Phantom Photos: Images Duplicate Themselves Randomly in Excel Files Stored In SharePoint

kmnotorius 

I came across this post and can confirm I have had this problem for a number of years.  All relating to the same environment as to what other people have mentioned in this thread.  FYI, I create my named ranges and create the picture links through VBA but I don't think that makes any difference.

However, I may have a partial solution as the issue doesn't crop up that often for me once I disable the links.  What I mean by this is that the links are dynamic through a named range but I made the named range formula have an If condition which references a specific cell.  It it's set to 1, it will update the picture links.  If it's set to 0 it will reference nothing and the images won't update.  This I find has helped keep duplicates at bay and sure enough on the times I forget to disable the links before saving and closing the file down - somewhere along the way a duplicate set of picture links appear and the file slows to a crawl (eg. I can tell it's happened when I highlight even just one cell and copy CTRL+C as excel freezes for a short time which is very frustrating when you are trying to work at speed).

Anyhow, if you understand what I'm suggesting in the named range formulas, give it a go.  If you need more info, feel free to reply.

Thanks

RodP 

I have another way to accelerate a fix, especially if there are 1000s of copies of the image.  

On each tab with a "camera" image press CTRL-G then Special... then select Objects, and OK.  It will select every Camera image, other images, inserted objects, etc...  Unselect all the non-camera objects by holding CTRL and clicking on each that you want to keep.  When you are down to only the Camera images then press delete and they will all delete.    

Sad that 2 years later this is still an issue... 

Hello,

I didn't find a reason for this. I draw a solution, though.

For my specific worksheet I listed in a table which images are "real" and coded a VBA macro that deletes any image not listed there and any duplicated image.

So the steps would be:

1. Tag your images

2. Create a table and list all of them

3. Create a sub and call this sub every worksheet.activate event

Code

Sub DeleteUnlistedAndDuplicateImages()
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim img As Shape
    Dim tbl As ListObject
    Dim tblRange As Range
    Dim nameList As Range
    Dim imgName As String
    Dim foundMatch As Boolean
    Dim imgCount As Integer
    
    'set worksheet to the active sheet
    Set ws = ActiveSheet
    
    'set table to the first table in the worksheet
    Set tbl = ws.ListObjects("tblImages")
    
    'set table range to include only the name column
    Set tblRange = tbl.ListColumns("Image").DataBodyRange
    
    'loop through all shapes in the worksheet
    For Each img In ws.Shapes
        'check if the shape is an image
        If img.Type = msoPicture Then
            'get the name of the image
            imgName = img.Name
            
            'set foundMatch flag to false
            foundMatch = False
            
            'loop through the name column in the table
            For Each nameList In tblRange
                'compare the image name with the name in the table
                If imgName = nameList.Value Then
                    foundMatch = True
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next nameList
            
            'if a match is not found, delete the image
            If Not foundMatch Then
                img.Delete
            Else
                'if a match is found, count the number of times the image appears in the worksheet
                imgCount = 0
                For Each img2 In ws.Shapes
                    If img2.Type = msoPicture And img2.Name = imgName Then
                        imgCount = imgCount + 1
                    End If
                Next img2
                
                'if the image appears more than once, delete all duplicates except for the first one
                If imgCount > 1 Then
                    For i = 2 To imgCount
                        For Each img2 In ws.Shapes
                            If img2.Type = msoPicture And img2.Name = imgName Then
                                img2.Delete
                                Exit For
                            End If
                        Next img2
                    Next i
                End If
            End If
        End If
    Next img
End Sub

Same problem using the camera tool. Images pile up until the spreadsheet slows to a crawl. The images are perfectly aligned so it's not readily apparent.

Has anyone found the issue I am facing the same problem and yes the file is on Onedrive/Sharepoint. is there any permanent solution to it?

 kmnotorius  2022 and still having this problem.  Files are saved to SharePoint.  Duplication only happens when certain users access the file, so I'm assuming it's a problem with their computer, not all computers.  Any linked photos or photos using the camera tool are duplicated each time the user accesses that file.  If it is not caught quickly, the accumulation becomes so large that the file begins to work slowly. If it gets out of hand, the only way to fix it is to delete the tab because excel will lock up trying to select all objects and delete.  

Have you already found the solution? I am having the same trouble as you and the document is getting very slow to operate

kmnotorius 

I have exact same problem with linked pictures duplicating themselves.

This happens on files that are stored on OneDrive only.

Running Office 365 , 64 bit version