obsidian-vault/100 inbox/Photo Consolidation Plan.md

created, modified, type, tags, aliases

created	modified	type	tags	aliases
2026-05-28	2026-05-28	note	photos consolidation archive	photo-consolidation

Photo Consolidation Plan

Consolidating all photo collections across drives into a single clean archive.

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Principle

Do not touch Immich — it manages its own library at /mnt/hd/immich/ (40K photos, Dec 2024 – Jan 2025). All other photos get consolidated into one archive.

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Current State — All Photo Collections

Immich Library — DO NOT TOUCH

Machine	Location	Photos	Period	Organized
.35	/mnt/hd/immich/	40,769	Dec 2024 – Jan 2025	Immich-managed

Collections to Consolidate

#	Collection	Machine	Path	Photos	Period	Organized	Duplicate Of
1	sorted_pictures_holder	.13	/mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/sorted_pictures_holder/	31,279	1990–2023	✅ Year → Month	Master collection
2	temp_transfer	.13	/mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/temp_transfer/	~?	2024	❌ By event name	Unique (latest photos)
3	PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD	.13	/mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD/	~?	2005–2012	❌ By topic	= #7 Back Up drive
4	Integral300 recovery	.27 mounted	/run/media/sam/Integral300/	30,747	—	Mixed	= #5 SmartDrive + #1
5	SmartDrive backup	.27	/run/media/sam/SmartDrive/integral300_backup_20260305/	30,747	—	Mixed	= #4 recovery img
6	Photos-001 (1-4)	.13	/mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/Photos-001 (1-4)/	~119	May–Jun 2023	❌ Raw dumps	Unique
7	Back Up drive photos	.27	/mnt/backup/old_photos_backup/pictures/	~?	2005–2011	❌ By topic	= #3
8	sorted_pictures/2019	.13	/mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/sorted_pictures/	~?	2019	✅ Year only	Might be in #1 already
9	sam rolfe/previous years	.13	/mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/sam rolfe/previous years/	~?	2018–2019	❌ Mixed	Unique?
10	grandas_wake	.13	/mnt/storage/Users/Sam Rolfe/Desktop/grandas_wake/recent photos sams/	~7	—	❌	Unique?

Duplicate Summary

Group	Collections	Action
A — sorted_pictures_holder	#1 only (on .13)	Keep as master — best organized
B — PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD	#3 (#7 is same)	Keep one copy, delete the other
C — Integral300	#4 (#5 is same)	Delete SmartDrive copy — recovery .img is source of truth
D — temp_transfer + misc	#2, #6, #8, #9, #10	Merge into archive — these are unique

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Proposed Archive Structure

Target Location: .13 — /mnt/ubuntu_storage_3TB/archive/photos/

Moved from /mnt/data/ (ran out of space — 1.9T full). Ubuntu storage has 2.2T free.

/mnt/ubuntu_storage_3TB/archive/photos/
├── by_date/sorted_pictures_holder/       ← 373G (year→month, 1990–2023)
├── by_subject/PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD/  ← 69G (topic-organized)
├── phone_dumps/Photos-001 (1-4)/         ← ~119 phone photos
└── temp_transfer/                        ← 2024 events (unsorted)

/mnt/data/archive/photos/
│
├── by_date/                     ← The master date-organized collection
│   ├── 1990/
│   │   └── 01-Jan/
│   ├── 2003/
│   ├── 2004/
│   ├── ... (years 2005–2023)
│   ├── 2023/
│   │   ├── 02-Feb/
│   │   ├── 03-Mar/
│   │   ├── 04-Apr/
│   │   └── 05-May/
│   └── 2024/                    ← From temp_transfer (sorted into months)
│       ├── 03-Mar/              → footy_round_5_2024, etc.
│       ├── 04-Apr/              → fin round 7, etc.
│       └── ...
│
├── by_subject/                  ← Topic-based albums (no clear dates)
│   ├── baby_harry/
│   ├── wedding/
│   ├── grandma_funeral/
│   ├── bruges/
│   ├── byron_bay/
│   ├── footy/                   ← All footy games combined
│   ├── dad_80th/
│   └── ... (others from PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD)
│
└── phone_dumps/                 ← Raw phone exports (keep original names)
    └── pixel_6_pro_2023/
        ├── 2023-05/
        └── 2023-06/

Explanation

Folder	Source	Rationale
by_date/	sorted_pictures_holder/ + temp_transfer/ (sorted into dates)	Primary — date-organized is the most useful for finding photos. temp_transfer events will be sorted into year/month folders
by_subject/	PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD/	Secondary — some photos make more sense grouped by event (weddings, funerals, trips)
phone_dumps/	Photos-001 (1-4)/	Raw exports — useful to keep original PXL_ filenames for reference

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Consolidation Steps

Step 1 — Delete Obvious Duplicates

# These are identical to PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD on .13:
# Delete from .27 Back Up drive after confirming .13 copy exists
# /mnt/backup/old_photos_backup/pictures/  ← DELETE SAFELY

# These are already extracted and match recovery .img:
# Delete SmartDrive integral300_backup_20260305/  ← DELETE SAFELY

Step 2 — Build the Archive (on .13)

# Create archive structure
mkdir -p /mnt/data/archive/photos/{by_date,by_subject,phone_dumps}

# A) Copy sorted_pictures_holder as the foundation of by_date/
cp -a /mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/sorted_pictures_holder/ \
  /mnt/data/archive/photos/by_date/

# B) Copy subject-organized albums into by_subject/
cp -a /mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD/* \
  /mnt/data/archive/photos/by_subject/

# C) Copy phone dumps
cp -a "/mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/Photos-001 (1)/" \
  /mnt/data/archive/photos/phone_dumps/2023-05/
cp -a "/mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/Photos-001 (2)/" \
  /mnt/data/archive/photos/phone_dumps/2023-05/
# ... etc

# D) Copy temp_transfer events — needs manual sorting into by_date/2024/
cp -a /mnt/data/ALL_TRANFERS/Pictures/temp_transfer/ \
  /mnt/data/archive/photos/temp_transfer_to_sort/

Step 3 — Sort temp_transfer into by_date/2024/

The folder needs manual review. Photos can be filed into:

by_date/2024/
├── 03-Mar/          ← footy_round_5_2024, fin round 7
├── 04-Apr/          ← fin round 8, harry round 8
├── 05-May/          ← harry round 9
├── 06-Jun/          ← whatever dates are in there
└── ... 

Each file has timestamps — use exiftool or file timestamps to determine the right month.

Step 4 — Verify & Clean Up

1. Run du -sh on the archive to confirm all photos arrived
2. Spot-check a few folders with ls
3. Delete source directories from ALL_TRANFERS only after confirmed
4. Unmount recovery .img + delete SmartDrive copy

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Additional Photo Sources to Check

Source	Where	Action
.35 My Passport /mnt/hd/data/	.35	Check if any photos exist in the data folder
Immich database	.35	Already managed — leave alone
Integral300 recovery .img	.27 /mnt/tempbackup/	Data is in the archive already — keep for now?
Obsidian attachments	.27 ~/obsidian/	These are notes, not photos — keep in vault

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What to Keep vs Delete After Consolidation

Item	Keep?	Reason
sorted_pictures_holder/ on .13	🗑️ Delete	Moved to archive
PICTURES_GROUPED_SUBJECT_OLD/ on .13	🗑️ Delete	Moved to archive
temp_transfer/ on .13	🗑️ Delete	Moved to archive
Photos-001 (1-4)/ on .13	🗑️ Delete	Moved to archive
old_photos_backup on Back Up	❌ Can't delete	NTFS read-only mount
SmartDrive integral300_backup	❌ Can't delete	Needs sudo (parent dir root-owned)
Recovery .img (298G)	🔵 Keep for now	Safety net — delete later
Immich	✅ Keep	Live service
sam rolfe/previous years/ on .13	❓ Check	Mixed
grandas_wake/ on .13	❓ Check	~7 photos
.27 Back Up drive	❓ Repurpose	158G freed eventually

Archive Built — 2026-05-28

Completed: Copied all photo collections to .13 /mnt/ubuntu_storage_3TB/archive/photos/ — 471G total, 2.2T free remaining

Could not delete:

• SmartDrive backup needs sudo rm -rf /mnt/smartdrive/integral300_backup_20260305/
• Back Up drive is NTFS read-only — need config change to remount rw

Both source copies on .13 ALL_TRANFERS still exist — can be deleted after verification.

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Discarded Approaches

• Merging into Immich: Immich handles ingestion well, but it's running on .35 and the archive target is .13. Better to keep a simple filesystem-based archive.
• Deleting all duplicates immediately: Too risky. Only delete after confirming the archive copy is intact.
• Keeping everything on .27: The NVMe drive is fast but limited (490G free). .13 has more space (416G free on Data, 2.6T on ubuntu_storage_3TB) and is always-on.