3 Ways to Find and Delete Duplicate Photos on Mac (2023)

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Jerome Mills
Last updated: Jul 5, 2023

Summary: 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:

  • Import photos from mobile phones and cameras.
  • Accidentally copied a picture.
  • Saved the same image multiple times.

Duplicate photos take up your space for nothing. It is recommended that you delete them from your Mac. Move to the next step to learn how.

How to Quickly Find and Delete All Duplicate Photos on Mac

The easiest way to find and remove duplicate photos on Mac is to use BuhoCleaner, one of the best duplicate photo finders. It allows you to find duplicate and similar photos in the Photos app and in every folder on your Mac. Also, it detects duplicate folders, songs, documents, videos, etc. Deleting duplicates has never been easier.

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

Here're 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.

How to Manually Find and Remove Duplicates with the Photos App

The Photos App will automatically detect duplicate photos when you import pictures into it. But if the photos are already 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. Now you can easily remove duplicate photos and videos from the library. Basically, your duplicate photos and videos will automatically appear in the Duplicates album in the sidebar. If you can't find it, please wait hours or days, as Photos will take some time to scan and analyze your photo library.

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 the feature of finding duplicate photos on your Mac. All you need is the New Smart Folder. Here are the steps:

  1. Open Finder and click File > New Smart Folder.
    Open New Smart Folder on Mac
  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.

Conclusion

Now you have learned how to find and delete duplicate photos on your Mac. The manual way is time-consuming. It is recommended that you use BuhoCleaner to do the job for you.

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Jerome Mills

A creative editor from Dr. Buho, who has been consistently writing high-quality Mac and iPhone issue-related guides for over 3 years.