I get duplicate photos when I sync my iPhone 6

I came across this thread as I am / was having the same issue

My photos had so many in the folders and they did not allow me to delete them

I sync my photos with iTunes on my MacBook.

Turns out it was syncing every photo on my MacBook to my phone.

This worked for me.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201313

Good luck

Have you checked that you aren't taking photos in HDR mode (either switched 'on' or 'auto') - photos will store and HDR pic and a regular one - you can check by looking at both photos- one will have HDR up in top left of photo

#me too 😁 I just want the music from my book into my iPhone and the photos from my phone into my book. Nothing else. Now I have tons of duplicate photos on my phone. they double overtime I sync. Super annoying to scroll through tons of double photos when I want to show something.

Hi KiwiniD,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

I'd like you to please check a setting on your iPhone that might be causing this issue where you see duplicates of each photo. The setting is for HDR photos, and if you keep the normal version as well.

Settings for Photos are in Settings > Photos & Camera. These include:

• iCloud Photo Library beta, My Photo Stream, iCloud Photo Sharing, and Upload Burst Photos

• Photos Tab

• Slideshow

• Camera Grid

• HDR (High Dynamic Range)

Photos settings - iPhone

Take care,

Alex H.

I also am getting duplicates in my iPhoto library. I've been an iPhone user since the 4, and I haven't had this problem until I got my 6 plus. For some reason I'm getting duplicates of every picture when I import from my iPhone to my MacBook.

When I look under the info tab on iPhoto I can see that all of the information is exactly the same on duplicates, but the file name has "_2" added to the end. For example, two duplicates are IMG_2376 and IMG_2376_2.

What the heck is going on here? I haven't changed any settings on my iPhone or MacBook lately, and it only started about a week ago. I've had my new iPhone for about 2 months and until about a week ago I haven't experienced this problem.

Hi KiwiniD,

By sync do you perhaps mean that you import the photos to iPhoto? Do you have Photo Stream enabled too?

iPhoto '11: Importing images from your iOS device when My Photo Stream is enabled - Apple Support

If that is not the case, then you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action

Take care,

Alex H.

I am getting the exact same situation here. Tried everything mentioned above. This is my 5th iPhone. Settings haven´t changed. I am using iPhone 6 plus. Can´t seem to figure out what´s going on, but photos show doubled in the iphone window of iPhoto (9.5.1) in Yosemite.

I have the same duplication issue upon sync attempt with both my iphone6 as well as my iPad. It is a long process to keep deleting duplicate photos after syncing each time. Let me know if you find a fix for this! thanks! According to the support thread above, however the bold statement does not seem to be true?

"If you have enabled My Photo Stream in iPhoto, your recent Photo Stream photos will automatically appear in iPhoto. When Automatic Import is turned on, iPhoto will import your Photo Stream images at full-size to your iPhoto library. This option, available in the Photo Stream tab of iPhoto Preferences, allows you to permanently save all your Photo Stream photos in your iPhoto library.

If you connect your iOS device to manually import photos into iPhoto, iPhoto will automatically detect which photos it has already imported from Photo Stream and display these photos in the "Already Imported" section of the import window. Selecting the default "Import Photos" button will import only photos that have not already been imported from Photo Stream.

If you would like to re-import photos that iPhoto has already imported from My Photo Stream, you can select the images in the import window and then click the "Import Selected" button. iPhoto will prompt you to resolve duplicates."

I have this same problem with my iPhone 6. In iPhoto, I get all of these "_2" photos which are exact duplicates of the original. I manually deleted all of the "_2", then tried to "Sync", but the duplicates do not delete from my iPhone ... and I cannot delete the duplicates from my iPhone. Very frustrating. Again, this only happened starting with my iPhone 6. Or possibly it is IOS 8, OSX Yosemite, or the new iTunes which is the culprit? As a long time user of iPhones and Macs, I have not had such problems previously. I hope Apple comes up with a solution.

Ok, so on the phone with Apple support, I think we may have found the culprit! It seems that it is indeed a preference set in iPhoto on the Mac operating on Yosemite, thus it is the iPhoto app. So, open iPhoto on the Mac, open Preferences, then select icloud. It had selected all four choices given in the screen shot below. I de-selected Automatic Upload (which is to send all photos to My Photo Stream), and then when I went to sync either my iPhone 6 or iPad, the duplication issue was resolved! Hope this works for you!

Any luck so far KiwiniD? I've got all four options deselected as well, still having this problem.