Duplicate photos and videos take your Mac storage space and hinder you to locate the right photo you need. I am sure you don’t want to remove duplicate files one by one, so here you can learn a few creative methods to delete duplicate photos on your Mac automatically.
You can use a built-in app Shortcuts to detect and delete duplicate photos and videos in bulk or use a third-party app to monitor and delete duplicate files.
Photos Deduper Shortcut for Mac
Previously, I created a shortcut, Photos Deduper, for removing duplicate photos and videos on iPhone or iPad. In macOS Monterey or new versions, you can also run shortcuts on Mac, so you can also use this shortcut to remove duplicate photos on Mac.
You can run this shortcut to remove duplicates from Photo Library and edit it a little bit to remove duplicate photos in Finder. This shortcut can also scan files on your local storage, so you need to disable iCloud Photos for it to work. Let me show you how to use it step by step.
Step 1. Go to Routinehub to import this shortcut for your Mac. You should use the Safari web browser to add the shortcut.
Step 2. By default, this shortcut will compare all the images in the Photos app, it may take a while to show you the duplicate results. You may change the shortcut by adding a Filter to the Find Photos action to only scan limited photos.
Step 3. If you don’t want to change the shortcut, you can click the Play button to run the shortcut.
Step 4. Wait a while, and the shortcut will display all the duplicate photos found. You can choose the Delete All Duplicates or Save a Copy to iCloud before Deleting.
Step 5. You will also need to confirm to delete all the duplicate images and then then the shortcut will do its job.
If you also want this shortcut to scan files in Finder, you can edit the shortcut by referring to the video below.
However, this shortcut only takes 2 or more exactly the same images as duplicate. Namely, this shortcut can delete the videos and images you downloaded twice, but not the screenshot you took twice. If you want to want to delete similar images, you can check the next method.
Duplicate Images Finder App for Mac
Gemini 2 is a duplicate finder app that may help you locate and remove duplicate files not just images automatically. You can use it to look for duplicates on your Mac hard drive or a particular folder. It is a paid app, but you can get a free copy of Gemini 2 and give it a try for free. You can refer to the steps below to see how it works:
Step 1. Free download and install the latest version of Gemini. You can use it for free with limited features.
Step 2. Within the Gemini app, you can select + > Pictures Folder > Scan for Duplicates to begin. Note: You may choose Choose Custom Folder if your images are located in a different location.
Step 3. When it’s done scanning, make your choice between Smart Cleanup or Review Results.
If you click Smart Cleanup, it will remove all the duplicate files including images, videos, and other types of files while saving the copies that Gemini thinks are the best. If there is some essential files in the chosen folder, you should click Review Results to see all the duplicate results and decide which to delete.
By the way, you can also let Gemini monitor duplicate files in real time.
Manually Delete Duplicate Photos on Mac
When you import a picture that is already in your Library, a warning shows that says “Duplicate Photo.” If there are somehow still duplicates in the Photos Library, you may use the following method to remove duplicates from Photos Library.
Get Rid of Duplicate Photos in the Photos App
Actually, macOS will automatically begin storing your photos in the app. Thanks to the Smart Albums feature, you can find similar photos more quickly, even if Photos doesn’t have a “display duplicates” option like other applications. You can refer to the following steps to delete duplicates.
Step 1. Within the Photos app, create a new Smart Album by clicking File > New Smart Album.
Step 2. Set the name and filter options for your Smart Album. For example, select all photos that are selfies. This way, all photos are sorted as you preferred and you are more likely to discover duplicates.
Step 3. Delete the images by doing a right-click (or command-click) with the mouse.
Step 4. In the sidebar, choose Recently Deleted from the drop-down menu.Then choose Delete All.
Remove Duplicate Images in Finder
Similarly, you can create Smart Folders in Finder to sort all of your photos in one window. Here’s how to get Smart Folders up and running:
Step 1. Click on File > New Smart Folder from the Finder menu.
Step 2. Click “This Mac” and click the + icon.
Step 3. Select “Kind” and “Images” from the dropdown options.
Step 4. Then, choose the Name column and order your files alphabetically. While it’s possible that duplicate images have the same or consecutive file names, sorting by date or size may be simpler for you.
Step5. Make a list of the duplicates you wish to eliminate, and then select them.
Step6。 Hold down Control when clicking or right-clicking on the photos. Then choose Move to Trash.
Final Thoughts
These are all the methods that I can think of to help you remove duplicate photos on Mac. The Shortcuts app is a built-in app that comes with macOS Monterey and newer versions, so it is completely free. More importantly, you can edit any actions in the shortcut for your convenience.
There are also similar apps like Gemini 2 for scanning and removing duplicate files. All in all, I don’t recommend you do it manually.