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Best app to remove duplicates from Apple Photos library

jagooch

jagooch

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 17, 2009
811
249
Denver, co
I have a large number of duplicate photos in the Apple Photos library after regrettable selecting "consolidate photos" from the menu. It appears to have made 2 copies over every photo I had when I did that, so I have 3 of every photo in my library

My research has turned up good reviews for Photosweeper( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photosweeper/id463362050?mt=12 ) , but the app with the most ratings on the App store is Duplicate Photos Fixer ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/duplicate-photos-fixer-pro/id963642514?mt=12 ) .

I haven't used either of these but if price = trustworthy then Photosweeper wins. If "most positive reviews" = trustworthy, then the other app wins.

Has anyone here used either of these app to remove duplicate photos, or even another app that you would recomment?
 
I generally use Gemini to find duplicates, but I haven't used it with Apple Photos.
 
I like Photo Sweeper because you can tweak it to compare with different criteria, and use it to help you cull out images that aren't strictly dupes, but maybe parts of brackets, or just a bunch of awful images captured about the same time with say the lens cap on. Heh. IOW, not a one-trick-pony.
 
Bumping an old thread. Wondering if anyone else has any more feedback on the best way to remove duplicate photos? Perhaps there's been some developments since this thread was posted.
 
I'm about the pull the trigger on Photosweeper, but just wanna confirm if it works on videos or not. I can't find that info on its description.
 
cloneofsnake said:
I'm about the pull the trigger on Photosweeper, but just wanna confirm if it works on videos or not. I can't find that info on its description.
Click to expand...

I'm going to guess that it doesn't. It's a lot more CPU intensive to compare video's than it is to compare images. Even a maxed-out Mac Pro would struggle with that task.
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LiveM said:
I’d forget about it now as Catalina will do it natively.
Click to expand...
Catalina is still pretty far away, and not everyone will be upgrading to it. I'm going let Catalina bake on other people's computer for a while before I risk mine. Also it includes changes to iTunes that I might not like, so until it passes all my checks, I'm not installing Catalina.
 
Can the Gemini Photos app for iOS display photo capture date and filename when choosing duplicates to delete?
 
I still like Duplicate Annihilator for Photos from Brattoo Propaganda Software. It works well using a variety of different algorithms, which you can choose from if you want. It's very low cost at $7.95. You can even get a trial version free that stops at 500 photos, but at $7.95 for the real thing it's hardly worth bothering with the trial version. One thing I particularly like is that I can have it can just tag photos and then show those dupes so I can make the final decision to delete of not.
Yes it does allow one to operate on different libraries. It even allows one to operate on a small group of photos rather than the whole library.
The author puts out a "news" email occasionally which discusses the issues of eliminating dupes. It's a fun read and worth the $7.95 by itself. And by the way, he's VERY responsive.
I'm not aware that it does videos.
Be careful, they also make a version for iPhoto. Quite a few people get the wrong version and are then unhappy it doesn't work for them.
Be careful about choosing by price and by number of positive reviews. Both are pretty misleading. Low price can just mean the software does one thing very well rather than becoming bloated by becoming all things for all people. # of positive reviews can just mean many reviews from the same people. Thee have been articles in the media about the review problem. I understand there is even software to bump up the number of positive reviews.
For the record, I'm just a happy user with> 17,000 photos in my Photos library. I'm not associated with the author at all.
 
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Somewhat of a thread revival. Just used Gemini 2 via App Store for a 90GB+ Photos library and it helped shed a ton of duplicates. Feel like this should be native in the Photos App.
 
Gemini 2 can find exact duplicates pretty easily but it sucks at finding similar photos.
 
Thanks, but I wanted to know if any users here have used this app with Big Sur and or/an M1 Mac.
 
DanMR said:
Gemini 2 can find exact duplicates pretty easily but it sucks at finding similar photos.
Click to expand...
It’s actually pretty dangerous in that regard, as it finds shots taken in sequence that are unique photos.
 
Does anyone have a clue as to how so many duplicates are created? I cannot find a common thread - I get many duplicates from all kinds of images. Just wondering if anyone has an idea where the come from in the first place. Because the best way to clean them off our Macs is to not create them in the first place....
 
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