Doubling (almost) the photos in my Photo Album?


I have most of my photos stored in my Photo app. It doubling up the photos for me without my knowledge. When I look into it closely, one has a 'bin' in it and the other didn't have a 'bin' in it. The one with a bin that I can delete but I can't delete with the one without the bin. Been contacting "Apple Support", they couldn't be able to help. Just suggested me to delete of those have a bin and the rest just leave them to sit in my Photo app. That's weary that even "Apple Support" didn't know how to resolve this issue. You can see the different of these two photos (on the bottom RHS).

iMac 24″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Dec 6, 2024 2:15 PM

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Posted on Dec 6, 2024 3:23 PM

Most likely the photos started life on the phone, were copied to the iMac mentioned in your profile (or some other Mac or PC), then copied back to the phone via the Finder "sync" function (which is more of a "force copy" than a sync). The Finder "sync" creates a blob of photos and videos outside of normal Photos management processes of deletion and "favorite-ing". (Did you notice that your second screenshot lacks the heart icon as well as the bin icon?) It also does not check for duplication between the items it pushed to the phone and the items that are already there; hence the duplication.


You can remove the Finder-synced copies by doing a new Finder-sync with a different set of photos and videos, which will replace the entire previous blob. The new set can be empty if you select an empty source folder/album.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 6, 2024 3:23 PM in response to Qdan_2530

Most likely the photos started life on the phone, were copied to the iMac mentioned in your profile (or some other Mac or PC), then copied back to the phone via the Finder "sync" function (which is more of a "force copy" than a sync). The Finder "sync" creates a blob of photos and videos outside of normal Photos management processes of deletion and "favorite-ing". (Did you notice that your second screenshot lacks the heart icon as well as the bin icon?) It also does not check for duplication between the items it pushed to the phone and the items that are already there; hence the duplication.


You can remove the Finder-synced copies by doing a new Finder-sync with a different set of photos and videos, which will replace the entire previous blob. The new set can be empty if you select an empty source folder/album.

Dec 7, 2024 12:20 AM in response to markwmsn

markwmsn, sorry that I couldn't explained clearly. I normally upload my photos onto my iMac after a trip. As usual I just connect my iPhone to my iMac and it comes up with the Photo app. I just upload the recent photos only.


I didn't understand what you meant by "can remove the Finder-synced copies by doing a new Finder-sync with a different set of photos and videos, which will replace the entire previous blob. The new set can be empty if you select an empty source folder/album". Not sure how to do that either!

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Doubling (almost) the photos in my Photo Album?

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