Here’s a genuine, objective CCleaner Duplicate Finder review. Is it safe to delete duplicate files using CCleaner? How to use CCleaner Duplicate Finder? These are among the questions frequently asked by those who want to find and delete duplicate files on their computers. This review covers things that you may want to know about the Duplicate Finder tool in CCleaner. I hope it will be helpful.
CCleaner Duplicate Finder is not an individual app. it’s a tool within the CCleaner app.
Developed by Piriform, CCleaner is a utility designed to clean up unwanted files such as junk files on computer. Originally Windows-only, it now also provides versions for macOS and Android.
CCleaner’s duplicate file finder tool is built-in and instantly available. Having the essential features that a duplicate file finder should offer, the tool can be used to find and delete duplicate files on a computer.
The fact is that Duplicate Finder doesn’t come with all versions of CCleaner.
CCleaner is available both on macOS and Windows, but the versions offered for each platform are a little different. CCleaner for Mac has two versions: Free and Professional. The free version only offers several basic features, allowing users to remove some temporary or historical files. Users who want to use CCleaner duplicate file remover will have to buy the professional version. The Pro version doesn’t offer a free trial, which means one needs to buy a license to access the Duplicate Finder tool.
For Windows, there are also two versions: Free and Professional. And luckily for Windows users, the free trial for Pro version is available. Users can try it before making a purchase.
In conclusion, regardless of the operating system, if you want to find and delete duplicate files with CCleaner, you will need to download or buy its pro version. CCleaner Duplicate Finder isn’t available in the free version.
Below is the price of the pro version.
Cost | Free trial | |
---|---|---|
macOS | $19.95 | Unavailable |
Windows | $29.95 | Available |
Is it safe to delete duplicate files in CCleaner? Yes, it is absolutely safe. Firstly, CCleaner is a simple and clean app to help users clean up their computers. There is no bundled app or malware. Secondly, CCleaner does help find duplicates. If you are not quite sure about the duplicate results, preview these found files according to the path and then delete.
Finding and deleting duplicate files is an effective way to clean up computers, and that’s the reason why CCleaner builds in this useful feature. This feature allows users to remove duplicate documents, videos, movies, photos or other files on your computer.
Once you have launched the program, you can go to “Tools” and choose “Duplicate Finder”, you will find an informative but neat interface. It is easy to use and user-friendly, all the needed icons for customizable settings are arranged in good order, if you need to tweak the settings, just checkmark before the options.
CCleaner allows users to search or find duplicate files in a smart way. Users can search duplicate files that match by name, size, modified date, or content. Even, you can ignore to look through certain files, such as zero-byte files, system files, read-only files, hidden files, even you can specify the min or max file size that you want to ignore to scan.
In addition, during the scanning process, users can include or exclude some drives or folders for searching. For example, if you are quite sure there are lots of duplicates on a drive or in a folder, you can include for scanning, if you don’t want the program look through some files that stored in an important folder, you can exclude for searching.
Yet, CCleaner cannot find all duplicates, there will be some files missing in the duplicates results.
After the scanning process, CCleaner will find all the duplicates in your selected folder and list them with details, you will know the name, path, size and creation data of these files.
You will have three ways to select the files for deletion.
As you may have noticed, though CCleaner offers different solutions to delete files, it doesn’t do that smart as it does in searching duplicate files or as good as other duplicate file finders. Generally speaking, a convenient duplicate finder will offer different options for users to delete duplicates fast and efficiently, such as select all, deselect all, delete the newest, delete the oldest or customize the selection. And its seems in CCleaner, “choosing one by one, then delete” is the safest way to delete duplicate files, since it doesn’t support Preview these duplicates before deletion.
There is a button “Restore results” on the top right corner, this feature is only available when you have paid for its Windows bundle, which includes a data recovery software called Recuva. If not, you will be asked to install this program first.
Before to figure out if CCleaner duplicate file finder tool worth a try or not, we need to have a basic understanding about what does it do and how does it help to find and delete duplicate files.
Should I delete duplicate files in CCleaner? How does CCleaner help to delete duplicate files? As we mentioned in above review, CCleaner cannot allow users to preview found duplicates, if you want to delete some duplicates without mistake, you will have to preview one by one according to the path before final deletion.
While, CCleaner only offers three ways to select duplicates for deletion, users are not allowed to select files smartly. That’s to say, it is not difficult to delete files in CCleaner, but it will take some time to decide which files you should delete.
So, here is the conclusion, if your duplicates are not large in quantity, try CCleaner. If you have a lot of duplicate saved on your computer and all of them are important, you will have to take some time and efforts to delete the correct duplicates in CCleaner, since it doesn’t offer a smart way to select files for deletion.
Sometimes, CCleaner just disappoints users. The major complaints about CCleaner duplicate file remover are its failure to find all duplicates, or crash when scanning a large drive/folder.
Then, what to do if CCleaner Duplicate Finder is not working? You may be able to re-start the program if it crashes during scanning process, but there will be no good way to deal with its incompetence to find all expected duplicates. In this case, a professional duplicate finder will be the best solution.
The Mac version of Cisdem Duplicate Finder is an easy-to-use, versatile app to find and delete duplicate files on Mac and external storage devices.
Main features:
How to use it
Step 1. Download and install Cisdem Duplicate Finder on Mac.
Step 2. Scan to find duplicate files. Click “+” to add hard drive or folder for scanning. Or before the scanning, you can click the “Settings” icon to customize the scanning or deletion.
Step 3. Preview found duplicate files. After scanning, all the duplicates will be displayed with detailed information in the program, preview before deletion.
Step 4. Select files for deletion. You can select the newest or oldest from the duplicate results, or you can manually select one by one.
Step 5. Click “Delete” to remove all selected duplicates on Mac.
The Windows versions of Cisdem Duplicate Finder is a program allowing users to find and delete duplicate photos, music, videos, emails and other duplicate files. Even, it offers advanced setting to scan or delete files, and the feature of previewing duplicate, to make sure users won’t delete duplicates by mistake.
How to use it
CCleaner Duplicate Finder is easily accessible and easy to use. CCleaner itself is not exclusively designed to handle duplicate files. For many of its users, the Duplicate Finder tool may be a nice little cherry on the top feature. For active computer users who may have a large amount of duplicate files on their computers, the best solution to get rid of the unwanted duplicates is to use professional duplicate file finder software due to reliable performance, high accuracy, high speed and great customization.
Connie has been writing for Mac productivity and utility apps since 2009. Each review and solution is based on her practical tests, she is aways energetic and trustworthy in this field.