How do I remove duplicate photos in Photos?

These applications will identify and help remove duplicate photos from a Photos Library:

• Duplicate Annihilator for Photos - $7.95
• PhotoSweeper - $9.99 - Demo version available.
• PowerPhotos - $29.95
• Photos Duplicate Cleaner - Free

PowerPhotos is the iPhoto Library Manager version for Photos and is very powerful. Although more expensive I would recommend it as it has more capabilities than the others like the capability to merge Photos libraries or copy photos along with their metadata between libraries.

PhotoSweeper compares bitmaps and/or histograms so it can detect duplicate images even if they have different sizes, file names, sizes and capture dates.

As posted above

Either manually b deleting them (select a photo you want to delete and then press command delete to move it ot the recently deleted folder then delete from there ( or wait 30 days for them to automatically be deleted) - or use a safe, tested duplicate identification program like PowerPhotos, Duplicate Annihilator for Photos or PhotoSweeper for Photos to identify then and then delete as above

And Photos does not duplicate any photos, users do - you have a problem with your setup or your workflow

LN

Select those you wish to remove. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your selection then click on the bottom option to Delete.

Finding duplicates is more difficult. I suggest trying PowerPhotos or PhotoSweeper X

You must not use any duplicate cleaner that directly modifies the Photos Library. Useonly applications that will create an album with potential duplicates, that you then can delete using the Photos.app. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204968

You can select photos from your Photos app and hit the delete key. This puts your deleted photos into the 'Recently Deleted' album. You can completely erase photos from there or you can recover them if you accidentally deleted the wrong photo. Hope this helps! 🙂

Careful - their web site sounds like it may directly delete photos which can damage or destroy your Photos library - you should never let any program ever directly delete photos - the only safe way is using a program that puts the dups in an album so you can use the Photos Application to safely delete them

LN

Look at the ink at the top of this discussion. Apple is warning against using duplicate removers: Using third-party apps to remove duplicate photos might damage your Photos for macOS library

Applications, that modify the library directly, can damage it beyond repair. You may lose your original image files or all the work you invested into editing and organizing your photos. Never use duplicate removers without making sure, that you have a full, working backup of your Photos Library.

I've heard bad things about Genini. Photos Duplicate Cleaner should be able to help you identify photos in your Photos library. Open the app and then select the library.

What kind of duplicates do you have I your library?

Did you import the same image file twice? Or do you have several edited versions of the same photo or versions in different sizes? Photos will recognize duplicates when you try to import them and warn you, if it are identical copies of the same image file, but it does not treat edited versions of the same image as duplicates or downsized, smaller files.

Photo Sweeper can recognizes different versions of the same photos, because it compares histograms and pixel maps, while power Photos will only compare the file attributes, not the contents of the images.

BTW, if you import the same image file twice, and Photos warns you about the duplicate, but you insist and import it nevertheless, the image file will only be stored once in the Masters folder of your library. Such duplicates are stored efficiently.

I tested again and imported a photo twice:

There is only one copy of the image file in my library, so this duplicate does not need much additional storage.

What do you mean by Photos Library 4, Doug? Which version of MacOS X and Photos do you have installed?

Photos 3.3 on High Sierra is the most recent official version of Photos. Photo Sweeper will work with all all versions of Photos, that have been released so far. For iPhoto and Aperture the following versions are supported:

To remove photos from Photos, is easy. Tap the thumbnail and the picture will open. Tap the trash can icon on the top right and press the "Delete" option. Photos will warn you that the photo is located in a number of albums, if in fact it is. Just hit Delete again and the photo is moved to the folder "Recently Deleted".

The REAL problem you have to solve is FINDING the duplicates. That is best done by selecting groups of pictures and exporting them to a secondary folder. Find the duplicates by dragging thumbnails together. Use the instructions above to remove the duplicate. BE aware that Photos will tell you that the picture will be deleted from AN album, IFF the ONLY album it is located in is the current one.

The REAL problem you have to solve is FINDING the duplicates. That is best done by selecting groups of pictures and exporting them to a secondary folder. Find the duplicates by dragging thumbnails together. Use the instructions above to remove the duplicate. BE aware that Photos will tell you that the picture will be deleted from AN album, IFF the ONLY album it is located in is the current one.

Or as posted twice above to automatically identify them

or use a safe, tested duplicate identification program like PowerPhotos, Duplicate Annihilator for Photos or PhotoSweeper for Photos to identify then and then delete

LN

I don't know about zfJames, but Photos has duplicated nearly ALL of my photos on my new MacAir program. (WHY?????) I'm an artist and take LOTS of photos. Seriously?? To go through and delete manually would take me a week. That just ***** especially when you go to delete a group and it asks every time 'are you sure...blah blah blah". Hope someone can make a better suggestion. Apple suggests that the 3rd party programs may damage your photo library. What do you make of that, please? Thanks in advance!

Not without knowing what you have and what you are doing - that is one of the problems with ThreadJacking someone else's solved thread - you have a different setup, different workflows and a different problem

Usually duplicates are because you have imported the same photo multiple times - it can be due to HDR and other reasons

LN

Destroy your Photo library and possible your Mac system softare - Is that Bad for you - it is for most people

MacPaw makes and sells it unethically and aggressively - nothing they make should ever be used on your mac and if you have it you need to get rid of it ASAP -- CleanMyMac and Gemini are nearly as bad as MacKeeper -- Do not install MacKeeper