It has been a long time since I did any sort of route for MF. A shop here and there has been it over the past couple years. This weekend I took a small route of gas stations and was having something weird happen when I uploaded the photos.

When I do a route of gas stations they are generally rural, as in I wouldn't bother trying to use an app. I use a digital camera, take lots of extras, and sort it out when I get home. My system has been pretty consistent for years: I make a copy of the files from the camera disc. Then I make a set of folders in another finder window. With two finder windows open, I review, rename, and move photos from the copy file to its new location in the shop folder. That way no photos get used twice, and the photos have names like "Canopy 1," or "Alt Fuel Pump" so it is easy to upload in its time. I only rename and move the photos I plan to keep. I wipe the disc clean for the next time, and once all shops are approved and paid I delete the master duplicate of the disc and leave only the chosen files in their shop location folders on my hard drive.

This weekend, when uploading shops, I would pick, say "Canopy 1" from a location file folder for a given shop, and notice from the thumbnail that a similarly named photo from another, previously entered shop (in a different folder in my file system) was in its place. Anyone have this happen? Over and over, as I was entering data, I would select one photo from my file and then a different one would replace it in the report. The only thing that would stop it is if I changed the name of the photos to be unique for the shop, not just in unique folders. What a PITA!

Of a short route of seven shops, only one photo got past me and the good folks at the Help Desk were able to delete the duplicate. Any ideas what this is?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2021 04:47PM by heartlandcanuck.

You are so very very lucky helpdesk helped you with this! The alternative was to have both shops disallowed (the first one you loaded the pic to, and the 2nd one where you duplicated the pic).

I do it the opposite way. I download all the photos, then do a slideshow; I write down the number of each photo I'm going to use ("canopy 4596" ), go into the report, and use my written list of numbers to download.

Each photo is assigned a unique number by my computer. So no duplicates.

I started doing it this way when I discovered yes, indeed, computer (Win10) no longer handled photos the same way it used to. Some dang magical update caused this.

I hope people more computer savvy than I pitch in with ideas and help.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2021 06:01PM by ceasesmith.

Using the last three digits of the visit number might help, I guess. As in, "Canopy 1 123" Still a pain.

I use a Macbook, not Windows... so maybe the problem is their software? I have never encountered this with any other platform.

It happened to me on the last round of gas stations with Market Force. I thought I was messing up somehow until it kept doing it. It was frustrating.

I also freely admit that I do it that way partly out of tech ignorance. I've no idea how to "sort", label, re-name, or put into files photos that I have downloaded.

I have also found, I just staple this to my receipt, throw it in this year's MS box, and if the MSC comes back and says "Your canopy photo doesn't show two entire sides", I can look at the list, say to self, okay, I've already used 4596 as the canopy photo -- is 4597 any better? If so, I delete 4596 from the report (and cross it off the list, replacing with 4597), upload 4597, and I'm done with the correction.

This is what works for me, and is as foreign to young people as....a phone booth.

I use the date put on by the camera and add canopy 1 in front of the date. Or Pump 1 or Bezel I. or if a decommissioning each pump # as Needed.