Top 7 Best Duplicate Photo Finders for Mac in 2023: Delete Duplicate Photos in Minutes

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Rosa Reyes
November 09, 2023 Preview 220.6K Preview 16
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Over time, duplicate photos can accumulate in the Photos app and folders on your Mac. They can take up storage space and lead to clutter and disorganization. The most efficient way to get rid of them is to use a duplicate photo finder or cleaner, a type of software designed to automatically identify duplicate photos and quickly remove duplicates.

This article provides a brief comparison of seven duplicate photo finders for Mac and talks about each app in detail.

 

A brief comparison

I tested about two dozens of duplicate photo finder apps for Mac. Seven of them stood out. These seven apps are talked about in this article. All of them can deal with duplicate photos, i.e. photos that are exactly identical (regardless of name). Some of them can also handle similar photos (aka near-duplicate photos), like photos that look the same but have different formats or resolutions or photos that look alike.

Some apps can look for duplicate photos in both the Photos app and folders, and some only work with folders or the Photos app. Some are only compatible with newer macOS versions, and some support both new and old versions.

Here’s a brief comparison of these apps to help you quickly filter the apps that don’t meet your needs. To help you find the best one among the apps that you think fit your needs, the next part of the article provides the detailed information of each app.

  Compatibility (macOS) Find duplicate photos Remove duplicates Work with
Cisdem Duplicate Finder 10.11 or later Great All at once, or individually Photos app and folders
Gemini 2 10.10 or later Great All at once, or individually Photos app and folders
PhotoSweeper 10.13 or later Good All at once, or individually Photos app and folders
Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro 10.8 or later Good All at once, or individually Photos app and folders
Disk Drill 10.15.7 or later Great All at once, or individually Folders
dupeGuru 10.12 or later Great All at once, or individually Folders
Apple Photos 13 or later Great Individually Photos app

 

7 best duplicate photo finders for Mac

#1 Cisdem Duplicate Finder

Compatibility: macOS 10.11 El Capitan or later

Latest version: 6.4.0, released in June 2023

Best for: People who want to easily get rid of duplicate photos everywhere

Cisdem Duplicate Finder finds duplicate images, videos, audios, documents and all other duplicate files on Mac, external storage devices, and even cloud storage services. It’s easy to use for everyone.

This app can scan for duplicate photos in and across the Photos app and folders. In the test, it found all the duplicate images, including the raw ones. (All the seven apps support raw images.) You can turn on or off the app’s ability to identify similar photos and set the similarity level based on which the identification works.

It displays the found duplicate photos and similar ones separately under two different tabs in its results window. There are three view modes, allowing you to conveniently preview photos side by side and see photo information.

In each set of duplicate photos, the app automatically selects all but one photo for deletion. You can select or deselect photos by hand too. There are also selection rules to help you select. Similar photos are not automatically selected, but selection rules are available to help. The deleted duplicates are moved to the Recently Deleted album in the Photos app or the Trash.

Free Download macOS 10.11 or later

Pros

  1. Find identical or similar photos
  2. Find duplicate folders
  3. Work with the Photos app and folders
  4. Convenient side-by-side image preview
  5. Very easy to use
  6. Great customizability, like setting the similarity level, and excluding certain folders or files

Cons

  1. Not compatible with macOS 10.10 or earlier

 

#2 Gemini 2

Compatibility: macOS 10.10 Yosemite or later

Latest version: 2.9.11, released in October 2023

Best for: People who’d like to prevent duplicate photos from accumulating

This beautifully designed app helps users preventing duplicate photos from accumulating in two ways. Let’s take a closer look.

Gemini 2 finds and deletes duplicate pictures that are already in folders and the Photos app. In addition, it finds similar photos and other duplicate files like duplicate videos and songs. Like Cisdem Duplicate Finder, it makes removing duplicate photos a snap (thanks to its Select Duplicates feature). But its image preview is not as handy as Cisdem Duplicate Finder’s.

Gemini 2’s Duplicates Monitor can detect newly created duplicate photos and other duplicate files in user-specified folders in real time. As soon as a duplicate photo appears in a monitored folder, you will be notified and presented with a button to delete the duplicate. You can turn on or off the monitor.

Pros

  1. Look for photos that are the same or alike
  2. Work with the Photos app and folders
  3. Can detect new duplicate photos in real time
  4. Can regularly remind users to clean up duplicates
  5. Easy to use and customize

Cons

  1. Image preview can be a bit laggy

 

#3 PhotoSweeper

Compatibility: macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later

Latest version: 4.8.4, released in October 2023

Best for: Photographers who need to find and remove duplicate photos

PhotoSweeper can be a good choice for photographers due to its support for Capture One and Adobe Lightroom Classic and the many settings to play around with and customize.

This duplicate photo finder for Mac supports folders, the Photos app and the two apps mentioned above. There are three sets of settings to compare photos, one to detect duplicate photos and the other two to detect similar ones. It’s indeed outstanding when it comes to finding similar photos and its customizability. But it missed a set of duplicate photos in the test.

It offers enough photo information and options when it comes to viewing duplicate photos and selecting duplicates for removal, which, if you are a photographer or know about photos, can help you deal with the found identical or similar photos in the most ideal way possible.

Pros

  1. Good similar image detection
  2. Support Capture One and Adobe Lightroom Classic
  3. Convenient to view and remove photos
  4. Very customizable

Cons

  1. Can be a bit overwhelming with all the settings

 

#4 Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro

Compatibility: macOS 10.8 Mountain Lion or later

Latest version: 4.10, released in September 2023

Best for: People who are looking for a simple alternative to PhotoSweeper

It’s simpler but less powerful than PhotoSweeper.

Like PhotoSweeper, Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro supports folders and the Photos app, has the ability to look for duplicate photos and similar ones, and displays duplicates and similar ones in together for users to view and handle.

But it doesn’t support Capture One and Lightroom, can only find certain similar photos, and doesn’t offer that much customizability, among other things. It’s less powerful overall, but can be simpler to use and less overwhelming.

There are two modes, one to find identical photos only and the other to find both identical and similar ones. The latter provides four settings for users to tweak. In the test, this app also missed a set of duplicate photos. It does a good job of identifying certain edited (like resized, flipped or cropped) versions of the same photo, but fails to find similar pictures taken by my phone.

Pros

  1. Provide two modes for users to choose from
  2. Support the Photos app and folders
  3. Fairly customizable
  4. Easy to use

Cons

  1. Preview is a bit laggy
  2. Lack a search feature to search the found duplicates

 

#5 Disk Drill (free)

Compatibility: 10.15.7 Catalina or later

Latest version: 5.3.1313, released in October 2023

Best for: People who want to weed out duplicate photos in folders for free

As a matter of fact, Disk Drill is a data recovery app. But it offers a free tool called Find Duplicates.

This free duplicate file finder tool can find duplicate photos and other duplicate files in folders on Mac. In the test, it found all the duplicates, and the speed was excellent. However, note that it doesn’t work with the Photos app. If your Photos app is where the duplicates exist, then this free tool can’t help.

Despite being free, this tool can automatically select duplicates for elimination, making removing unwanted duplicates easy and quick. But it’s not convenient enough when it comes to previewing duplicates.

Pros

  1. Free to use
  2. Quickly scan for duplicate photos
  3. Straightforward to use for everyone

Cons

  1. No support for the Photos app
  2. Little customizability

 

#6 dupeGuru (free)

Compatibility: macOS 10.12 Sierra or later

Latest version: 4.3.1, released in July 2022

Best for: People who are looking for a free duplicate photo finder for Mac with good customizability

dupeGuru is an open source app, which offers two modes to help users scan for duplicate photos.

The Picture mode is dedicated to handling images. It’s designed to find identical pictures and similar ones and allows you to set the similarity level. In the test, this mode was very slow and missed three sets of duplicate photos. According to the test, its ability to identify similar photos is poor.

The Standard mode can find all common types of duplicate files including duplicate photos. In the test, this mode was about three times faster than the Picture mode but was still way slower than the apps talked about above, and what’s important is that it found all the duplicates.

This app is less user-friendly than Disk Drill, but is way more customizable. It gives users enough control when it comes to the identification and elimination of duplicate photos.

Pros

  1. Free to use and open source
  2. Offer two modes for users to choose from
  3. Customizable

Cons

  1. No support for the Photos app
  2. Slow

 

#7 Apple Photos (free)

Compatibility: macOS 13 Ventura or later

Best for: People who use macOS Ventura or Sonoma and have patience

The Photos app (aka Apple Photos) in macOS 13 or 14 comes with duplicate detection, which is great news. It’s included in macOS and free to use. But using it may require a little patience.

This duplicate detection tool works automatically and in the background. You don’t need to enable or turn on it. You can’t force it to work neither. You just have to be patient and wait. The detection may take hours or even days if there are lots of items in your Photos app.

The removal of duplicates may also take patience. When the detection finishes, the Photos app displays the detected duplicates in the Duplicates album, which is in the sidebar on the left. In the album, you need to go through each set of duplicates to merge them or to delete the redundant ones. (If Duplicates doesn’t show up in the sidebar, check out these possible fixes.)

Pros

  1. Free to use
  2. Included with macOS
  3. Detect duplicate photos and very similar ones
  4. Provide a Merge option to help users get rid of duplicates

Cons

  1. Only available in macOS 13 or 14
  2. Can take a long time to complete the detection
  3. Can’t mass delete duplicates

 

Tips

By now, you may have found the app that suits you best. Here are a few tips that you may find helpful, like tips on how to use such an app and how to avoid duplicate photos.

  • If you are new to duplicate photo finder software and have no idea how it works, you can read the app’s user guide (like this one) first. The guide should be available on the app’s official website.
  • If your Photos library or photos folder is very large, you can first quickly get yourself familiar with the app by using it to scan a small folder with pictures for duplicates.
  • Avoid looking for and deleting duplicates in system folders like “Library”.
  • All the apps except Apple Photos provide two ways to remove duplicates: moving them to the Trash or deleting them permanently. Moving them to the Trash is recommended. This way, it’s possible to quickly restore deleted items when needed. (Once you are absolutely sure that you won’t need the deleted duplicates anymore, you can delete them in the Trash to free up storage space.)
  • To avoid duplicate photos, you can use software to eliminate them regularly. You can be mindful when organize photos. For example, if you want to move certain photos to from one folder to another, use drag and drop instead of copying and pasting them.
  • Stick to one way to import photos from your iPhone to the Photos app on your Mac. Either use My Photo Stream (or iCloud Photos) or a USB cable. This helps prevent importing duplicates.
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Rosa Reyes
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Rosa has worked in Mac software industry for more than eight years. She believes that the purpose of software is to make life better and work more productively. In addition to writing, Rosa is also an avid runner.

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Comments (16) Leave a Reply

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  • Volker Zanetti

    Very detailed comparison, helped me a lot. I tried the first one and it works really well.

    0 months ago commonReply

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  • Lionel

    I have tons of duplicate photos in my Photos app and is looking for a way to delete all the duplicates in one step. I'm happy to know that there is safe-to-use software designed for this purpose.

    2 years ago commonReply

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  • christy latham

    That's great you are explaining each and everything very well this is helpful for mac user because most of the time user face such problem but here you can give proper solution and make them happy.

    5 years ago commonReply

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  • Ferser98

    Awesome. Cisdem duplicate photo finder really helped me deleted duplicate photos in minutes.

    7 years ago commonReply

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  • valentine

    Why does it ask me for a code before deleting and where do I find the code

    7 years ago commonReply

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    • Rosa Reyes

      Hi, valentine, some of these duplicate photo finders listed in this article are not free, you need to buy a license before deleting. Free trial version only allows you to find duplicates.

      7 years ago
  • Quincy

    I love your article, please keep up the good work.Say goodbye to my duplicate files...

    7 years ago commonReply

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  • Diego Mairena

    Hey, Rosa Reyes! Nice name, where are you from? I am Venezuelan. :) Thank you a lot for this post! Most apps did not help me, but the free one kind of did. It is nice to find such in-depth review of these apps, because right now I have a 10,000-items Finder Folder, and I am pretty sure every two of them are duplicates. :P

    7 years ago commonReply

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  • Yuki

    Thanks for your share. These duplicate picture finders all have powerful functions.

    7 years ago commonReply

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  • Justin

    Excellent.

    8 years ago commonReply

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  • Joshua

    I tried these duplicate photo cleaner, but one of them couldn't help me find duplicates. What impressed me most is Easy Duplicate Finder and Cisdem Duplicate Finder.They really worked, thanks.

    8 years ago commonReply

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  • Melantha

    Manually finding all duplicate photos costs me much time, but a duplicate photo cleaner makes it very easy, thank all software developers!

    8 years ago commonReply

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  • Isaiah

    Can Cisdem duplicate finder remove duplicates from external hard drive?

    8 years ago commonReply

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    • Rosa Reyes

      Hi, Isaiah, Cisdem DuplicateFinder can find and remove duplicate files from virtually any storage devices like internal Mac hard drives, external hard drives, cameras, iPods, USB flash drives, memory cards, etc

      8 years ago
  • Noah

    I've tried a lot of duplicate photo finders over the years, but i never found a perfect duplicate photo finder which could satisfy all my needs, but i will keep trying. Thanks for sharing these duplicate photo cleaner for me to try.

    8 years ago commonReply

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  • Jasonlee

    Excellent, I tried all the duplicate photo cleaner, but Cisdem Duplicate Finder worked best, I would buy it because I can use it to find and remove all duplicate files including photos, thanks

    8 years ago commonReply

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