how to delete duplicate photos on iCloud

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how to delete duplicate photos on iCloud

I recently finished uploading a large number of photos to iCloud. It was difficult, each time I selected a group to upload (I tried to do fewer than 100 each time) even though I selected all file types, and had the group all highlighted, it often did only 1. I would try to do the same thing again, and sometimes (but not always) it would upload the entire group. This process was repeated many times to get the several hundred photos up onto iCloud. Now when I check iCloud I find that many of the photos are there as duplicates. Is there a way to get the dozens of duplicates deleted? Or do I need to delete each one at a time... argh. I'm running my iMac M1 on Sonoma 14.0

iMac 21.5″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Oct 25, 2023 4:55 AM

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Answer 1

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muguy

Level 9

76,807 points

Oct 25, 2023 6:54 AM in response to rbspid

Correct. It will appear on your Mac or on your phone under utilities. Once the system has time to parse your library your duplicates will appear. You the use the select option to select all. Then tap merge

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Answer 2

muguy

Level 9

76,807 points

Oct 25, 2023 5:35 AM in response to rbspid

Are you not syncing using the Photos app? You did not need to upload in batches as Photos would sync everything in the background. Open photos. Go to photos > settings/preferences > iCloud and turn on iCloud Photos. Once synced, photos has a duplicate album that will appear and those images can be merged

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Answer 3

rbspid Author

Level 1

27 points

Oct 25, 2023 5:47 AM in response to muguy

That was the problem. On my phone I had not had iCloud syncing selected (long story about my old phone), but now I do. The transition was the source of the hundreds needing syncing. When I selected iCloud on the new phone it only synced new image, not the huge backlog. So that is exactly why I need to do the manual catchup. The merge will be extremely time consuming because the dozens of duplicates are spread around (NOT sequential) in iCloud when I look at the library.

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Answer 4

rbspid Author

Level 1

27 points

Oct 25, 2023 6:08 AM in response to muguy

Ok, I'm officially confused. There is no "duplicates" folder/album in iCloud. That only shows up in Photos on my iMac. It has 119 duplicates (not the hundreds on the iCloud) and each pair or group requires me to merge them separately. I cannot see anywhere that I could do a merge of all of them.

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Answer 5

muguy

Level 9

76,807 points

Oct 25, 2023 5:53 AM in response to rbspid

Any photo in photos would upload, not just new images. You’ll also find the duplicates album will show all of your duplicates they can all be merged at one time. Takes only seconds

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Answer 6

rbspid Author

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27 points

Oct 25, 2023 6:57 AM in response to muguy

thank you

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how to delete duplicate photos on iCloud

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