It is easy to sync photos from your PC or online cloud services to iPhone. Sometimes, some same photos will be synced to iPhone more than once, which leads to duplicated photos. To free some space on iPhone, you can remove these duplicated items.
It is tedious work to select and delete duplicated photos and videos manually. Luckily, in this article, I will show you 5 free methods to remove duplicate photos from your iPhone library.
Method 1: Delete Duplicate Photos [Built-in]
Since iOS 16, the Photos app offers a feature to identify and remove duplicate photos and videos. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use this feature.
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Scroll down to the “Utilities” section and tap on “Duplicates”. This album will only appear if your iPhone has identified duplicates in your library.
- Select the photos you want to merge or choose Select All.
- Tap Merge and select whether to merge exact duplicates or photos that look similar.
- Tap Merge Items to confirm.
The Photos app will merge the duplicates into one photo with the highest quality, and the removed duplicates will go to the Recently Deleted folder. If you have a very old Apple device, you can read on to find other methods.
Method 2: AI Powered Duplicate Photo Remover
Clever Cleaner is a highly-regarded free app that uses AI to sniff out duplicate photos, similar-looking images, screenshots, and even helps you manage bulky Live Photos and large video files.
Clever Cleaner is frequently highlighted as a top choice because it is genuinely 100% free to download and use, with no hidden paywalls, subscriptions, or third-party ads.
How does Clever Cleaner generally work? You grant it access to your photos, it scans your library, and then presents you with categories like duplicates, similar photos, screenshots, etc., for you to review and delete.
Like any AI tool, it’s wise to review its suggestions before bulk deleting, just in case it flags a photo you actually want to keep that’s merely similar to another.
Method 3: Duplicate Cleaner app-Softices
This app focuses on finding duplicate photos and also duplicate contacts. It offers features to merge contacts and even back them up.
Why it’s a good pick (Pros):
- Free and Ad-Free: Users appreciate that it’s a free tool without ads, which is a nice bonus.
- Dual Purpose: If you also struggle with a messy contacts list, this app can help you kill two birds with one stone.
- Accurate for Exacts: It seems to do a solid job finding exact duplicate photos.
Things to keep in mind (Cons):
- Potentially Over-Aggressive on Similars: Some reviews mention it can be a bit too enthusiastic in flagging photos as “similar,” so careful review is needed.
- Interface Quirks: A few users have noted that the selection dots for photos can be small, making selection a little fiddly on smaller screens.
How it generally works: After scanning, it shows you sets of duplicate photos (and contacts if you choose), allowing you to select and delete them.
Method 4: CleanMy®Phone Storage Cleaner
From the well-known developer MacPaw, CleanMy®Phone is an AI-powered cleaner designed to free up space on iPhone. You can use it to remove duplicate pictures on iPhone, organize your library into categories like Travel, Pets, Food, etc.
It also offers video compression and can convert Live Photos to still images. With CleanMy®Phone, you can easily make more room for new stuff.
When you open the app for the first time, let it scan your library (which it does quite quickly), and then it presents your photos in organized categories, highlighting duplicates and similars for you to manage.
The biggest drawback for many is the pricing. While there’s a free version, its functionality is quite limited. To unlock the full power, you’ll need a subscription.
Method 5: Remove Duplicate Photos with Siri Shortcuts
Apple Shortcuts is one of the main features in iOS 12. The Shortcuts app allows you to automate many things on your iPhone. Many things impossible is now possible with Shortcuts app on iPhone. If you haven’t used it, you should get started now.
I have created a shortcut to find and remove duplicate photos on iPhone or iPad. It works the same with videos. You need to Go to Settings and disable iCloud Photos for this shortcut to work. You can refer to the steps below to see how it works.
Step 1. Download the Shortcuts app on your iPhone if you haven’t. Then get this Photos Deduper shortcut. You can open the link in Safari to download it on your iOS device.
Step 2. Open the shortcuts app and simply run this shortcut.
Step 3. This shortcut will give you a preview of all the duplicated photos detected. If there is no problem, just tap on Done to continue.
Step 4. Shortcuts app needs your permission to delete any photos from your iPhone. Tap on OK to delete all the duplicated items.
This can only detect exact photos as duplicates. For example, if you have downloaded a photo or video twice, this shortcut will help you delete the duplicates.
This shortcut is using the MD5 value to determine if a photo is duplicated, so no additional app is required. However, this cannot detect similar photos.
Conclusion
These are all the 5 methods to help you get rid of duplicate photos on iPhone or iPad. All have been tested working in 2026. If the Duplicate option is not available in Photos app, then you can choose the shortcuts option or other 3 third-party apps.
Now it is your turn. Which method are you going to try first? If you know an even better solution, let us know in the comments.
Is the Shortcuts still reliable to this day? It was last updated on 2021 & said support latest iOS 15 only.
The iPhone shortcut erased so many photos that were not duplicated. Luckily I think I was able to get back most of them through the trash but all my videos from the last 2 months (including my last week summer vacations) were lost, I’m so sad 🙁
The iPhone shortcut returns an error.
Which version of Cccleaner did you use? Because in the latest versions, there is no “File finder” under the tools menu. Thank you
Delete Duplicated Photos link broke. Needs fix.
I get a conversion error message: Generation Hash failed because Shortcuts couldn’t convert from photo media to the required type. What??