2020-02-25 05:04:56 / Posted by Megan Charles to Utility Follow @ Megan

Looking for the best duplicate photo finder for Mac? Here’s a list of the 7 best duplicate photo finders for Mac.

Duplicate photos are useless and space wasting. It’d be time consuming and tedious to find and delete the photo duplicates on your Mac one by one. Is there an easy quick way to get rid of them? Thanks to photo deduplication software, things can be very easy. Well, how do I choose a Mac duplicate photo finder? If you become overwhelmed by the choices available, don’t worry! This article provides a list of the top apps to look for and remove duplicate photos and even the similar ones from Mac and the Photos app.

8 criteria: What makes a good Mac duplicate photo finder?

Criterion Detail Ability to find duplicate photos A good duplicate photo finder should excel at measuring the similarity between pictures from various aspects such as content. For example, users can use it to find photos completely identical in content but different in filename or size. Ease of use A simple, intuitive interface can definitely be a plus. If you remove duplicate images on your Mac on a regular basis, a powerful duplicate photo finder with simple UI can make things extremely easy for you. Support for Apple Photos Duplicate photos is a common issue with Mac Photos app. The best Mac duplicate photo finder should support Photos (and iPhoto). High scanning speed Duplicate photo finder software scans your drive for duplicates. You will surely benefit from fast scanning especially if you have a very large collection of photos on your Mac. Preview feature Not every duplicate file finder comes with preview feature. But when it comes to a duplicate photo finder, this feature is almost essential. Safe removal In addition to permanently eliminating selected duplicates, there should at least be an option to move files to Trash. The best duplicate photo finder for Mac should allow easy restoration of deleted duplicates. Flexibility to customize Users should have enough control over the scan and removal process. Customization options such as filtering can be very useful. Extra features If two apps are equally good at finding and deleting duplicate photos on Mac, then the one with useful extra features wins. These could be multiple view modes, support for other file types such as video and audio, etc.

The best duplicate photo finder for Mac 2019 - 2020

#1 Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Mac

With these criteria in mind, we tested over a dozen of popular apps for duplicate image removal and picked Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Mac.

Supporting almost all image formats such as JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP, etc., this Mac duplicate photo finder can quickly, accurately find duplicate photos and similar photos on Mac, the Photos app and external storage devices.

It can also find and delete duplicate videos, audios, documents, spreadsheets, ebooks, PDFs and other types of duplicates.

Main features:

Easy to use with simple, intuitive interface

Find true duplicate photos by content

Find similar images, allowing you to adjust similarity level

Support RAW photos

Also find duplicate audios, videos, documents, packages, etc.

Remove duplicates from Photos, iPhoto, iTunes & Music

Work with Mac's internal HD, external HD, SD card, Google Drive, etc.

Let you add multiple folders and drives to scan

Make it easy and highly customizable to find and remove duplicates

Provide 3 preview modes, allowing side-by-side image comparison

Delete all duplicate photos with 1 click

Offer useful features like Ignore List & Auto-Select

Compatible with macOS 10.10 or later, including 10.15 Catalina

At a glance

Here’s a brief review.

Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Mac is highly efficient with a powerful scan engine. Using the MD5 value checksum algorithm, it can quickly scan and accurately detect true duplicates regardless of filename.

In our test, this duplicate photo finder for Mac scanned over 12,000 pictures in less than one minute. Real-time scanning results are provided as the scan process goes on. You can choose to scan files by content or by name.

It offers multiple filtering options for scanning and allows you to select minimum and maximum file size. Using its Ignore List feature, you can exclude folders and specific file extensions from scan. For example, to prevent this duplicate file finder for Mac from scanning the PNG photos on your Mac, just add the extension .png to the Ignore List.

When the scan is finished, the app will auto-select the duplicate copies for you to delete in one go. You can easily preview photos and remove the unwanted ones by clicking the Delete button.

How to remove duplicate photos on Mac in 3 easy steps

Step 1 Add folders and drives to scan Download and install Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Mac. Launch it. Click the add icon to add one or multiple folders or drives to scan. Click Scan.

Step 2 Preview Once the scan finishes, go to the Images tab where you can find all the duplicates pictures. In the upper right corner of the preview window, you can change the preview mode. Zoom in or out for better view.

Step 3 Delete with one click This duplicate photo finder for Mac will automatically select the duplicate copies of the same pictures for you to delete. To change the selection rule, click the menu icon in the upper left corner of the preview window. You can also select or deselect manually. Click the Delete button. By default, the selected files will be moved to Trash.

In depth

Here’s how to make the most of the best duplicate photo finder for Mac by customizing the scan and removal.

Before scanning Customize settings

Every time you find and remove duplicate files such as duplicate pictures on your Mac, you can set scanning options based on your need.

Before adding folders to scan, click the gear icon in the upper right corner. Under the General tab, you can find a few options. The default Scan Method is File Content. Move to Trash is the default Removal Method. In general, the default settings are recommended.

The Similarity Level affects how this duplicate photo finder for Mac finds similar photos. The default level is 70%. Adjust similarity by sliding the slider.

Go to the Ignore List. You can add folders and file extensions to exclude. Folder exclusion is especially useful when you want to scan an entire drive while needing to skip certain folders. To add folders or extensions to ignore, just click the add button.

Duplicate photos Preview and remove

Once the scan is completed, go to Images. You will find two tabs: Duplicate and Similar.

Under the Duplicate tab, you will find groups of duplicate images. They are exactly the same in content, file size and resolution. The only difference can be the filename. Based on the default scan method (Scan by File Content), this duplicate photo finder doesn’t consider filename when identifying duplicates.

You can click a group of duplicates to preview them. In the lower left corner, there is a search box where you can enter keyword. Click the dropdown icon next to the search box, and you can choose to sort groups of duplicate photos by Name, Size, Count or Type.

The best duplicate photo finder for Mac provides three preview modes. You can easily zoom in or zoom out. The third mode allows you to view file information such as Data Created, Size, Resolution, etc. In the upper left corner of the preview window, click the menu icon to select from the four selection options. By default, this Mac duplicate photo finder will automatically use Smart Select. You can also select or unselect manually.

The option Select by Priority allows you to select duplicates for removal from prioritized location, as shown in the screenshot. With this option, you need to set the priority before clicking the Scan button in the first step. To do this, click the gear icon in the top right corner and go to the Selection tab.

Click Delete, and the selected photos will be deleted or moved according to the default or custom setting.

Similar photos Preview and remove

Go to Images > Similar. You can find groups of similar images. They can be:

Exactly same in content but different in size or resolution

Almost identical in content but with slight differences (regardless of size, resolution, etc.)

This feature can help you find resized images, photos taken in burst mode, edited versions (such as changes in color, orientation, sharpness, etc.) of the same photo and other types of similar images.

Note that the Similarity Level in Settings will affect how this duplicate photo finder for Mac measures similarity.

Click the menu icon and select from the eight selection options the one that meets your need. Click Delete to get rid of them.

Photos app How to delete duplicate photos on Mac Photos app

Can Mac Photos find duplicates? It can’t find the duplicate photos that are already imported into library. The recommended duplicate photo remover can help.

In Finder, from the menu bar at the top of the screen, select Go > Go to Folder. Enter ~/Pictures/ into the box. Click Go.

Find Photos Library and drop it into the said app. Click Scan. Let the app do the magic.

Get the app. Use it to remove duplicate photos on iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, etc.

A list of 6 other great duplicate photo finder for Mac 2019 - 2020

Let's start this part with a comparison table.

Comparison of the 7 best duplicate photo finders for Mac

Cisdem Duplicate Finder Easy Duplicate Finder Duplicate Photo Cleaner Photo Sweeper Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro Photos Duplicate Cleaner dupeGuru Total Score 35 24 22 19 17 15 14 Cost Lifetime license $29.99 $39.95/year $39.95 $9.99 $18.99 Free Free Free trial √ √ √ √ × — — Free lifetime upgrades √ × × × × — — Compatibility OS 10.10 or later 10.6 or later 10.6 or later 10.12.2 or later 10.7 or later 10.7 or later 10.10 or later Optimized for Catalina √ √ √ √ √ √ × Supported files Duplicate photos √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Similar photos √ × √ √ √ √ × Duplicates in Photos app √ √ √ √ √ √ × Duplicate audios & videos √ √ × × × × √ Duplicate docs, PDFs, spreadsheets, etc. √ √ × × × × √ Duplicate archives, packages and others √ √ × × × × × Scan for duplicates Scan speed * 35 sec 55 sec 187 sec 13 sec 8 sec 34 sec 41 sec Scan multiple folders √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Scan entire Mac √ √ × × √ √ × Scan by file content √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Scan by filename √ √ × × × × √ Exclude folders from scan √ √ √ × × × √ Exclude file types from scan √ √ √ × √ √ × Exclude files by size √ √ √ × × × × View duplicates Overview report √ √ — — — — × View by file types √ √ — — — — × Sort by name, size, etc. √ √ √ √ × × √ Built-in search √ × √ √ × × √ Built-in preview √ √ √ √ √ √ × Preview side by side √ × √ √ √ √ × Zoom in/out preview √ × √ √ × × × Select duplicates to delete Auto-select √ × × √ √ √ × Select by folder √ × × × × × × Select by date √ √ √ √ √ × × Select by size √ √ √ √ √ × × Select by resolution √ × √ √ × × × Select manually √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Remove duplicates 1-click removal √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Move to Trash option √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Remove Permanently option √ √ √ × × × × Move to Folder option √ √ × × × × √ Warning before deleting √ √ √ √ √ √ √

* Note: To test and review these apps, we used them to scan the same 10 GB folder for duplicates. The time each of them took is listed in the table above.

#2 Easy Duplicate Finder

Easy Duplicate Finder is a powerful duplicate image finder for Mac to find and remove duplicate files such as photos, documents, audios, videos, and more. Just drag and drop folders into the program window and start the scan. It will quickly and easily find duplicate image files including JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG and GIF.

This Mac duplicate photo finder will scan multiple sources, folders and devices in order to find duplicate photos on Mac. It helps you free up space on your Mac and hence helps improve the overall performance of your Mac.

As of one of the best duplicate photo finders available for Mac users, it’s very easy to use. When it finishes scanning, it will tell you about the amount of files scanned and duplicates found as well as the storage space that will be freed up.

Pros Supports pictures, videos and music Filters for file size and extension Multiple scanning modes and sorting options Can find a large number of duplicates Easy to use Cons Can’t preview side-by-side A bit expensive compared with other duplicate photo finders for Mac

#3 Duplicate Photo Cleaner

Duplicate Photo Cleaner is designed to find duplicate and similar photos on macOS. By looking for similarities in different photos and images, it can locate duplicates quickly.

Duplicate Photo Cleaner supports JPG, PNG, TIFF, RAW and other common image formats. It is easy to use with a simple and modern interface and provides two scan modes to find duplicate photos on Mac. Despite being a little pricey, it’s a decent tool to find duplicate photos on Mac.

The interface is simple and very easy to understand, which helps make it one of the best duplicate photo finder tools for Mac. You can add folders to scan for duplicates by dragging and dropping or by clicking the Add Folders button. Before scanning, you can exclude file formats, specify file size and adjust the similarity rate.

Pros Simple, easy to use interface Can find both duplicate and similar photos Supports various image formats Multiple removal options Cons Has problems scanning a whole hard drive A bit costly

#4 PhotoSweeper

Here’s another duplicate photo finder for Mac that we think is worth recommending. As the name PhotoSweeper suggests, it’s designed for dealing with photos. This tool can find duplicate as well as similar photos on Mac. In addition to allowing users to find duplicates in Photos or iPhoto library, it also supports external storage devices. PhotoSweeper moves duplicate photos to the Trash where you can permanently delete or restore them.

There are to ways to add folders for scanning. The scanning is a bit slow when compared with other best duplicate photos for Mac. Click Compare, and the What to Find dialog box will appear, providing a number of settings and options. Under Duplicate Files, you can adjust how this tool matches filename. Under Similar Photos, you can customize Matching Level and select comparison mode.

Pros Supports photos and videos Compatible with Photos, iPhoto, etc. Supports external storage devices Cons Requires learning curve to utilize its features

#5 Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro

You can use this duplicate photo finder for Mac to easily find duplicate pictures in folders and Photos (iPhone) app on your Mac. In addition, it also has the ability to detect images that are almost identical. It also supports other platforms including Windows.

The interface is loaded with settings and options, which seems a bit overwhelming for new users. By default, this duplicate photo finder will look for similar photos in the chosen folders on your Mac. If you only need to find files that are exactly the same, then go to the upper right corner and select the option Exact Match. To set minimum file size for scanning or exclude specific file formats, just go to the top menu bar, select Preferences and click Filter & Sort.

Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro excels at detecting the similarity between images. Also, it scans fast. However, it’s not that good when it comes to preview. The Preview window is too small for you to see the details of a photo. Also, there isn’t a zoom option. Despite this drawback, its fast scanning and great ability to find identical images still make it one of the best duplicate photo finder tools.

Pros Fast scanning Supports all common image formats Can also find similar photos Multiple filtering options Cons Poor preview performance

#6 Photos Duplicate Cleaner

Photos Duplicate Cleaner a free-to-use duplicate photo finder Mac users can install and use. It helps you effectively manage and organize the photo collection on your Mac by finding duplicate photos and removing them safely in a few clicks. This duplicate photo finder for macOS scans for duplicate photos from a selected drive or folder on your Mac. It will delete all duplicate copies while keeping the original one.

The process to scan and compare photos will be very slow if there are a lot of photos in the selected folders. Please be patient in a case like this. Once the process is finished, you can preview and remove duplicates as you wish. If the preview feature isn't useful enough to you, you can right-click a photo and click Open to open it in Preview.

Pros Displays all relevant information about a photo Supports iPhoto and Photos library Adjustable similarity level Cons Slow scan when dealing with a large group of photos Unresponsive “delete” button

#7 dupeGuru

dupeGuru is a duplicate file finder to find duplicate files like music files and pictures on your computer. It is one of the best known duplicate file finders ever. It can scan either file names or contents. The filename scanning mode uses a fuzzy matching algorithm that can find duplicate file names even when they are not exactly the same.

This open-source, free duplicate photo finder for Mac offers enough basic and advanced options to meet most photo deduplication needs. Despite being free, it's versatile and easy to use.

Note: dupeGuru is currently discontinued and not maintained. If you still want to use it, you can download the software from its official website or Github.

Pros Easy to use Offers three scanning modes Supports real-time scanning results Cons Discontinued, not optimized for Catalina (and upcoming macOS versions) No instant preview available

Conclusion

Why do I have duplicate photos on my Mac? There can be different reasons. Regardless of the cause, it’s a good idea to get rid of them. This article lists the top 7 duplicate photo finders Mac that have been popular and well liked in 2019 and 2020 so far. They can help you remove the unnecessary copies of the same photos. Some of them can even find similar images with customizable similarity measure. Give the best duplicate photo finder a try, delete the duplicate photos on your Mac with ease, and make more room for your new pictures!