5 Ways to Remove Duplicated Photos on iPhone in 2023

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. In order to free some space on iPhone, you can remove these duplicated items.

It is tedious work to manually select and delete duplicated photos and videos. Luckily, in this article, I will show you 5 different methods to remove duplicate photos from your iPhone library.

Method 1: Delete Duplicate Photos in iOS 16

Starting in iOS 16, the Photos app now offers a feature to identify and remove duplicate photos and videos. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use this feature.

1. Open the Photos app and go to Albums.
2. Tap on Duplicates.
3. Select the photos you want to merge or choose Select All.
4. Tap Merge and select whether to merge exact duplicates or photos that look similar.
5. 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 haven’t upgraded to iOS 16, you can read on to find other methods.

Method 2: Remove Duplicate Photos with Siri Shortcuts

Siri 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 Delete Duplicated Photos shortcut (updated for iOS 15). 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 demine if a photo is duplicated, so no additional app is required. If you want to find and delete similar photos, you can check the next method.

Method 3: Remove iPhone Duplicate Photos with Gemini

There is a paid app from AppStore called Gemini that uses a smart machine-learning algorithm to help you delete duplicate photos on your iPhone. It is very accurate, it even detects similar photos. It works far better than the shortcut I made. You don’t even need to turn off iCloud Photos, so you can also use it to delete duplicate photos from iCloud.

It allows you to run the three days of a free trial. After the free trial. If you want to use it further, you can make an in-app purchase of $1.99 per month, $11.99 per year, or $14.99 for a lifetime.

When you run it for the first time, the app will scan your iPhone Photos library including screenshots, selfies, bursts, panoramas, animated, or even videos. When it is done, you’ll see two folders of photos: similar and clutter. Then you can tap on it to delete duplicated images on iPhone accordingly.

Method 4: FoneTool

FoneTool is a Windows app that allows you to manage and backup files on iPhone. It also offers the option to find and erase duplicate photos on the iPhone automatically. You can refer to the steps below to see how it works.

Step 1. Connect your iOS device to our PC with a USB cable.

Step 2. Within the FonTool app, click Toolbox and select Photo Deduplication.

Step 3. In the next screen, click Scan iOS device and set the date range filter to start the Scan.

Step 4. When the scan is complete, it will list all duplicate and similar photos in order. Now, you can choose the ones that you want to remove.

You may also select duplicate images and then delete duplicates with a single press. You may also create a backup of your data before deleting them. However, It is not free, that’s why it is not listed as the first option.

Method 5: Remove Duplicate Photos with IOTransfer

IOTransfer is a file transfer program that allows you to manage and transfer files between PC and iOS devices. It also comes with a few handy features including Similar Photos Cleaner, Video Converter, iCloud Photo Manager, etc. So, you can use it to delete duplicated photos on iPhone.

Well, IOTransfer is only available for Windows and you need to connect your iPhone to PC via USB cable before you can use this Similar Photo Cleaner tool. You can let it scan similar photos on your iOS device or PC and then you can choose the results to delete.

Conclusion

These are all the 5 methods to help you get rid of duplicate photos on iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. All have been tested working in 2023. 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.