Why logo carousels duplicated entries after bulk import and the dedupe + attachment metadata repair that cleaned repeated logos

Your logo carousel is like a mini fashion parade for your brand. It’s where partner, client, or sponsor logos scroll proudly across your homepage, showing off your business connections. So what happens when that sleek showcase becomes cluttered with duplicate logos? Ugh, the horror. Don’t worry, we’ve got the story behind why those duplicates happened — and how some neat fixes (and a little digital detective work) saved the day.

TL;DR

Duplicate logos appeared after a bulk import due to how IDs and metadata were handled. Each import created redundant entries instead of recognizing existing ones. A deduplication script and metadata repair function helped clean it all up. Now the carousel is clean, lightweight, and totally symmetrical again!

Why Did Logos Get Duplicated in the First Place?

This starts with a big ol’ bulk import.

Picture this: a developer imports 200 logos into a site using a CSV and an import plugin. Everything looks fine… until the carousel shows:

• Same logo, different filenames
• Same image, but imported multiple times
• Entries that look identical, but are technically unique in the database

What’s going on?

The problem came down to how attachments and metadata were managed during the import. The import tool didn’t recognize that many logos were already uploaded. Instead of linking to existing image entries, it created new ones — over and over. Each duplicate came with new metadata and its own database ID.

This meant that when the carousel queried logos from the media library or a custom post type — boom: duplicates galore.

How Attachments Work (Hint: It’s Like a Puzzle)

In WordPress (and other CMS platforms), every image is an “attachment” stored with unique metadata. When imported properly, images can be reused and referenced across the site. But during this specific bulk import:

• The images were downloaded again
• The plugin created new attachment entries each time
• Metadata like alt text and custom taxonomies was malformed or reset

Now imagine dozens of logos with metadata like “company-name-final-FINAL-copy3.png” — confusing for the system and the humans managing it.

Carousel Logic Got Tricked

The logo carousel pulls logos using queries. The logic said, “Show all logos from the ‘trusted-partners’ group.” But it didn’t check if they were duplicates. So if the same company logo got tagged 5 times — yep, it showed up 5 times.

Here’s how:

• Query says: “Get attachments tagged as partner logos.”
• Database returns: 5 entries for Company A, 3 for Company B, etc.
• Carousel renders them all. No filter. No dedupe. Just duplicates galore.

And visually? It looked… glitchy. Users began asking: “Why does this company need THAT much attention?”

The Dedupe to the Rescue

So how do you clean this up?

This is where the deduplication script comes in. Think of it like running a giant “Find and Merge Duplicates” job across your media library.

Step-by-step Breakdown:

1. Loop through all images in a specific category (“partner logos”)
2. Create a hash for each image to identify identical ones
3. Compare hashes and image dimensions
4. Keep only one image per set of duplicates
5. Update logo references across the site to point to the remaining image

Hashing was a game changer. It used the image file’s binary data to assign a unique identity — kind of like a fingerprint. If two files had the same fingerprint? Easy call: they were duplicates.

Bonus magic: the script also checked title, alt text, and custom fields to confirm before deleting anything. Careful housekeeping!

Fixing the Metadata Mess

Okay, so duplicates were gone. But there was still some weird metadata lingering around.

Example:

• Some logos had empty alt tags
• Others had weird titles like “logo_logo_logo1”
• Category tags were scattered or missing

This is where the attachment metadata repair tool stepped in. It was like a spa day for your images.

What It Did:

1. Fixed alt text by generating it from file names (e.g., “company-X-logo.png” became “Company X Logo”)
2. Standardized titles by removing suffixes and duplicates
3. Re-categorized logos under correct taxonomies

Clean, organized, optimized. The carousel now pulled from a lean, tidy database.

Visual Cleanup Results

After all the dust cleared, the logo carousel was:

• Fast-loading (lighter queries)
• Duplicate-free (thanks to image hashing and cleanup)
• Accessible (alt text finally made sense)
• Way easier to manage

This wasn’t just a cosmetic fix. It improved the entire site’s backend hygiene. And hey, site editors rejoiced — now they could look at their carousel without groaning.

Lessons Learned

This messy little episode taught us a lot!

• Always test your import tools. Some plugins are quick, but not thorough.
• Avoid redundant uploads by checking if the file already exists.
• Use image hashing when deduplicating — filenames lie!
• Clean metadata pays off. It’s not just about looks; it affects how your queries run and how search engines understand your content.

Final Thoughts

If your carousel looks like a logo hall of mirrors, don’t panic. A double dose of deduplication and metadata cleanup can restore order and peace (and good design!).

And let’s be real — one logo per company is usually enough. Unless they’re paying extra, of course. 😉