Moments: Repeted folder deletion and re-creation

[vidaren]

From a user perspective everything seems fine. But the log shows repeated deletion of some of my folders, followed by immediate re-creation of the same folders. The reason for the deletion seems to be that the folders in the albums table have the same album_slug value, which is truncated due to deep folder nesting and long folder names. The actual difference between the deep paths has been truncated away at the end of album_slug, making it identical for more than 1 folder.

RemoveDuplicateMoments() removes the perceived dupliicates because a.album_slug = b.album_slug in the query.

I didn't figure out why it's re-created when there remains an existing album of type 'folder'.

Has anybody seen this and maybe fixed it?

I don't know it it's a bug or something wrong with my index / tables.
I just did a full re-indexing + cleanup of the parent folder of the problem folders. That didn't fix it.
This is what the log shows when it happens:

photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:02Z" level=info msg="moments: removed 10 duplicates"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added 'Buddy Guy' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2006 Danmark, Tyskland, Nederland/Rotterdam (North Sea Jazz)/Buddy Guy\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added 'Madeleine Peyroux' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2006 Danmark, Tyskland, Nederland/Rotterdam (North Sea Jazz)/Madeleine Peyroux\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added '01 Praha, Dresden, Wroclaw' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert/bilder/ferie 2008 mellomeuropa/galleri/01 Praha, Dresden, Wroclaw\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added '02 Wroclaw, Auschwitz' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert/bilder/ferie 2008 mellomeuropa/galleri/02 Wroclaw, Auschwitz\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added '03 Krakow, Zakopane' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert/bilder/ferie 2008 mellomeuropa/galleri/03 Krakow, Zakopane\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added '04 Gerlachov, Strbske Pleso' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert/bilder/ferie 2008 mellomeuropa/galleri/04 Gerlachov, Strbske Pleso\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added '05 Zistersdorf' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert/bilder/ferie 2008 mellomeuropa/galleri/05 Zistersdorf\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added '06 Brno' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert/bilder/ferie 2008 mellomeuropa/galleri/06 Brno\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added '07 Wien, Linz' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert/bilder/ferie 2008 mellomeuropa/galleri/07 Wien, Linz\" public:true)"
photoprism-photoprism-1  | time="2026-05-25T16:38:03Z" level=info msg="moments: added '08 Passau, Plzen' (path:\"pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert/bilder/ferie 2008 mellomeuropa/galleri/08 Passau, Plzen\" public:true)"

A bit weird: Only two of the folders listed really have existing duplicate album_slug values due to photos in a subfolder, but it seems the whole set of folders on the parent of those get re-created.

I can work around this by shortening original paths, but I don't see why I should have to.

[lastzero]

Thanks for reporting this! Looks like a side effect of a bug fix included in the current release.

[lastzero]

You may have experienced continued loop recreation issues because the album_path column is not populated in your database. If so, performing a full rescan should resolve the issue.

An updated preview build with additional improvements is now available for testing, and the issue description has been updated according to the latest findings:

• Folders: Prevent folder album loops from colliding slugs #5615

[vidaren]

I tested with the new preview. It still removes and re-creates the same 7 moments. It fails to find these existing rows in FindFolderAlbum():

select id, album_type, album_slug, album_path FROM albums where album_path is null;
+-----+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------+
| id  | album_type | album_slug                                                                                                            | album_path |
+-----+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------+
| 190 | folder     | pictures-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-konvertert-bilder-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-02-wroclaw-auschwitz       | NULL       |
| 191 | folder     | pictures-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-konvertert-bilder-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-03-krakow-zakopane         | NULL       |
| 192 | folder     | pictures-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-konvertert-bilder-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-04-gerlachov-strbske-pleso | NULL       |
| 193 | folder     | pictures-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-konvertert-bilder-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-05-zistersdorf             | NULL       |
| 194 | folder     | pictures-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-konvertert-bilder-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-06-brno                    | NULL       |
| 195 | folder     | pictures-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-konvertert-bilder-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-07-wien-linz               | NULL       |
| 196 | folder     | pictures-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-konvertert-bilder-ferie-2008-mellomeuropa-galleri-08-passau-plzen            | NULL       |
+-----+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------+

The reason is, as far as I can tell:

1. findFolderAlbumByPath() fails as expected because album_path is null.
2. Then the fallback fails because album_slug is full length in the database while both txt.SlugUnique() and legacyFolderAlbumSlug() truncate the slug at 80 in the current code.

EDIT: Include album_type in SQL, clarify that album_slug is full length in the database.

EDIT2: A full rescan of /pictures/Ferie 2008 Mellomeuropa/Galleri-konvertert did not populate the null values and the problem persists. Do I need to do a full rescan of the entire library?

[lastzero]

Yes, you can either try a full rescan of the entire library or/or manually run photoprism moments in a terminal. Alternatively, you can manually delete the rows with album_type = 'folder' from the albums table so they are regenerated. Note this will also wipe any manual changes, e.g., a custom title or description.

[vidaren]

Thanks. I ran photoprism moments a few times with no improvment. I did not want to wait for a full rescan, given the partial rescan didn't fix it.

In the end I deleted the database rows that had album_path = null to get rid of the duplicates. Problem solved, it seems.