How to Delete Duplicate Photos and Videos on iPhone in 2024

How to Delete Duplicate Photos and Videos on iPhone 1

Are duplicate photos and videos taking up your iPhone’s storage space? If you are a photography enthusiast, your phone has tons of photos of family moments, travels, and selfies. What if they also contain duplicate content?

No doubt. Your device storage will almost fill up.

Thankfully, Apple has also found a solution to this problem with iOS 16 update. It can identify duplicate photos and videos in your phone library, merge them, and clean up your storage.

Duplicate detection is a feature that helps you find and delete unwanted photos and save your precious time in media management. In this guide, we’ll tell you how it works.

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How to Find and Delete Duplicate Photos on your iPhone?

1. Open “Photos” on your iPhone

2. Scroll-down to the bottom to locate Albums. Open it.

3. Again, scroll-down through the screen to find Utilities > Duplicates.

4. Next, You will see all duplicate photos and videos with their captured date and file size.

5. Click on Merge to merge duplicate files. To manually select files, tap Select from the top and select all photos (mass delete) or multiple photos to merge.

Then, Apple will delete all duplicate files and keep the highest quality version only. The deleted photos will be moved to the Recently Deleted Album.

That’s it.

This method will work on iOS 16 and later versions only. It is available to download for devices starting from iPhone 8. If you are using an older iOS version, you should upgrade to the latest iOS 16 version before trying this method.

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FAQ

Does iPhone detect duplicate photos?

Yes, iPhone’s Photos app detect duplicate photos and videos in your media library. Tap Albums, then scroll down to locate Utilities. Click on Duplicates. It will display all your duplicate photos and videos. Click on Merge to keep the highest quality versions for each entry and delete others.

Where is duplicate photo option on iPhone?

Sometimes, you may want to duplicate a photo or video to edit or send it as email, text message, etc. Follow these steps to duplicate a media file on iPhone,
1. Open a photo or video.
2. Click three-dots icon.
3. Pick Duplicate option. Open library and a duplicate copy should appear next to the original now.

Can Apple Photos delete duplicates?

Apple will show duplicate photos and videos in Duplicates folder (Under Albums > Utilities). Click on Merge to delete low quality version and keep only high quality version for each entry on your phone.

Why can’t I find duplicates on my iPhone?

Open your phone library, then Albums and Duplicates under Utilities to find duplicate photos and videos. If you can’t find the Duplicate album, wait for some time. If you have a large media library it can take hours or days for the iPhone to find duplicate entries.

What is the shortcut to delete duplicate photos on iPhone?

Find Shortcuts app on your iPhone first. It allows you to create custom shortcuts and automate various tasks on your device. Tap ‘+’ icon from the top-right corner to add a new shortcut. Give it any name, For example, ‘Delete duplicate photos’.

Tap ‘Add action’ button. Choose ‘Find photos’ and filter photos by albums. ‘Duplicates’ in this example. Add action ‘Deete photos’. Confirm settings. Thereafter, you can automatically delete duplicate photos and videos by clicking on the new shortcut icon. It is also possible to ask Siri to perform this task.

Why did iPhone duplicate photos?

There are many reasons for duplicating iPhone photos. Multiple cloud services sync, iCloud sync issues, HDR photography, and multiple time downloads are common reasons for appearing duplicate photos on iPhone.