Free up Space: How to Identify and Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone

iPhones are known for their exceptional camera quality. Sure enough, they bring out the hidden photographer in you. And, to capture that one perfect shot, you probably take hundreds of others. Over a period of time, this leads to the accumulation of duplicate photos. Not just during capturing images, duplicate photos may occur on your iPhone due to various reasons such as -

 

• Importing photos from multiple sources. 
• Errors during syncing. 
• Saving multiple versions of a photo while editing them.
• Sharing or receiving photos multiple times through apps. 

How To Identify Duplicate Photos in iPhone and Delete Them?

Below we’ll discuss two ways of deleting duplicate photos on iPhone. In the first method, we’ll discuss how you can remove duplicate photos from iPhone using the native Photos app. In the second method we’ll discuss how to identify and get rid of duplicate images using a duplicate photo finder app. 

#Solution No.1: Using The Photos App

Starting iOS 16, the Photos app can identify duplicate photos. Using this feature you can easily clean up your photo library and make up more storage space. 

 

How Does It Work?

Photos app merges all duplicate photos into groups and then keeps one photo that it perceives as of the highest quality. It further combines all the relevant data such as keywords, captions, and favorites. 

 

After being removed where do the duplicate photos go? 

 

Here’s the safety net - Let’s assume that after deleting some photos, you suspect that you may have deleted the wrong ones. Worry not! All the duplicate photos that are removed go to the Recently Deleted folder. At a later stage, you can retrieve accidentally deleted photos from here. 

 

Here’s how you can delete duplicate photos right in your Photos app - 

 

Step 1: In the Photos app tap on Albums that you can see at the bottom of the app. 

 

Step 2: On the next screen, scroll all the way down and tap on Duplicates under Utilities. 

 

Based on whether or not there are duplicate photos, the Photos app will notify you. It will even prompt you if it needs more time to analyze your library.

 

Step 3: Once all duplicate photos are analyzed, you will see all the duplicate photos in your library. Tap on Select from the top.

Step 4: Tap the pictures that you wish to merge, or tap on the Select All option from the top left corner of the app. 

Step 5 - Next, tap on the Merge option that you can see at the bottom of the screen.

You can choose to merge the exact copies of photos, or you can merge all photos that look the same. In the latter case, you can merge photos that look the same but they may have different file formats, resolutions, or minute differences. 

Step 6 - Finally, tap on Merge Items to confirm.

#Solution No.2: Use A Dedicated iPhone Duplicate Photo Detector To Delete Duplicate Photos 

While using the native duplicate finder on iPhone is one way to get rid of duplicate photos, we also recommend using an iPhone duplicate photo finder app. 

 

To understand why, let’s take the example of Duplicate Photos Fixer, which is one of the highest-rated apps on the App Store to remove duplicate photos from an iPhone. Here’s how it works -

 

Step 1: Install Duplicate Photos Fixer from the App Store. 

 

Step 2: On the home screen, select a matching level as discussed below - 

• Normal (Recommended) - Look for photos that are similar enough. 
• Aggressive - Look for photos that are similar. 
• Custom - Look for similar photos while applying custom settings. 

To narrow down the search for duplicate photos, you can use the filters as shown in the screenshot below.

Step 3: Tap on Search Duplicate Photos. Post that, Duplicate Photos Fixer will start the scanning process. 

 

Once the photos are scanned, the identified duplicate photos are arranged in groups. You can preview the duplicate photos, and Auto Mark duplicate images where one photo is left unmarked in each group. 

 

Step 4 - To delete the duplicate photos, tap on the Trash button located at the bottom right-hand side corner of the app. 

That’s it! In no time, this iPhone duplicate photo detector will remove all duplicate photos from your iPhone. 

 

Now that you have seen Duplicate Photos Fixer in action on an iPhone, here are some of the notable features of this app - 

• Delete all kinds of duplicate photos. Those that are exactly similar and those that may look similar but may have slight differences. 
• Narrow down the search for duplicate photos based on factors like bitmap size, time interval, matching level, and GPS. 
• Preview photos before removing duplicate photos from your iPhone. 

Types of Duplicate Photos 

There are broadly two types of duplicate photos - 

 

Exact Copies - These are the duplicates that are exactly identical. Which means there is no difference between the photos. 

 

Similar Duplicates - This is the case where an iPhone duplicate photo finder can be of great help. These are the kind of duplicate photos where photos appear to be the same but have slight differences which are sometimes not noticeable. A duplicate photo detector’s algorithm easily identifies duplicates regardless of whether they are exact or similar.  

Wrapping Up 

In this post, we have discussed two ways in which you can identify duplicate photos and get rid of them. You can either use the native Photos app to remove duplicate images or you can use a third-party app like Duplicate Photos Fixer to remove duplicate photos. 

 

Do let us know in the comments section below which of the above methods would you use to get rid of similar and exact duplicates from your iPhone.