How do I get rid of duplicate photos on iPhoto?

There is an app on the app store called PhotoSweeper lite which does what you want, check it out.

Do not use Photosweeper, it is not designed to work on iPhoto Libraries and using it on one might have unexpected results.

For dealing with duplicates in iPhoto check out Duplicate Annihilatoror Decloner

I'd like to recommend Tidy Up, which supports finding duplicates in both iPhoto and Aperture, plus many more features.

Tidy Up is finding files not images. By no means all duplicates in iPhoto are files.

Regards

TD

You may simply want to give it a try. It has many options to help you find duplicate images. Of course, you will also have to visually check which of the found files are real duplicates.

Tidy up is not aware of the iPhoto database structure and has destroyed many people's library causing them to lose data and have to starept over. The only two programs that have been reported to successfully handle duplicates in the iPhoto library are duplicate annihalitor and decloner. My photos are too valuable or se a program known to damage the library

LN

I wonder if we're talking about the same app. I use TidyUp since years and it properly finds duplicates and can also delete them nicely. But I am interested in getting more information about issues with TidyUp.

Larry: I wonder if you have ever used TidyUp. It doesn't touch iPhoto's database, but just tells, via AppleScript, to the iPhoto app to cancel the records of the files. If this AppleScript call should fail, who should have to be blamed?

I think you're talking about another application. I've been using Tidy Up since it came out. It always worked perfectly and everybody I've suggested the program was completely satisfied with it.

Delvin: Are you promoting these applications? PhotoSweeper is designed to work with iPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom Libraries... why do you think otherwise?

I have no interest financial or otherwise in any of these apps. I own no shares in any of them nor develop any of them. If you buy any or all or none it makes no difference to me whatever.

Photosweeper is not "designed to work with iPhoto and Aperture Libraries". On the website it promises

Access to iPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom libraries.

When you launch the app it tells you it "works with photos from your iPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom libraries" which you access from a (non-standard) Media Browser. That's not the same thing as these other apps which actually work with the iPhoto Library, within the Library and don't require the use if the (non-standard) media browser.

Sorry, I don't understand... if some application provides "non-standart" user interface should I never use it? Thinking this way I have to use only apps provided by Apple. But when the "standart" Preview.app crashes on save I think: "If the simplest app ever crashes on such an usual operation, what can I expect from third-party applications?" I'm really scared. 🙂

Mmmmm. Sarcasm. Well done. Of course, it doesn't deal with the issue, does it?

Who knows?

Be careful with Dupicate Annihilator. I've spent weeks now, restoring my photo database after Duplicate Annihilator made a mess of it. Dupicates were (mostly) lost but so were many critical non-duplicates, and iPhoto began crashing regularly. I'd have been better off deleting the thousands of duplicates one by one.