How to Find and Delete Duplicate Photos on Mac - 3 Ways

Jerome Mills
Last updated: Jan 5, 2024

Duplicate photos cluttering up your precious Mac storage space? We will show you how to easily find and delete them from your Mac.

Duplicate photos take up your valuable space. Want to know how to get rid of them from your Mac? Keep reading this blog, and you will find some quick ways to find and delete duplicate photos.

3 Ways to Find and Delete Duplicate Photos on Mac

Why Are There Duplicate Photos on My Mac?

Duplicate photos can be created in many situations, such as:

  • Importing photos from mobile phones and cameras.
  • Accidentally duplicating a picture.
  • Saving the same image multiple times.

These duplicate photos consume unnecessary storage space on your Mac. Deleting them is a good idea. Let's move on to learn how to do that using various methods.

How to Quickly Find and Delete All Duplicate Photos on Mac

The easiest way to find and remove duplicate photos on Mac is by using BuhoCleaner, one of the best duplicate photo finders. It enables you to identify duplicate and similar photos not only in the Photos app but also in every folder on your Mac. Additionally, it can detect duplicate folders, songs, documents, videos, and more. Deleting duplicates has never been easier!

DownloadFor macOS 10.10 and above
100,000+ Satisfied Users Worldwide

Here are the steps:

  1. Download, install, and launch BuhoCleaner.
  2. Click Duplicates in the sidebar and click the + button to choose a folder you want to scan.
    Quickly Find Duplicate Photos on Mac with BuhoCleaner
  3. After the scanning process is completed, you can see all the duplicate and similar photos in the destination folder.
  4. Click on the Image tab to see all duplicate photos and the Similar tab to see all similar photos.
  5. From the Auto Select menu, select Smart Select to automatically select files, and click the Remove button if you want to delete them all.
    Find and Delete Duplicate Photos on Mac with BuhoCleaner
Tip
BuhoCleaner also supports finding duplicates in cloud drives and external drives.

BuhoCleaner is more than a duplicate photo finder. It is also a handy Mac cleaner that allows you to clear junk files from the system, apps, and users, uninstall unwanted apps, delete large files, manage startup programs, analyze disk space, and more. It is worth a try.

DownloadFor macOS 10.10 and above
100,000+ Satisfied Users Worldwide

How to Manually Find and Remove Duplicates with the Photos App

The Photos app automatically detects duplicate photos when you import new pictures. However, if you already have duplicate photos in your Photo Library, you can manually delete them using the Photos app.

  1. Open the Photo App.
  2. From the File menu, select New Smart Album.
  3. In the new window, name your Smart Album and set filter criteria.
  4. Select the photos you want to remove, right-click one of them, and then click Delete X Photos.
    Manually Delete Duplicate Photos with the Photo App
  5. Confirm your deletion and click the Delete button.
  6. In the app's sidebar, click Recently Deleted > Delete All.
    Permanently Delete Duplicate Photos on Mac

Apple introduced the Duplicates feature in Photos on macOS Ventura and Sonoma. This feature allows you to easily remove duplicate photos and videos from your library. Duplicate photos and videos will automatically appear in the Duplicates album in the sidebar. If you can't find it, please be patient as Photos will take some time to scan and analyze your photo library, which may take hours or even days.

Here's how to delete duplicate photos in Photos on Mac:

  1. Click Duplicates in the sidebar.
  2. Select the duplicate photos and videos you want to merge.
  3. Click the Merge X Items button.
Find Duplicates with the Photos app

How to Manually Find and Delete Duplicate Photos on Mac with Finder

Finder comes with a feature for finding duplicate photos on your Mac. All you need is the New Smart Folder option.

To find and delete duplicate photos using Finder:

  1. Click the File menu in Finder and select New Smart Folder.
    Open New Smart Folder in Finder
  2. Click the + button below the search box.
    New Smart Folder Window
  3. Select Kind in the 1st drop-down menu and Image in the 2nd drop-down menu.
    Find Duplicate Photos on Mac Using Finder
  4. Sort the files in the list by name. Duplicate photos usually have the same name, and they should be next to each other.
  5. Select the files you want to get rid of and move them to the Trash.
  6. Empty your Trash.

The Bottom Line

By following the steps above, you should have successfully removed all unwanted duplicate photos from your Mac.

If you're interested in thoroughly cleaning your Mac to free up space for your activities, we recommend trying BuhoCleaner. It covers everything from clearing old files to uninstalling unwanted apps, and with just a few clicks, you can free up gigabytes of space!

Jerome Mills

I am Jerome Mills, a passionate enthusiast of all things Apple. I'm expertise in crafting tech-related articles, with a portfolio of more than 100 articles covering various Apple products like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.