duplicate photos

Just updated to iOS8 on my iPhone/iPad. Now I have duplicate photos. How to remove duplicates from photos on iPhone/iPad?

Posted on Sep 24, 2014 6:40 AM

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24 replies

May 30, 2017 7:47 AM in response to Davidaz

I have the problem too. I'm not resolving it. I decided to sync my iPhone with [ ] Sync Photos turned off, but they are still on my phone. I turned off "[ ] Copy items to the Photos Library on my Mac's photos app.


I tried to find a way to delete all of my photos from my phone so that I could synchronize again.

I can delete a page at a time, but couldn't figure out how to select all of my photos to delete. I ran Image Capture, but it doesn't see any pictures in my iPhone's photos album, only those that are in the camera app.

If I can delete them all, I will synchronize from iTunes and see what happens.

Sep 24, 2014 7:47 AM in response to Davidaz

There are no tools in the photos app to identify duplicate photos.


To delete photos, select them in the "recently added" album or in a Moment. Then tap the "select" command and tap all photos you want to delete and then tap the trash icon. This will move the photos to the "Recently trashed" album. Empty this album to delete the photos completely.

Oct 11, 2014 5:33 PM in response to Davidaz

I have found this with my iPhone too, but I have solved the problem for me. I have a mac so what I have done is imported all the photos onto iPhoto from my iPhone, once this has done I have (through iPhoto) deleted all the photos from my iPhone.


I then went onto iTunes and looked under my phone and on the 'photos' tab I have checked the box that says 'sync photos from iPhoto' and now all photos have been restored on my phone in the correct chronological order minus the duplicates and given me 2gb of storage back on my phone! I assume now every time I sync my phone with my mac I will have to repeat this process unless iOS 8 sorts itself out.


Without a mac i'm afraid I don't have any solutions, I hope this is of some help though 🙂🙂

Jan 3, 2015 6:59 PM in response to Davidaz

Solution:Connect iPhone to Mac computer with usb cable. Run Application: Image Capture, which should be on your Mac; Select Camera Roll, Select all: delete (little icon in lower left with red circle with diagonal line through it.


I found this to be the issue with my iPhone 5s: since it now syncs via wifi, you never get the chance to delete photos from camera roll after they upload. Thus, you have duplicates, being the photos in your photo album, plus the photos still on your camera roll. Deleting the camera roll does not delete the photo from your phone; just the duplicate. If you're concerned about losing a photo, try deleting just one to prove it to yourself.


note: after just doing this myself, it cleaned up all but a few photos from today, for some reason. No problem: in swiping through the photos on my phone, the duplicates are easily identifiable: the trash can icon appears below it, but not the original. I simply trashed those, and now no more duplicates on my phone! Problem solved.

I'd seen the Image Capture solution here once before.

Jan 25, 2015 1:31 AM in response to Davidaz

This is another approach. I don't know if it will work for everyone, but it's way faster than anything I've tried before. I took over 300 photos on a visit to Kodiak Island in Alaska, and that made it over 600 imports. I wasn't going to command-click on every other photo in 600 pics like I've done with smaller imports.


This method is based on the fact that every duplicate imported has the characters (quotes not included) "_2" attached to its automatically-assigned file name.


1) Import all photos from the iPhone.

2) Use your normal method of preserving or deleting: I delete all the imported photos from the phone, because they'll be back when I sync later.

3) Use command-F (or your favorite other method) to get to the Find input field.

4) Type "_2" (no quotes) into the Find field, and hit Return.

5) The photos displayed will all be duplicates. Command-A selects them all. Press Delete. Don't forget to Empty iPhoto Trash at some point (iPhoto menu). And of course Empty Trash in the Finder after that, to really stake them in the heart.

6) Happily go about your regular iPhoto business, without all the duplicates larding up iPhoto.


PS: I'd sure like to know why this happens and how to prevent it in the first place. Apple?

Feb 8, 2015 3:52 AM in response to Davidaz

This problem has emerged for me just with the last few syncs.


The duplicate photos have the same name, but one has '_2' appended on it. Otherwise all their data is the same, including exact time.


These are only photos that I have taken with the phone camera, and it happened the one and only time I have received an image via airdrop.


These photos are not the result of HDR photography, they are not synced from my iPhoto library. I always sync via cable to remove photos, and this happens at least once a week. These are not from the other simple sources I have read in many responses to many posts regarding this problem. These photos are unwanted duplicates being generated by the phone.

Feb 8, 2015 8:56 AM in response to David Connell

This is exactly what I have been experiencing. I do not use AirDrop.


After I cleared my duplicates via searching for the "_2" files, the next iPhone import was clean of dupes. But the NEXT import had them again, and it also duplicates videos.


Temporary solution #1 for me is to select and import only the first copy of each photo/video that shows up on the iPhoto import screen. This works if you don't have too many photos.


Temporary solution #2 for me is to import everything, then search for and delete the "_2" copies.


The real solution would be to prevent these duplicates from appearing in the first place.

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duplicate photos

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