Patent ID: 8185504

Claim:
An image processing apparatus that stores a file in a storage, the image processing apparatus comprising: a correspondence determination unit configured to determine whether or not identical metadata exist in both of two files stored in the storage when an instruction is issued by a user operation to combine the two files; a threshold determining unit configured to determine a threshold based on at least one of (i) a transfer rate and an engine speed, and (ii) a size of an unused area in the storage which stores the combined two files, wherein the transfer rate represents a file size transferable in a unit of time by the image processing apparatus, and the engine speed represents the number of pages transferable in a unit of time; a size determination unit configured to compare a data size of combined two files with the determined threshold when the correspondence determination unit determines that the identical metadata exist in both of the two files; a flag addition unit configured to add a flag indicating data exempt from search target to either one of identical metadata included in the combined two files when the size determination unit determines that the data size of the combined two files is smaller than the threshold, and configured not to delete the identical metadata, wherein the either one of identical metadata to which the flag has been added is not used for searching the combined two files, the another one of the identical metadata to which the flag has not been added is used for searching the combined two files; and a deletion unit configured to delete either one of identical metadata included in the combined two files when the size determination unit determines that the data size of the combined two files is equal to or greater than the threshold.