The bad news is that duplicate files are eating up space on your Mac, potentially causing your Mac to slow down and perform poorly. The good news is that you can easily get rid of duplicate files with just a couple of clicks using a duplicate file finder for Mac.
A duplicate file finder or duplicate file remover is a piece of software to automate the process of finding and removing duplicate files. We tested a dozen of popular duplicate file finders for Mac and picked the best ones. They vary in performance, ease of use, cost, etc. Below are the reviews.
Cisdem Duplicate Finder
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Compatibility: macOS 10.11 or later, including macOS Ventura
Latest version: 6.3.0, released in November 2022
Our take: Find all duplicate files on your Mac and help you remove them with a click
Cisdem Duplicate Finder is the best of its kind due to its outstanding performance and ease of use.
Using advanced algorithms, this app identifies duplicate files by content, regardless of filename. It finds duplicate photos, songs, videos, Word documents, PDFs, presentations, archives and all other types duplicate files. It also finds similar photo files with adjustable similarity level.
Supporting Mac and external storage devices, Cisdem Duplicate Finder can find duplicate files in one folder/drive or in and across multiple locations. It also supports scanning Photos, iPhoto, Music and iTunes for duplicates.
This app displays the found duplicate files for you to view and automatically selects all duplicates for you to remove with a click. Or, you can decide which files to delete by choosing a selection rule or selecting manually.
Compatibility: macOS 10.10 and higher
Latest version: 2.9.7, released in October 2022
Our take: A good-looking duplicate file finder with good performance
In addition to the best duplicate file finder Mac described above, there are other great apps to rid your Mac of duplicate files. Gemini 2 is one of them.
People are often impressed by how beautiful Gemini 2 looks. Its performance is equally impressive.
You can use the app to scan folders, the Photos app or the Music app on your Mac for duplicate pictures, duplicate songs and other duplicate files. If you select the Scan for similar files option in Preferences, it will also find similar images and audios, but the scan will take a significantly longer time.
You can manually select unwanted duplicates for removal or let Gemini 2 do that for you. The removed files will go to Trash by default. The Search functionality on the top right corner let you search for specific files with file names quickly.
There is a Duplicates Monitor feature, which detects new duplicate files in real time and notifies users of them. But the feature uses lots of CPU and may slow down your Mac.
Compatibility: macOS 10.11 or later
Latest version: 7.0.7, released in March 2023
Our take: An easy-to-use app to find identical files and even similar photos
Nektony Duplicate File Finder is an easy-to-use app to find duplicate pictures, videos, audios and more. In addition, it can find photos that are very similar. Also, there is an optional feature to find duplicate folders.
You can use it to scan one or multiple folders for duplicate files at a time. If there is a large number of files, it can take a longer scanning time. You can stop the scan at any time. Once duplicate files are found, they will be listed in a window. You can view file details such as name and size. The preview feature allows you to view images, videos and music files without leaving the app.
In each group of duplicate files, you can manually select the redundant ones for removal. You can also use the Auto Select feature to automatically do the selection for you.
Compatibility: macOS 10.7 and higher
Latest version: 1.99.3, released in March 2022
Our take: A basic but useful app to search for and eliminate duplicate files
This Mac duplicate file finder and remover looks less sophisticated due to its unpolished interface. It actually does a good job of scanning for and removing duplicate files on Mac.
It can find duplicate files in a folder or in and between two folders. The finding process will be slow if there are a large number of files. In addition, it can search for duplicate folders.
If you want to find duplicates in your Mac’s Photos app, check out Duplicate Detective 2, which adds support for Photos. However, I found that several duplicate photos were not detected after I used it several times. There may be some image formats are not within its detection range.
It’s worth mentioning that the app ignores certain files (such as certain system files) when it scans for duplicate files. This helps keep your important files safe and untouched.
Compatibility: macOS 11.0 or later
Latest version: 6.0.1
Our take: A duplicate file finder that offers high customizability and flexibility
According to the developer Hyperbolic Software, Tidy Up 6 targets “pro users”.
It offers two modes: Simple mode and Advanced mode. The latter is for pro users. Beginners and non-tech-savvy users can start with the Simple mode.
Both modes can search for duplicate files on Mac, including duplicates in folders, Photos and Music. And both provide a number of criteria and options for you to configure. Each search requires at least a little configuration regardless of the mode used. For some users, this may be more overwhelming than useful.
The Advanced mode specially offers options to help find duplicate photo files and music files. Pro users can explore and make the most of them.
In the test, I used Tidy Up 6 to scan a folder where duplicate files did exit. But the scan failed, and a No items were found message popped up. I tried a few times until it scanned properly. This can be a little annoying.
Compatibility: macOS 10.9 or later
Latest version: 1.06
Our take: A basic macOS duplicate file finder and deleter that does a good job of deleting duplicate files in folders
This app can help you search a folder for a specific type of duplicate files (such as duplicate JPG files) or all types of duplicate files. It’s easy to use for everyone.
It can search one, two or even more folders at a time with decent speed. But don’t use it to find duplicates in the Photos app on your Mac.
If you use Duplicate Sweeper to search the Photos app for duplicate files, it will return false positives. Removing files as Duplicate Sweeper suggests will damage your Photos library.
Its results window displays all the duplicate files that have been found. In each group of duplicate files, you can select all but one to remove. If there are many groups, you can use the Auto Select feature to avoid manual selection. One downside of its search results window is that certain file types such as Word documents cannot be previewed directly within the application.
Compatibility: macOS 10.8 or later
Latest version: 7.23.0.42, released in January 2023
Our take: Easy to use and versatile, helping you find duplicate files on Mac, Google Drive and Dropbox
You probably have heard about Easy Duplicate Finder. It’s a very well-known duplicate finder for Mac and Windows PC.
It has ten scan modes, which is impressive. To find general duplicate files, you can use these modes: SHA256 + FileSize, Byte-by-Byte Comparison and Filename Only (fast scan). In the test, I used the SHA256 + FileSize mode to search a folder on my Mac, it found all duplicates and one false positive.
There are also modes to help you find a specific type of duplicates. To find duplicate music, you can choose the Music scan mode. To find duplicate emails, choose the Outlook Mail or macOS Mail mode.
Like Duplicate Sweeper, this app doesn’t support the Photos app.
In addition to your Mac, your Google Drive or Dropbox may have duplicate files. To get rid of them, use Easy Duplicate Finder’s Google Drive or Dropbox Scan mode.
Compatibility: macOS 10.12 or later
Latest version: 4.3.1, released in July 2022
Our take: A free and open-source duplicate file finder with fair performance and a rich set of options
Are you looking for the best free duplicate file finder Mac? dupeGuru can be the choice.
This freeware app has three scan modes: Standard, Music and Picture. Each mode has different scan options. The Standard mode allows you to identify general duplicate files by content or name. Identifying by content can find duplicate files with different names.
The Music mode is specialized in looking for duplicate audio files. You can set it to find duplicates by content, name or tag.
Dedicated to working with image files, the Picture mode can help you find duplicate image files. There are a few options available for this mode. For example, you can set the Filter hardness. If the Filter hardness is less than 100, dupeGuru will also find similar pictures.
Note that dupeGuru only supports folders. It’s not a good idea to use it to find duplicates in other places (such as the Photos app) on your Mac.
Compatibility: macOS 10.6 or later
Latest version: 5.0.1043, released in November 2022
Our take: A data recovery app that can quickly find duplicate files in folders on a Mac
Some duplicate file finders are not available as independent apps. Instead, they are part of other apps. This is the case with Disk Drill.
Data recovery app Disk Drill has a bunch of extra tools. The Find Duplicates tool is one of them.
This free duplicate file finder tool can quickly search a folder on Mac for duplicates. It’s actually the fastest of all the tested apps. Note that it only supports working with folders.
Once the search is complete, you will be presented with the results window. There, you can view the found duplicates and remove the ones that you don’t want to keep. By default, the removed files will go to Trash.
If you happen to have Disk Drill installed on your Mac, you can check out the Find Duplicates tool. If not, it’s better to get a dedicated app.
Compatibility: macOS 10.11 or later
Latest version: 5.8.6, released in April 2022
Our take: A security app for Mac that provides a slow duplicate file finding tool
Security app MacKeeper provides a few cleaning tools. The Duplicates Finder tool is one of them. It’s designed to help users clean up duplicate files.
This tool allows users to scan the entire Home folder or a specific folder for duplicates. It’s the slowest of all the tested apps.
In addition to duplicate files, MacKeeper offers an option to detect similar photo files. You can set the Match Level to Low, Medium or High. Note that enabling this option can make the scan painfully slow.
In the test, it didn’t find all the duplicates in the folder it scanned. Two were missed.
| Find duplicates | View duplicates | Remove duplicates | Ease of use | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cisdem Duplicate Finder | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Gemini 2 | Excellent | Good | Excellent | Good | Excellent |
| Nektony Duplicate File Finder | Excellent | Good | Good | Excellent | Good |
| Duplicate Detective | Fair | Good | Good | Excellent | Good |
| Tidy Up 5 | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Good |
| Duplicate Sweeper | Fair | Good | Good | Excellent | Good |
| Easy Duplicate Finder | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Good |
| dupeGuru | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good |
| Disk Drill | Fair | Poor | Fair | Good | Excellent |
| MacKeeper | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Poor |
Does Mac have a duplicate file finder?
No. Mac doesn’t offer a built-in duplicate file finder to help users identify and remove duplicate files. But there’re some tips may be helpful for you to find duplicates manually.
Smart Folder: It’s possible to locate duplicate files on your Mac using the Smart Folders. To do that, open Finder and click on File > New Smart Folder in the menu bar. Specify your search criteria. For example, search for PNG on the search box. Then order them by Name or Size to help you quickly spot duplicates. Select files to delete.
Mac Photos Duplicates: macOS Venture Photos app has built in duplicates finder feature. In the Photos app on your Mac, click on Duplicates in the sidebar. Then you are able to select duplicate photos to merge. Apple will automatically keep the best version of the duplicate images and delete others for you.
Mac iTunes Duplicates: In the menu bar at the top of iTunes, click on File > Library > Show Duplicate iTunes. Clean up your duplicate music manually.
Can you find duplicate files on Mac with Terminal?
Terminal can find duplicate files by hash. But this method requires command line knowledge and isn’t for everyone.
What makes a good duplicate file finder for Mac?
How do I use a duplicate file finder?
Step 1. To find duplicate files in a location, add the location to scan.
Step 2. Start the scan.
Step 3. When the scan is done, decide which duplicate files to delete. Or, let the app decide for you.
Step 4. Remove unwanted duplicates.
Removing duplicate files can free up storage space, possibly making your Mac run faster. Also, it’s easier to manage files on a duplicate-free computer. The best duplicate file finder for Mac can help you effortlessly, effectively and safely root out duplicates from your Mac, no matter where they reside and how deep they hide.
Megan has an impressive deal of experience with Mac software and has the ability to explain tech stuff in a simplified, straightforward and easy to understand way.
A Random Guy
I'm happy with my old iMac in general, but it has little space left. I tried the app you recommended. It found tons of duplicate photos and other duplicates and freed up gigabytes of space. It's amazing.
brownclark
Having trouble with duplicate files? just use "DuplicateFilesDeleter program"
Gina
The duplicate file finder you recommend is only for Windows.
M. Razali
In so far tried Cisdem DuplicateFinder and giving it a 5*. Except I was using an unregistered version of the sofeware and thus I can't get it to delete the duplicates. Any chance of a discount coupon? :)
Vonnegut
5 out of 5 stars for this only program Cisdem DuplicateFinder. I used this duplicate file finder for years. Others are definitely not recommended.
Rosa Reyes
Hi, Vonnegut, thank you for the support of our product Cisdem DuplicateFinder. We will keep up the good work.
Helen Krieger
Downloaded the free trial, but though it will locate duplicates it won't let you delete the extra ones...so really the free trial is more of a preview I guess.
Rosa Reyes
Hi, Helen Krieger, free trial version of many duplicate file finder only allows you to find duplicate files; if you want to delete them, you have to buy.
natamolestr
Very well written! I will immediately seize your rss as I can’t find your e-mail subscription link or newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Kindly permit me recognize so that I may subscribe.
Rosa Reyes
You can subscribe by clicking "SUBSCRIBE" on the lowest right corner of the page and inputting your email address, then clicking "Subscribe".
gabapentinea
Regards our friends,
angelo
Try DuplicateFilesDeleter. Helped me few months ago.
pachy
where can I find a mac version?
kevinm.lee123@hotmail.com
Thank you for writing this useful article. I tried Cisdem DuplicateFinder, it really found all of the duplicate files on my Mac. It saved my hard disk storage.
Richard90
Cisdem DuplicateFinder is really the best solution. I used it to find duplicate files on my Mac, it did a good job. I like it. Thank you, writer.
Chris
Useful article, useful tool. I tried the first one as it seemed better than others. Actually, it did well.
Barbara123
Writer recommended so many duplicate finders, I tried the first one. It was great!!! Thank you!!!