Remove Image IDs – Root Beer Tag

Why would I need to remove IDs from images’ metadata?

While rare, there might be cases when removing image IDs is needed. This happened to our Root Beer Tag site in September of 2025. We ended up with 66 cases where image IDs were assigned to more than one image.

We got into that state by copying some images of my mother-in-law’s quilts that were scattered around our collection into a centralized location. When I then uploaded the changes in the folders and ran the Add New Images or Update Image Info utility, the images’ entries in the database were updated to their new location as expected. However, the 66 original images were still out there across our collection, but no longer referenced in the database. They were basically orphaned.

I wrote a new utility to identify these images (Check for Duplicate Image IDs) and added it to the Site Utilities page. Running that utility produced this output:


If this script returns any images, work with the site owner to remove duplicate images at the source and re-synchronize to Root Beer Tag.
If called from a browser, please do not close this tab until the script completes (a completed message will print).

Unique ID 030656FF11927640FF96AA4CFD80347E is assigned to more than one image on the filesystem.
photos/2000-2009/2001/10-27-01 trunk or treat/1.jpg
photos/quilts/2001 10-27 Angel quilt.jpg

###################  REST OF OUTPUT TRUNCATED  ###################

Unique ID 2024121713122954BDFC15E02B60770B is assigned to more than one image on the filesystem.
photos/2024/11-30-24 Shopping and New Quilt/04 Three Wise Men Quilt.jpg
photos/quilts/2024 11-30 Three Wise Men Quilt.jpg

66 duplicates were found.

Again, work with the site owner to remove duplicate images at the source and re-synchronise to Root Beer Tag.

Script has completed; this tab can be closed.

From here, we had two options. Remove the duplicate images or embed new image IDs in the duplicate images that were not in the database. We decided to keep the duplicate images. Since there was no process to remove image IDs from images’ metadata, I created one. Here’s how to do it.

OK. This sounds tough.

It’s not as bad as it might sound. However, it might be time-consuming if your duplicates are scattered across different folders in your collection. In the zip file you downloaded to install the client software, there is a second application file called remove-image-ids.exe (remove-image-ids.command for MacOS users). Open that file to get started. MacOS users will need to right-click and select Open the first time.

Similar to the add-image-ids utilities, remove-image-ids is not recognized by Apple or Microsoft. When first running it, you will need to bypass Windows or macOS security, similarly to what you did with add-image-ids. Review the Root Beer Tag client-side software usage guide for our particular OS if a refresher is needed.

Anytime you run remove-image-ids, a command window will open. Each time you run it, a little warning will pop up advising the user to make sure they know what they’re doing. If this utility is used against images without duplicates, it can cause issues that will force some more drastic cleanup measures. If you need any advice on whether or not you need to use this utility, please let us know.

Once you click OK, you will get a dialog box to select your images to remove IDs from. You can select multiple images from any folder.

Once you select your image(s) and click OK, the selected images will be listed, and you will be given a choice of what to do with them.

Remove the unique image IDs from the images’ metadata.
Replace the unique image IDs in the images’ metadata with a new image ID.
Leave the images and their metadata unchanged (essentially stop and do nothing).

After making your selection, your images will be processed (if option 1 or 2 is selected). As with the add-image-ids.exe utility, only images that need to be modified are listed as things roll along. Once complete, press Enter to close the window.

If you chose to replace the image IDs, your images are ready to be reuploaded to Root Beer Tag. If needed, detailed uploading instructions can be found on our Using Free File Sync page.

This page last updated on 13 November 2025 by Bill Anderson