We’ve all been there. You’re trying to show someone a photo of your dog or that one specific sunset from three years ago, and you realize you have five identical copies of the same image cluttering up your scroll. It’s annoying. It eats up your iCloud storage. Most importantly, it makes your digital life feel like a messy junk drawer. People constantly ask how to remove duplicates from apple photos because, honestly, Apple’s way of handling storage can feel like a black box sometimes.
Digital hoarding happens to the best of us. Maybe you imported the same SD card twice, or perhaps those WhatsApp auto-saves are creating ghost copies of everything your friends send you. Whatever the reason, your iPhone or Mac is likely sitting on gigabytes of wasted space.
The Built-In Duplicates Folder is Your Best Friend
Apple finally got smart a couple of years ago. With the release of iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, they introduced a native "Duplicates" album that does the heavy lifting for you. You don't need to go out and buy a sketchy third-party app that might sell your data or delete the wrong files.
To find it on your iPhone, open the Photos app and tap Albums. Scroll all the way to the bottom. Under the "Utilities" section, you’ll see "Duplicates." If you don't see it, don't panic. It just means your phone is still indexing or, miraculously, you actually don't have any copies. The system needs some "on-charger" time to scan your library, especially if you have tens of thousands of images.
The tech behind this is actually pretty cool. It doesn't just look for bit-for-bit identical files. It uses machine learning to identify photos that are basically the same but might have different resolutions, file formats, or metadata. When you hit "Merge," Apple keeps the one with the highest quality and the most relevant data, then tosses the rest into the Recently Deleted folder. It’s elegant.
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Why Some Duplicates Just Won't Die
Have you ever noticed that even after a cleanup, some "doubles" persist? This is usually due to "Similar" vs. "Duplicate" distinctions. Apple is conservative. If you took ten burst photos of a kid blowing out birthday candles, the software might not flag them as duplicates because the pixels actually changed. They are different moments, even if they look identical to your tired eyes.
There's also the iCloud factor. If you’re syncing across an iPad, a Mac, and an iPhone, sometimes the database gets a little confused during a high-traffic sync. I’ve seen cases where users remove duplicates from apple photos on their phone, only to see them pop back up because the Mac hadn't checked in with the cloud yet.
- Pro tip: Always do your big cleanups when you have a solid Wi-Fi connection.
- Check your "Hidden" album too; sometimes duplicates hide in there and won't show up in the main utility scan.
- Be careful with Shared Libraries. If you and a partner both have the same photo and you move it to a Shared Library, the system has to decide who "owns" the original.
The Manual Mac Method for Power Users
If you’re on a MacBook or iMac, you have a bit more surgical control. The Photos app for macOS has the same Duplicates folder on the left-hand sidebar. But here’s the thing: the screen real estate of a Mac makes it much easier to spot the subtle differences between shots.
You can select multiple clusters of duplicates by holding the Command key. If you're feeling brave, you can "Select All" and merge hundreds of images at once. I usually suggest doing this in batches of 50. Why? Because if the software glitches and deletes something it shouldn't, it’s a lot easier to fish 50 photos out of the trash than 5,000.
Third-Party Apps: Are They Worth the Risk?
There are dozens of apps in the App Store promising to "Clean Up Your Gallery in Seconds!"
Honestly? Most are junk. Many of them operate on subscription models that charge you $30 a year for something your phone already does for free. However, if you have a massive library—we're talking 100,000+ photos—and the native Apple tool isn't catching the "near-duplicates" (like those slightly blurry bursts), an app like Gemini Photos or PhotoSweeper (on Mac) can be useful. These tools allow you to set the "similarity threshold." You can tell the app, "Hey, if these two photos are 80% similar, show them to me."
Just stay away from the free, "no-name" utilities. Your photo library contains your most private moments and location data. Giving a random app full access to that just to save 200MB of space is a bad trade.
Dealing with the "Synced from Finder" Headache
This is a specific nightmare for long-time Apple users. If you have photos on your iPhone that were synced from an old computer using a cable, you can't delete them on the phone. They are essentially "read-only."
To remove duplicates from apple photos in this scenario, you have to plug the phone back into the computer, go into Finder (or iTunes if you’re on an older Windows rig), and uncheck the folders you no longer want. It’s a clunky, legacy system that feels very "2010," but it's the only way to clear those specific types of duplicates.
Storage Optimization vs. True Deletion
Don't confuse "Optimize iPhone Storage" with having duplicates. If you see low-resolution versions of your photos that take a second to load, that's not a duplicate issue. That’s iCloud doing its job. It keeps the high-res originals in the cloud and smaller versions on your device.
If you delete a photo to "save space" but you have iCloud Photos turned on, it deletes that photo from everywhere. I’ve seen people lose years of memories because they thought they were just clearing space on their phone. If you want to keep the photo but save space, use the "Optimize" setting in your Photos settings. If you want to remove duplicates from apple photos, use the Merge tool.
Actionable Steps for a Cleaner Library
First, plug your phone into a charger and leave it alone overnight on Wi-Fi. This triggers the background indexing that finds the duplicates in the first place. Without this, the Duplicates folder might stay empty even if you have thousands of copies.
Next, go to Albums > Duplicates and look at the "Merge" options. You don't have to do them one by one. You can tap Select at the top right, then Select All, and then Merge. Apple will automatically pick the "best" version.
Finally, remember to empty your Recently Deleted album if you need the storage space immediately. Otherwise, those "deleted" duplicates will sit there for 30 days, still taking up room on your device. Once that's done, check your iCloud storage settings to see how much room you've actually clawed back. It’s usually more than you expect.
Stop letting your screenshots of memes and accidental pocket-photos ruin your library. A quick five-minute merge once a month keeps the clutter at bay and ensures your iCloud backup isn't bloated with literal garbage.