Duplicate files can be a nuisance as they not only consume disk space, which can be utilized for something else, but also clutter your backups. Additionally, double or more copies of a file can cause confusion. Thus, although daunting, it is better to delete duplicate files on Mac regularly.
Before editing a Word/Pages file or an image, I press Command + D to make its duplicate copy. This ensures that I have an original safe copy and can edit worry-free the way I like. Often, both files remain on my Mac.
Remove Duplicate Files On A Mac App
Similarly, it is possible that you copy files from an external drive and forget where you saved them. After a month or so, you copy the same files again. This also applies to files downloaded from the internet and work apps like Slack, Basecamp, email, etc.
macOS does not offer a robust solution to clear duplicate files. Thus, we have to depend on third-party apps like Duplicate File Finder, Gemini 2, etc. Most of these apps offer the fullest experience when you get their premium version. Several such apps will scan and list the duplicate files, but you will have to buy the paid version to delete them.
In the steps above, I showed you an example useful for me. You are free to play with the various options in the dropdown menus to set your desired parameters to find any kind of duplicate files. You may use the plus (+) and minus (-) buttons to add or remove the conditions.
Photos app has some excellent editing tools, and though you have the option to revert an edit, many people press Command + D to duplicate a photo and then edit its copy. To be on the safe side, you know.
These are some of the most practical ways to delete duplicate files on a Mac and get tons of free space. I usually prefer the first method of using a third-party app. It is easy and something that you may want to do every three, six, or twelve months to keep your Mac free from duplicate files.
You can highlight an entire file batch to remove in Finder by starting with the top or bottom file. Click on it, hold the shift key on your Magic Keyboard, and select the top file in the range you want to delete.
You might see duplicate files if you have your iPhone and Mac linked with an app like Whatsapp that lets users send images. It can also happen when you send text messages from macOS to other devices with pictures included.
Alternatively, you can use Smart Folders to set up a custom search. Some macOS applications, like iTunes and Photos, have built-in functionality for identifying duplicate files. These can come in handy when you need to search for files of a specific type, especially since they provide built-in functionality for previewing relevant media on the go.
Depending on your line of work you may end up in a scenario where you have a variety of duplicate files on a Mac. Sometimes this goes unnoticed, but occasionally the Mac will run low on storage space and you might want to free up space by finding and removing those duplicate files from the Mac. Thankfully, finding duplicate files on macOS is not nearly as hard as you may think.
Although the approach we just covered is one way to find and remove duplicate files on your macOS device, there are several third-party apps that are available on the App Store which makes this process easier and more seamless as they are specifically designed for this purpose. These apps can automatically search your system and show you duplicate files that can be removed.
Were you able to find and remove duplicate files that were stored on your Mac? Have you used a third-party app for the same purpose? Which method is your preferred approach to finding duplicate data on your computer? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section.
Many users just don't think to find duplicate files on their Mac, much less delete duplicate files when they're aware of them. There are a few really good ways to remove duplicate files on your Mac; we'll show you the absolute best methods here.
Having duplicate files on your Mac may not be your fault. There are times when you duplicate a file to alter it, but never get around to those changes. You may also import images you already have in your Photos app, or have multiple video or audio files lurking.
You can, of course, just go through every folder, hidden or not, and delete the files that you remember seeing somewhere else. But how long would that take you? Your files love to spread throughout multiple destinations, and some apps like iTunes or Photos keep their own libraries of your files, which are hard to get to.
This is Apple's imperfect method; it can help you find all types of files, but there's no automation for duplicates in Smart Folders. If you have multiple versions of a presentation, for example, Smart Folders can help you find all of your presentations, no matter where they're stored on your Mac. You can delete them in the Smart Folder, too, and those files will be placed in Trash.
Just as with most maintenance tasks, finding duplicates has been automated for quite some time now. Apps like Gemini and Disk Drill are excellent duplicate file finder apps, able to scan your computer and clear out the excess completely in minutes.
After Gemini finishes the scan, it'll show you how many duplicates it found and recommend which ones to automatically delete. You can click the Smart Cleanup button to delete the files that Gemini suggests or click Review Results to see all the duplicate files and make your own decisions.
The Review Results window contains everything you need to decide, too. For each duplicate file, you can see where each version lives on your hard drive when it was last modified, how large the file is, and of course preview it. The sidebar also distinguishes exact duplicates from files that are just very similar. You can sort any list by size or file type, and then check the boxes for any files you are comfortable deleting.
To see everything you have selected for deletion so far (including the choices Gemini made on your behalf), just click the Selected section in the left-hand sidebar. And when you're finished making selections, just click the Smart Cleanup button in the bottom-right and that's it! Gemini deletes your duplicate files and you're all done.
Disk Drill has similar functionality, and some extra features. The tool can recover deleted files that haven't been overwritten yet, salvage files from a corrupted external hard drive or SD card, and check the health of your main hard drive. Pretty useful, we think.
After the scan, Disk Drill will show all the duplicate files it has found. You can click the arrow next to any to see all the locations on your hard drive where that file was found and choose the one to delete. You can click a little magnifying glass icon to open the file's location in the Finder or click the eyeball to preview the file with Quick Look.
The app doesn't automatically select any files to delete, but has a few handy features. The default view puts the largest files on top of the list, but you can re-sort that however, you like. If you select all versions of the same file to delete, Disk Drill highlights that file name in red as an extra visual warning that you're about to delete them all.
Finding duplicate files on your Mac can be tedious without great apps. That's likely why your memory is filled with duplicate files. It's also why most of us don't bother finding the duplicates to delete!
Duplicate files on your Mac take up space, slow down performance, and complicate file management. But finding and deleting all the duplicate files in hundreds of gigabytes of Mac storage seems an insurmountable task.
Using Finder involves looking at every file on your Mac to spot duplicates yourself. The easiest way to do this is by creating a Smart Folder which lets you sort every file by name. Then look over the names to find any exact copies.
When you find two files with duplicate names, highlight each of them and press Space to preview them. Make sure the content of each file is identical before moving any duplicates to the Trash.
Gemini 2 presents a sleek interface that makes it easy to find and manage duplicate files, photos, or songs on your Mac. It costs $19.95 for a year subscription, but you can also take advantage of the three-day free trial.
From here, you can use the sidebar to filter the results by filetype or similarity. Then look at your duplicate files in the main window. You can preview each file and look at its location before selecting the ones you want to delete.
You can easily remove duplicate photos and videos from your library. Duplicates appear automatically in the Duplicates album in the sidebar. (Depending on the size of your library, duplicates may take some time to appear as Photos analyses your photos.)
You can select individual items in a single row and merge them, or select multiple rows of duplicates and merge them all at once. A single original photo or video is kept from the selection in a row and other duplicates are deleted.
One original photo or video appears where the selected duplicates were located in your library. Deleted duplicates appear in the Recently Deleted album where you can recover or permanently delete them.
The Mac Photos app will not be able to help you find duplicate images that are already in your library, but it can automatically detect duplicates as you import them. You will have to manually search for duplicate photos already stored in the library.
Newer versions of macOS have replaced iPhoto with Photos. The older iPhoto app does not have the Smart Albums feature. As a result, you will have to manually sort through the Library folders to find similar image files.
You can choose to import the duplicate photo, which creates a new file in the Library. Opting not to import the duplicate will make Photos skip that image and move on to the next one. You have the option of enabling the checkbox for Apply to All Duplicates, which lets you perform a bulk action for several images at a time. 2ff7e9595c
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