Tips for removing duplicates from your photo collection
Everyone has duplicate photos in their collection. Whether you’ve saved photos sent to you multiple times or you’ve lost track of backups, duplicates are both a constant and a nuisance in the digital photo world.
There are 2 ways to remove duplicates, manually or with technology, like software or an app. My vote…100%…is to use technology.
Here are my favorite deduplication tools…
For PC users…I like Duplicate Cleaner Pro. You can find it at www.duplicatecleaner.com.
For Mac users…I like PhotoSweeper. You can get PhotoSweeper in the Apple App Store.
For Apple Photos users…With the MacOS Ventura update (2022) and iOS 16, came a new duplicate finder within Apple Photos on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. On an iPhone and iPad, you can find it by going to Albums, then scrolling down to Utilities. It’s as simple as clicking the ‘Merge’ button. One of the best features is that it combines the metadata from each image to create a single image. This is a great tool, especially when you have a reasonable number of duplicates. If you have 1000s of duplicates, you might still consider using a tool like PhotoSweeper to retain more control over the process of determining which duplicates are being eliminated.
There are a few good things to know about deduplicating your photos using software or an app:
The software looks at the image itself, not just the filename, so even if 2 different photos have the same filename, the software will not call it a duplicate.
When photos have been moved in, out, and between various systems, or edited, the metadata in the file (e.g. dates), the size, and the filename of the photo can get modified or lost. When that happens, it affects when and how deduplication software recognizes duplicates.
It’s not perfect. It’s likely not going to find all of the duplicates in the first round. Often you have to do several ‘levels’ of deduplication. I always start by removing exact duplicates. From there, I’ll move the ‘matching level’ down until I no longer see true duplicates.
It doesn’t always deduplicate videos very well. It will often find exact matches, but that’s about it. You may need to do some of your video deduplication manually.
Be intentional about the criteria you set for removing duplicates. Once duplicates are identified, you will be asked to tell the software/app which duplicates to remove by setting the criteria you want it to use. For example, you may have duplicates that are different sizes and have different dates. I set the criteria to remove photos with the smallest dimension, smallest file size, and newer dates. I choose ‘newer dates’ making the assumption that if the dates on the duplicate photos are different, the earlier date is more likely the date the photo was taken.
Deduplication software is a massively huge timesaver.
Not only does removing duplicates from your collection save space on your system and devices, but it’s also super satisfying. It feels a little like cleaning out a messy closet.
Want to learn more about organizing and deduplicating your digital photos?
The Photo Organizing Blueprint is an online course that covers the process of organizing your entire memory collection from start to finish. If you’re just focused on your digital photos, The Digital Photo Organizing Blueprint is coming soon!
Holly Corbid is the Founder/Owner of Capture Your Photos, where we help you to organize, preserve, and share your lifetime of memories. Helping you touch hearts with your photos is our passion. We specialize in digital photo organization and work both locally and remotely with clients all over the country.
We work 1-1, as well as coach clients through The Photo Organizing Blueprint series of online courses.
Find us at www.captureyourphotos.com or contact us here.