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Best apps for removing duplicate images in Photos?

I discovered rather late that the current version of Photos under Catalina always exports files with a .jpeg extension, even if it was originally .jpg — which is the one most cameras and smart phones seem to use. What's more, when importing it treats the .jpg and .jpeg versions as separate images, so they are not caught by the 'already imported' filter. You can get around this by changing the extensions to .jpeg before importing.


However, I now have 6,000 duplicate images to get rid of. I would like to know of other users' experiences with apps that do that. I installed 'Duplicate Photos Fixer' from the app store on a trial basis and it seems to work, though you have to mark each deletion individally, then go into Photos to actually delete them. On the other hand, I have had problems with Photos since using it (separate posting), so have to wonder if this program was the cause? I would prefer a program that was semi-automatic, i.e. just deleted identical copies of photos that meet criteria I can specify.


iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Oct 28, 2020 9:50 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 28, 2020 9:57 AM

I have not tested Duplicate Photo Fixer. But only applications, that are using Photos to delete the duplicates and do not modify the library on their own are safe to use.

  • PowerPhotos is safe, but only the full paid version can be used for duplicate deletion.
  • PhotoSweeper is safe.

I found Bothe of them very convenient.


Apple is warning about using duplicate detectors. See: Using third-party apps to remove duplicate photos might damage your Photos for macOS library - Apple Support



The problem is, that general duplicate finders, not designed especially for Photo Libraries will beak the internal links.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 28, 2020 9:57 AM in response to AndyEdinburgh

I have not tested Duplicate Photo Fixer. But only applications, that are using Photos to delete the duplicates and do not modify the library on their own are safe to use.

  • PowerPhotos is safe, but only the full paid version can be used for duplicate deletion.
  • PhotoSweeper is safe.

I found Bothe of them very convenient.


Apple is warning about using duplicate detectors. See: Using third-party apps to remove duplicate photos might damage your Photos for macOS library - Apple Support



The problem is, that general duplicate finders, not designed especially for Photo Libraries will beak the internal links.


Oct 28, 2020 11:03 AM in response to léonie

Duplicate Photo Fixer has a feature to include a Photos library in its sweep. It finds possible duplictaes, but you jabve to mark them for deletion yourself. It moves the marked photos into new Photos folder called 'marked for deletion'. You then have to go into Photos to do the deletion from that folder. I do not know whether it is actually safe!

I'll try PhotoSweeper and possibly PowerPhotos to see if they have a quicker way of marking the duplicates.


Best apps for removing duplicate images in Photos?

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