How to Find and Delete Duplicate HEIC Photos on Mac/PC/iPhone

This article will take a look at the best HEIC duplicate photo finder for Mac, Windows, and iPhone. HEIC is a replacing image format of JPEG, which was adopted by Apple with the release of iOS 11 in 2017. And since the iPhone 7, photos captured are stored in HEIC format by default. If there is an immense collection of Apple photos HEIC duplicates on your devices, read on to know how to find and remove photos duplicate HEIC as fast as possible.

Find and Delete Photos Duplicate HEIC on Mac

Why Mac Photos Duplicates HEIC Files?

High Sierra 10.13 and later versions are compatible with HEIC format, helping you compress image size and save much space on Mac. But it's prone to duplicate HEIC and JPEG files if you transfer HEIC from iPhone to Mac using two mixed methods.

For the first time, you transfer HEIC photos via My Photo Stream. They will be converted to JPEG format automatically, as My Photo Stream doesn't support HEIC.

The second time, you import HEIC files to Mac by connecting the device to USB or through iCloud shot Library. The images will remain in HEIC format. If some photos are transferred again accidentally, they won't be overwritten, because they are two different formats- HEIC and JPEG.

How to Avoid Apple Photos HEIC Duplicates on Mac?

• Set the iPhone to only take pictures as JPEG. (Not a good way. For photos of the same quality, the HEIC size is half that of JPEG.)
• Disable My Photo Stream and merely transfer HEIC photos from iPhone to Mac via iCloud Photo Library or USB
• On your iPhone, go to "Settings" > "Photos" > "Transfer to Mac or PC" > choose "Keep Originals". (When you import HEIC files to Mac by USB, they might be changed to JPEG or H.264 formats sometimes.)

How to Manually Remove Photos Duplicate HEIC on Mac

• Step 1. Launch the Photos app on your Mac.
• Step 2. Head over to “File” at the top of the screen > select “New Smart Album”.
• Step 3. From the pop-up menu, set the condition to "Filename includes .heic".
• Step 4. Select all photos to duplicate HEICs in the smart album and delete them with the key combination Ctrl + Delete or Backspace.

Bear in mind that the manual method can only filter out pictures in the same format. But we mentioned above that HEIC photos are mainly duplicated with JPEG on Mac. So we'd better use a HEIC duplicate finder software to find similar images, rather than being limited to the identical format.

The Best HEIC Duplicate Finder for Mac

Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Mac is undoubtedly an amazing and intelligent program available in the marketplace to remove Apple photos HEIC duplicates. It can quickly scan and recognize duplicate images as well as similar images in different filename, size, or format. This best HEIC duplicate finder ensures you to manage your photo library without effort and make it neat from cluttered. In addition, it can also find and delete non-HEIC duplicates in types of music, videos, documents, packages, archives, and so on.

How to Find and Delete Duplicate HEIC Photos on Mac:

Download, install and run Cisdem Duplicate Finder on Mac.

Free Download

Click the “+” button to import the folders or drives that contain duplicate HEIC photos into the app, or straightly drag-n-drop them to the specified field.

When everything is ready, click the “Scan” button.

Once it completes scanning, you’ll see how many duplicates were detected and of which type. Find the duplicate and similar HEIC in the image category. There are three view modes- Thumbnail, List, and Info.

This best HEIC duplicate finder for Mac will voluntarily mark images for deletion. Of course, you can change selection rules and choose one of them according to your demands.

• Rules for duplicate HEIC photos
• Rules for Similar HEIC photos

Click “Delete” in the bottom right corner. From the pop-up dialog, select “OK”.

How to Delete HEIC Duplicate Files in Photos App?

• Step 1. Launch Photos app. Go to “Photos” > “Preferences” to open the “General” window.
• Step 2. Click the “Show in Finder” button to find the location of your “Photos Library”.
• Step 3. Drag “Photos Library” to Cisdem Duplicate Finder and start scanning.
• Step 4. Choose the Photos duplicate HEIC files and delete them at once.
• Step 5. After the process finishes, the software will guide you to Cisdem Duplicate Album in Photos app for further duplicates removal. Note: Cisdem HEIC duplicate finder may not thoroughly clean the files on account of the limitations of Photos app.
• Step 6. Now, manually remove all remaining Photos duplicate HEIC files.

Get Rid of Duplicate HEIC Photos on Windows

How to Open HEIC File in Windows

HEIC is only supported by iOS 11 and High Sierra 10.13 and higher. It's unable to be opened directly in Windows (except Windows 10 RS4) using image viewing software.

To solve the issues, you can install an extra codec and plugin, like:

• HEIF Image Extensions (For Windows 10)
• CopyTrans HEIC (For Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7)

Best HEIC Duplicate Finder for Windows

Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder lives up to its name in every aspect. Besides removing Apple photos HEIC duplicates, it has the power to detect other image formats, such as JPG, PNG, BMP, WBMP, PPM, PSD, CRW, WEBP, ICO, JP2, GIF, etc. This HEIC Duplicate Finder for Windows scans images using an optimized and innovative algorithm, enabling results with the highest accuracy. Moreover, it encompasses more practical features like Image Search, setting similarity threshold & other filters, etc.

How to Find and Delete Photos Duplicate HEIC on Windows:

• Step 1. Get Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder installed on your Windows, and run it.
• Step 2. Click “Add Folder” on the toolbar to import the folders that cover the unneeded HEIC files you desire to delete. Alternatively, drag-n-drop them inside the program.
• Step 3. In the right panel of the interface, check the first box under “Folders” > choose "Visual Compare" as scanning method > set "Similarity" > "Cache".
• Step 4. Click the “Start Scan” button.
• Step 5. Once the results are displayed, choose a rule for marking duplicates like “Image with smaller dimensions and click the “Auto Check” button.
• Step 6. Check the “Delete files to Recycle Bin” box and click “Delete Checked Files”.

Remove Photos Duplicate HEIC on iPhone

The Manual Solution

• Step 1. Go to the "Photos" app.
• Step 2. Tap "Select" button in the upper-right corner.
• Step 3. Tick all similar captured HEIC photos.
• Step 4. Tap the trash icon in the lower right corner.
• Step 5. From the pop-up, confirm the "Delete".
• Step 6. Go to empty your “Recently Delete album”.

Delete Photos Duplicate HEIC via a Third-party App

Remo Duplicate Photos Remover is a popular HEIC duplicate finder for iPhone. It‘s good at scanning all the exact duplicates, similar images, and lining up them separately. It offers useful details for images such as date, size, resolution, etc. and automatically reserves one best copy in each picture group.

How to Remove Apple Photos HEIC Duplicates on iPhone

• Step 1. Download and install Remo Duplicate Photos Remover from App Store, and open it on the iPhone.
• Step 2. Tap the “Scan” button, and it will start scanning your photo library. Note: You have to allow it to access Photos but not have to the notifications.
• Step 3. After the scan finishes, the app shows images into two categories: Exact and Similar. Choose the photos duplicate HEIC for deletion.
• Step 4. Tap the trash can icon in the bottom-right corner.

Conclusion

These are the ways to delete photos duplicate HEIC on Mac, Windows, and iPhone. Many of the users waste time sorting through duplicate HEIC files all manually, but actually the third-party professional program will get the job done fast and accurately. Plus, a HEIC duplicate finder gives you more effective features in terms of weeding out the duplicates.