Photos HEIC and JPEG Duplicates

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Level 1

14 points

Photos HEIC and JPEG Duplicates

Need info about deleting duplicates (not curating photos), but actually delete them.

When I connected my iPhone to my mac it actually downloaded HEIC and JPG for every photo. It is taking a huge amount of memory on my pc!, please help deleting these duplicates.

I would like a method that doesn't involve creating a smart folder to filter by format because I have no guarantee that I actually a duplicate version of the photo (my library is over 7 years old) so there is a mix of old photos and newer photos with newer formats.

Note that curating photos just stops showing duplicates but there is still exists and end up roughly duplicating the size of my library.

Thank you!!!

Posted on Oct 15, 2019 9:51 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 22, 2019 11:12 AM in response to TonyGol

Last year I had the same issue of duplicate HEIC and JPEG photos for a library of similar age. There was no easy way to de-dupe. becky_s22's suggestion is prospective only--it applies to future imports and will not fix existing duplicates in your library. I manually deleted hundreds of photos before eventually purchasing third-party software to tag literally thousands of duplicates for removal. Not fun.

That being said, Apple claims the Catalina update has the ability to identify and remove duplicates. (See macOS Catalina - Features - Apple). I have not tested this functionality, but it would be awesome if it actually worked.

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Answer 2

raina_b22

Community Specialist

Oct 21, 2019 10:49 AM in response to TonyGol

Hi TonyGol,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities! I understand you are seeing duplicate photos when transferring to your Mac. I'd like to help.

To prevent duplicate photos, you'll want to adjust the Photos settings on your iPhone by going to Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC, and select 'Keep Originals'. This would prevent the media from being converted to JPEG during import, which is creating the duplication: Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support.

If you need more assistance with Photos on Mac, please reach out to our Photos team using this link next: Contact - Official Apple Support.

Thank you for your post.

Take care.

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Answer 3

TonyGol Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 22, 2019 11:30 AM in response to Jason_1984

Hi,

Thanks! I ve come to your same conclusion. I downloaded a software to do the work for me. It is not perfect, but it is progress.

As of Catalina ability to detect duplicates, as I understand it, it seems that the update removes "clutter" from day/month/yearly view. It effectively doesn't show duplicates, however if you click in all photos view you can still see them. I believe that it is merely an aesthetic change rather than an actual deletion of duplicate photos.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

200,525 points

Oct 22, 2019 12:17 PM in response to Jason_1984

Catalina is searching for duplicates to hide duplicates in the new views "Days", "Months", Years" to make browsing the photos easier. But it does not help us to delete the duplicates. Photos is just brushing the clutter below the carpet, so we can no longer see it.

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Photos HEIC and JPEG Duplicates

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