Removing duplicates from the photos online

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Removing duplicates from the photos online

I want to remove duplicates from Photos on icloud. The library is too big to download fully on my computer and so I want to use a software to scan for duplicates on the cloud without having them saved locally.

1) How can i do this?

I've tried Gemini - but this requires photos to be saved locally to my mac

I've tried duplicate photos fixer pro - this doesn't seem to work either

My photo library is about 450gb - (there are a lot of videos in there too)

When trying to backup my photo, I wanted to be sure not to leave any behind, I mistakenly searched and copied all the photos form the photos folders. This has meant that I have thumnails of photos as well as individual faces within a photo as separate photos within my library. I'm not sure how to undo this.

2) Is there anyway of removing these types of photos (faces/thumbnails) using a software/program? - I want to avoid going through individually as it's a large library.

Thanks

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 27, 2021 1:10 AM

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Answer 1

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TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,954 points

Jan 27, 2021 1:30 AM in response to zingpap33

There are no tools that will perform what you want directly in iCloud. I think you will need to move your library to an external volume, then download originals there, and work with that library. (See suggestion at the bottom of this post about checking the "imports" album first though)

See

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201517

Pay particular attention to the correct formatting and setup of the external volume, and not it must be directly connected (not a network drive) and not on a thumbdrive or similar.

As far as duplicate removal is concerned, Do NOT use a general file duplicate finder not designed to work with the photos library. They will damage your photos library and likely cause loss of your photos.

There are only two apps which are regularly reccomended here for that purpose.

I personally use PowerPhotos (I also use this for copying images and data between libraries) https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/

 Another suitable app recommended by experts here is PhotoSweeper (I have no personal experience of this one)

https://overmacs.com/

Both are paid apps. PhotoSweeper is the lowest cost, but PowerPhotos provides a lot of functionality in addition to the duplicate detection.

However, no app will be able to sort out the issue of thumbnails and faces, since they are not duplicates, but separate and different files. You should, though, be able to identify everything you imported from your pictures folder in the photos imports album - and delete them all (everything in that import) from there. In fact that is probably the best solution.

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Removing duplicates from the photos online

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