Think You Have Duplicate Files Or Photos? Maybe Not.

Often people ask me about duplicate photos or files when all they are seeing is two different ways of viewing the same single photo or file. For instance, albums in Photos show the same photos as the Library, and Recents and the Desktop in the Finder show files you can also see elsewhere. It is important to understand why these aren't duplicate items to avoid deleting the one and only copy of a photo or file.

Comments: 12 Responses to “Think You Have Duplicate Files Or Photos? Maybe Not.”

    Dana Schwartz
    2 years ago

    Little confusing in that the 2 photos you say are the same actually look quite different, at least on my iPad. I assume one is a blown up part of the other?

    2 years ago

    Dana: Not sure what you are referring to. Can you point the time(s) in the video?

    Rick Grossman
    2 years ago

    I've always suspected this. I'm glad you confirmed it. This is one reason I have avoided much of cleanup, I would like. But with this confirmation, I will know what to avoid. Thanks.

    Greg Schmidt
    2 years ago

    Dana Schwartz.. I thought the same thing but then I realized - I think they were different photos and Gary was just using both together in his example.

    alan
    2 years ago

    thanks Gary/ always informative and helpful/. but what about if i really do have duplicates in the iphoto? how to delete---? i know i can do it photo by photo but---there are many/ have you had a video on this before? again much thanks/. alan

    2 years ago

    Alan: First, figure out why you have duplicates so you can avoid it in the future. Then, yes, you have the manually delete them. There will be a tool in Ventura that will help with that, but it is still manual (as it should be) giving you the choice. Until then, just go through and find the duplicates (would be side-by-side in the library because they have the same time stamp).

    JEAN
    2 years ago

    If have duplicate photo in Library is there a way to see each photo next to each other that is the same so I can clean up my Library and have just one copy in the Library?

    2 years ago

    JEAN: Go to All Photos view and adjust the size of the thumbnails as you like. Any images that are duplicates would have time stamps that are exactly the same, so they would be listed side-by-side.

    JERRY RAPHAEL
    2 years ago

    Is there a way to move a photo into a album and then delete it from the photos album?
    Also is there a way to have an album open at the same time you have the all photos album open so you can see what you need to move to the album?

    2 years ago

    Jerry: Not sure what you mean. If you mean move it into an album and then remove it from that album, WHY would you want to do that? If you mean move it into an album and then choose that photo in the album and delete it from your entire photos library (gone, completely from everywhere) you can use Command+Delete.
    I think in your second question you are asking if you can help two views at once? You can't. But you also can't add a photo to an album a second time. It would only be in there once. Maybe look into using keyword tags if you need something different.

    Bob
    1 year ago

    I didn't see a chapter on PHOTOS in the Ventura course. If I truly see a couple of identical photos next to each other in the Photos program, I guess I could just simply delete one. But what is the "new" way to find and delete duplicates in Ventura?

    1 year ago

    Bob: here’s a video that shows the new duplicate photos feature: https://macmost.com/12-new-features-in-mac-photos.html

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