How Do You Remove Duplicate Photos In New Google+ Local Pages?

[Travis Van Slooten]

So for the longest time my client has been under the old dashboard. I needed to go in and delete some photos and add some new photos.

When I went to log into their Google Places dashboard it upgraded us to the new dashboard. During the upgrade, however, we had to enter a new business description and upload new photos because the description and the photos were totally blank. After I added a business description and the photos, the photos were added to the photos that were already there via the old dashboard so now we have a bunch of duplicate photos. Take a look:
https://plus.google.com/+<wbr>BarnaGuzySteffenLtdCoonRapids/<wbr>photos

I need to know how to delete these duplicates. When I go into the new dashboard, I don't see all those duplicates. I only see the new photos I added today. I only see the dupes on the listing itself.

It's as if the old and new dashboard are controlling the listing - except we all know the old dashboard is broken so even if I go there and delete all the photos (which I would like to do), nothing will likely happen.

I thought I would do the "Report a Problem" option but I can't find a link to it on their Google+ Local page - and I don't remember where to locate the option to contact Google via phone.

Any ideas on what my options are??

Travis

 

[Kaleh Kohler]

Travis,

It looks like the duplicates are still visible through Google+.

If you are logged in as the owner (or manager) of the Google+ Page and click on one of the images and open it in the "light box" viewer, do you have a "trash can" icon (Delete photo) in the line of options at the top of the screen?

https://plus.google.com/photos/at/114363812233817846057

If you don't have the option to delete the photos, you might try to use "Report abuse" through the "More" option (top line in the light box viewer.)

Alternatively, you might contact Places support. If the troubleshooter doesn't work for you, you might consider using the "Call us" option, if it is available to you. They ask for your phone number and they call you back.

https://support.google.com/places/#topic=1656871&ts=3138600&contact=1
*My listing has incorrect information | photos

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much Kaleh!

So glad you are watching this forum now too and jumping in to help.

As you know my strength is in the Places dash and some of these new G+ issues scramble my brain, so always happy to have your wise insights!

May I consider you our resident G+ guru and call on you when there are Qs I can't answer???

 

[Kaleh Kohler]

Linda ... I hope that I can help (some) with the G+ side of things. Please free to reach out to me, with the understanding that I may not have all the answers. ;-)

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

@Kaleh:

Thanks for your help. I don't see the trash icon when I view the photos logged in as the owner, but here's something that's really odd...

When I'm logged in as the owner of the page and I view the photos, I only see 5 photos with 2 being duplicates. This is what I see:

03.13.2014-15.38 - tvanslooten's library

When I log out of Google+ and view the photos, I see this (which is probably what you see):

03.13.2014-15.39 - tvanslooten's library

Now here's what's really odd...in my Google+ dashboard, there are 9 unique photos. There are no duplicates. So I see 9 photos in my dashboard but I only see 5 photos on the actual photos page of the listing (2 being duplicates) when I'm logged in.

I did report the duplicates to Google via the troubleshooter a week ago and they removed a handful of the duplicates - but they also removed some of the unique photos (and obviously left some duplicates too).

I'm wondering if I should just have Google remove ALL the photos and start over

Travis

 

[21Development]

I'm having the same problem with this listing: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/117116169692083085820/+GardnerRestorationDayton/photos

Like you, I'm thinking that the dupe pics come from the old dashboard. It must be carrying over that info when they merge/upgrade your listing. The "extra" photos all say "from the owner" but do not have the trashcan icon.

@Kaleh - thanks for the info. I'll report them through the abuse option first and let you know what happens. Thanks.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

I just got off the phone with Google. The rep was totally perplexed and said she would have to escalate it to their technical team. So I'll wait and see what happens. I'll report back in about a week to see if they were able to fix it.

Travis

 

[Kaleh Kohler]

Travis ... you are right. What I saw was 03.13.2014-15.39 - tvanslooten's library. I'm surprised that when you were logged in, you didn't see the same thing.

I only have access to a single G+ page/ Places listing to try to troubleshoot with. There is a section in Google+ where photos that were uploaded through Places are duplicated (whether I am logged in or logged out). The single photo that I uploaded through Google+ is not duplicated.

I wish my tips for managing photos through the Google+ interface had been helpful. But, I'm totally baffled by what is happening with photos that were uploaded through Places. Hopefully, Places Support will figure out what is going on there.

---------- Post Merged at 07:57 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 07:51 PM ----------

@21Development

Are all of your images, that were uploaded through Places, labeled as "from the owner"? Or just the second set?

In my case, both sets are labeled as "from the owner."

 

[Kaleh Kohler]

It will be interesting to see what Places Support comes up with. I suspect that it may end up being something for the Places team to work out with the Google+ Photos team.

My experience was that I had no way to delete my "duplicates" from within Google+. However, when I deleted a single image, through Google Places for Business, that action deleted both instances of the image from Google+.

It seems that you can't have one without the other. Perhaps Places support should leave them alone, unless you don't want a specific image to appear at all?

While I like to see things like this be "fixed" (for everyone ... not just isolated incidents) I'm wondering if it is something that visitors are noticing, or if it is just an awareness that drives us crazy because we know it is not "right."

 

[21Development]

It will be interesting to see what Places Support comes up with. I suspect that it may end up being something for the Places team to work out with the Google+ Photos team.

My experience was that I had no way to delete my "duplicates" from within Google+. However, when I deleted a single image, through Google Places for Business, that action deleted both instances of the image from Google+.

It seems that you can't have one without the other. Perhaps Places support should leave them alone, unless you don't want a specific image to appear at all?

While I like to see things like this be "fixed" (for everyone ... not just isolated incidents) I'm wondering if it is something that visitors are noticing, or if it is just an awareness that drives us crazy because we know it is not "right."

How long did it take for the photos to be deleted when enacted through the old places dash as you describe? Are they still 6 weeks out?

I doubt customers really notice most of the time, but in my case, they are old logos and branding, so a little different situation than some.

 

[21Development]

Both sets are marked "from the owner".

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Linda Buquet]

Kaleh has been in comm with Google a lot on this. (Think there are something like 15 emails back and forth on the issue at his point.)

I'm trying to stay out of this one with Google, cuz I have bigger fish to fry and limited bandwidth right now. So I wanted to thank her for all the time she's investing!

 

[Kaleh Kohler]

Sorry about the lack of response. I never noticed a notification about additional activity here.

The account for the local verified Google+ Page that I work with is in the new Dashboard, and I suspect it started out there. It was created by someone else and turned over to me, so I don't know the exact history.

When I deleted the photo from the new Places Dashboard, the image disappeared pretty quickly. Less than 24 hours, perhaps.

That said, your scenario is somewhat different considering the involvement of the old dashboard and age and sources of the photos, so it would be understandable if our experiences were different.

Kaleh

How long did it take for the photos to be deleted when enacted through the old places dash as you describe? Are they still 6 weeks out?

I doubt customers really notice most of the time, but in my case, they are old logos and branding, so a little different situation than some.

 

[Kaleh Kohler]

No resolution for this one, at this point. It's easily reproducible, but unless there is a significant outcry, I think it may stick around for a bit.

For those relatively unfamiliar with Google+, when annoying things like this crop up, that aren't issues that can be addressed on an individual basis, it wouldn't hurt to become familiar with the Google+ Feedback tool.

Note, if an issue is clearly a "Places" issue, this won't be the way to go. Places Support will be the better bet. But, when it appears to be strongly associated with Google+ (even though it overlaps with Places) it might provide both teams with some helpful metrics.

Submitting Google+ feedback this way is not something that will result in personalized support. It is a mechanism for Google to collect data and submit it to the relevant teams. The more noise a specific issue gets, the greater chances of it eventually becoming a priority.

There are several ways to submit feedback to Google+. I've explained them here:

https://plus.google.com/110425241596319603467/posts/eTEXDMf9c3F

Kaleh

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Just wanted to provide an update. Google came through...sort of.

They deleted all but 2 duplicates. In addition, the photos that show up on the live page don't match what we have in the dashboard. We have 10 unique photos in the dashboard but only 5 showing - 2 of those being duplicates.

I followed up with Google today so we'll see what happens.

Travis

 

[Kaleh Kohler]

Travis,

It's great to hear that you are making progress with Places Support. Hopefully, if enough people do go that route, perhaps they will see something that they can do (system-wide) so that this doesn't continue to be a problem for others.