How to find duplicate photos on a Mac
By Vishva Variya · Updated · 5 min read
Short answer
Open Photos, click Duplicates under Utilities in the sidebar, select the sets you want and click Merge. Photos keeps one copy where the duplicates were and moves the rest to Recently Deleted for 30 days. That covers only your Photos library: pictures saved as files in Downloads, Desktop or Pictures need Finder or a duplicate finder.
Where is the Duplicates album in Photos?
- 1Open Photos (macOS 13 Ventura or later).
- 2In the sidebar, click Duplicates below Utilities. If it isn’t there, hold the pointer over Utilities and click the arrow that appears.
- 3If you use iCloud Shared Photo Library, click the Library pop-up menu in the toolbar and choose Both Libraries.
- 4Select the duplicates to merge: one row, several rows, or all of them with ⌘A.
- 5Click Merge, then confirm. One photo or video stays where the selected duplicates were.
The extra copies go to Recently Deleted, where you can recover them for 30 days. Photos has to analyse the library before it lists anything, so in a large library the Duplicates album can take a while to appear.
Why doesn’t Photos find all my duplicate pictures?
- It only looks inside the Photos library. An image you saved from Mail or AirDrop into Downloads, or exported to the Desktop, is a file Photos never sees.
- It hasn’t finished analysing. New imports show up in Duplicates later, not straight away.
- With a shared library, it checks only the library chosen in the toolbar unless you pick Both Libraries.
- It looks for copies of the same picture. Several different frames of the same moment, like a burst, are not copies of each other.
How do I find duplicate images in Finder folders?
Finder has no duplicate check, but a Smart Folder can gather every image in one list so that copies sit next to each other:
- 1In Finder, choose File › New Smart Folder.
- 2Type “image” in the search field and choose the suggestion that matches the kind Image.
- 3Click the Add (+) button to narrow it, for example by file size or by the date the file was created.
- 4Click Save and give the Smart Folder a name.
- 5Switch to list view (⌘2) and sort by Name or Size. Copies such as “IMG_2041 (1).jpg” land beside the original.
This matches names and sizes, not pictures. A resized, re-exported or messaging-app copy has a different size and a different name, so it slips through.
What about photos that look alike but aren’t identical?
Most wasted photo space isn’t exact copies. It’s five takes of the same group shot, an edited version saved next to the original, the same screenshot as PNG and JPEG, or a photo sent back to you at lower quality by a chat app. Comparing bytes or names can’t catch these; you need something that compares what the pictures show, or patience and Quick Look (select the files and press Space, then use the arrow keys).
Which copy should I keep?
- The largest file of the set: it usually has the full resolution. Copies that went through Messages, WhatsApp or email are often shrunk.
- The original HEIC or RAW over a JPEG exported from it, unless the export is the one with your edits.
- The copy inside your Photos library over a loose file in Downloads, if Photos is where you keep pictures.
- Never delete files from inside the Photos Library package in Finder. Remove photos from within Photos.
Look-alike photos with Peekaboo
Peekaboo’s Duplicates has two tabs. Exact Copies matches files byte for byte by SHA-256. Similar Photos compares what images show using Apple’s Vision framework, so bursts, edits and re-saved copies turn up side by side, all worked out on your Mac. It’s meant for the image files in your folders, like Downloads, Desktop and Pictures; for pictures inside the Photos library, Photos’ own Duplicates album is the right tool. Whatever you remove goes to the Trash, and the whole cleanup can be put back.
- 1Open Duplicates.⇧⌘I
- 2Switch to Similar Photos to see look-alike shots grouped together.
- 3Pick the shot to keep in each group, or let Peekaboo choose.
- 4Move the rest to the Trash. Put the cleanup back if you change your mind.⌥⌘Z
Questions
Which macOS version has the Duplicates album in Photos?
- macOS 13 Ventura and later. Earlier versions of Photos have no duplicate view, so you have to compare by eye or use another app.
Where do merged duplicate photos go?
- To Recently Deleted in Photos. They stay there for 30 days, so you can recover any of them, or delete them permanently sooner to get the space back.
Does Peekaboo upload my photos to compare them?
- No. Hashing and photo matching both run on your Mac with Apple’s own frameworks. Peekaboo has no account and no cloud.