How do I prevent duplicate photos buildup on Mac backup drives?

While it’s actually a common problem, most Apple employees haven’t had the experience, or at least haven’t known they had the experience of a buildup of redundant backup images.


I’m looking for a way around this problem, something that has been part of the Mac for at least 15 years.


do I need what kind of iPhone do I need in order to fix the problem. And also do current McIntosh computers have a solution for this duplicate picture problem




[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Apr 14, 2025 7:36 PM

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Apr 15, 2025 7:53 AM in response to Boson93111

Summary: Seeks advice on preventing duplicate photo buildup on mac backup drives.


Photos app has de-duplication support in recent versions, and which would be the easiest approach, as it implements a choice of which is the preferred copy, and avoids dealing with the inevitably-fun mixture of file deduplication and data encryption.

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How do I prevent duplicate photos buildup on Mac backup drives?

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