the cards duplicated what was on the HD.  I lost sight of the fact that the numbering system works, not by using the date the image was created but rather the date the image is downloaded into LR’s catalog system and I downloaded my media cards and then dumped the images from the portable HD into LR as well.  What happened in the process is that multiple images got created and I didn’t realize it.  Sometimes I’d edit an image with its number in this format: SB_081102_5402.dng.  Sometimes I’d edit the same image with its number in this format: SB_08_10_22_5402.dng.  I think there are at least 150 images in this 2nd format (plus virtual copies, PSD and JPEGs). (I’ve put the bold here to make it easy to see what’s going on—it’s not in LR).
To make matters worse, now that I’m taking a careful look at the numbers that I have, I’m finding something that I have no explanation for at all. I see that I have some images, (I have no idea how many) that I’ve found duplicates of as follows: one image will be properly numbered with a Filename Number Suffix: SB_081030_7358.dng. Then I’ll see that I have a second imaged weirdly numbered with, essentially, just my name and the date: SB_081030_1-2.dng.  The image seems to be a copy that has lost its Filename Number Suffix.
As if this weren’t enough, I’ve got an upcoming trip where I’ll take two camera bodies that are the same model of camera and it’s quite possible I’ll use both the same day as well as multiple cards that might be used on the same day.  It, therefore, seems to make sense for me to switch to a system that scraps the Filename Number Suffix and replaces it with a 4 digit sequence (0001).  But do I just leave my old, fractured and broken non-system sitting there and then import a new system on top of the old one?
And how do I handle, going forward, importing images that I’ll back up on my portable HD without again getting the mess I’m in now? How do I fix what I've got?  Is there an easy way?  How to even find all the images that are are there with no Filename Number Suffix?
Hope this mess is clear and a huge thanks to anyone patient enough to plow through it and suggest some answers!
Stephanie
Mac OS X, LR 2.4

Answer 1

Stephani,
It was bugging me, too, why I wasn't seeing what you were. I did a little research, and a little investigation, and I think I have some things figured out including some things that may make me re-think my approach.
Basically, the reason we weren't seeing the same things was that I was looking at the rename dialog that pops up when you're in Libary (i.e. you're renaming files that already exist in LR) and you were looking at the rename dialog that appears as part of the import.
I thought these dialogs were the same, but they aren't!
The library dialog has Sequence #, Image #, and Total #, and that's what I wrote about in my prior post.
The import dialog has Sequence #, Image #, and Import #.
I can't find any hard documentation, either, but here's what I *think* happens.
Library Renaming:
Sequence #: Starts with the sequence number you specify, and increments by 1.
Image #: Out of the total number of images, what image is this (The "x" in Image X of Y)
Total #: The total number of images selected for renaming (The "y" in Image X of Y)
Renaming 3 files with a template "Custom Text_Image # (01)_Total # (01)_Sequence # (01)", where custom text is "SB" and  your starting sequence as 17 (just for illustration), here's what your images would be named:
Image 1: SB_01_03_17.dng
Image 2: SB_02_03_18.dng
Image 3: SB_03_03_19.dng
Import Renaming:
Sequence #: Same thing as Library
Total #: Similar to Library, the total number of images being imported
Image #: Even though it's named the same as the Libary option, I think it works completely differently. Every image imported gets the next available number. This is the high water mark I think I was looking for!
Import #: Every time you do an import (i.e. click the Import button and import something), this sequence gets incremented by 1.
So let's say you're importing 3 files, with template "Custom Text_Import #(01)_Image #(01)_Total #(01)_Sequence #(01). Custom text is "SB", and sequence starts with 1.
Image 1: SB_01_01_03_01.dng
Image 2: SB_01_02_03_02.dng
Image 3: SB_01_03_03_03.dng
Then, you import 4 more images. The interesting thing to note here is that the Import # now becomes 2 (your second import), but the Image # picks up where it left off.
Image 1: SB_02_04_04_01.dng
Image 2: SB_02_05_04_02.dng
Image 3: SB_02_06_04_03.dng
Image 4: SB_02_07_04_04.dng
Then, you import 3 more images. The Import # now becomes 3, and again Image # picks up where it left off.
Image 1: SB_03_08_03_01.dng
Image 2: SB_03_09_03_02.dng
Image 3: SB_03_10_03_03.dng
The interesting thing to note about this is that Image #, if used consistently, would ensure that each image had a unique number. So always specifying an import template of "Custom Text_Image #(00001)" would mean that you could have SB_00001.cr2 through SB_99999.cr2.
Caveat #1 is that apparently Import # and Image # don't start incrementing until you actually use them. I've done countless imports and have thousands of images, but the first time I used these fields, Import # was 1, and Image # was 1.
I suspect that it's the fact that you actually USE these fields in a naming template during an import that causes them to be incremented. If you don't use them during import, the fields won't be incremented. I haven't verified this yet.
Caveat #2 is that I don't see any way of changing these number if you don't like them. For example, if you've already imported 3,0000 images, and want Image # to start at 3001, too bad. If you've never used Image #, it's going to start at 1. Of course, I'm sure it's stored somewhere in the .lrcat file
Still, I think Import # and Image #  are extremely helpful, and I think I might start using them to ensure unique filenames.
The puzzler is how all this figures into LR's determining a "suspected duplicate", assuming LR uses filename as part of that.
If I rename every image upon import to SB_xxxxx.dng, LR thinks that SB_xxxxx.dng is the original name.
So if I have camera 1 with DSC_1234.nef, and it's renamed to SB_00001.dng upon import, what happens when I try to import the BACKUP of camera 1's DSC_1234.nef? If it was imported, it would be named SB_00002.dng. But hopefully LR know it's a  duplicate, right?
But what happens if I have camera 2, and it has a completely different image that also happens to be named DSC_1234.nef. Would that be considered a duplicate?
I've never seen or heard the actual logic for how LR determines a duplicate, but with renaming upon import and multiple cameras, I think it's pretty important to know.