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How to remove duplicate photos (May 2022)

I understand from previous posts that I should not be importing from my phone to my Mac (I should instead go through the cloud). Before I knew this, I was importing from my phone, and I now have many, many, many duplicate photos when I go to photos on my Mac.


My question is, how exactly do I remove all of these duplicates besides going through and clicking on each individual duplicate? There are now hundreds if not thousands.

Posted on May 21, 2022 11:52 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 21, 2022 1:38 PM

Hi


There are no facilities in photos to automate finding and deleting duplicates, so either

* manually,

* or using an app designed to work with the photos library (Ie one that marks the photos or puts them in an album, and lets you review and then delete them, rather than doing the delete itself.


Do NOT use a general file duplicate finder not designed to work with the photos library. They will damage your photos library and likely cause loss of your photos. (This is why apple says not to use them)


There are two known to be safe and recommended by experts here:


I personally use PowerPhotos (I also use this for copying images and data between libraries)
https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/



Another suitable app recommended by experts here is PhotoSweeper (I have no personal experience of this one)

https://overmacs.com/


Both are paid apps. PhotoSweeper is the lowest cost and can recognise duplicates based on content, but PowerPhotos provides a lot of functionality in addition to the duplicate detection.



2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 21, 2022 1:38 PM in response to PatCT

Hi


There are no facilities in photos to automate finding and deleting duplicates, so either

* manually,

* or using an app designed to work with the photos library (Ie one that marks the photos or puts them in an album, and lets you review and then delete them, rather than doing the delete itself.


Do NOT use a general file duplicate finder not designed to work with the photos library. They will damage your photos library and likely cause loss of your photos. (This is why apple says not to use them)


There are two known to be safe and recommended by experts here:


I personally use PowerPhotos (I also use this for copying images and data between libraries)
https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/



Another suitable app recommended by experts here is PhotoSweeper (I have no personal experience of this one)

https://overmacs.com/


Both are paid apps. PhotoSweeper is the lowest cost and can recognise duplicates based on content, but PowerPhotos provides a lot of functionality in addition to the duplicate detection.



How to remove duplicate photos (May 2022)

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