- Once the scan is over, click Duplicate Files from the left pane. Step 8) In the right pane, find all the duplicate files. Keep one and remove all duplicate files. Use SpeedUp Mac to remove duplicate files from Mac for free with a click of a button. Furthermore, schedule the cleanup task at an explicit time to automate the.
- Sep 09, 2021 Description. Our website provides a free download of Duplicate File Finder Remover 6.14.4 for Mac. Our built-in antivirus scanned this Mac download and rated it as virus free. This free software for Mac OS X was originally created by Nektony Limited. The application belongs to System Tools.
- Best Free Duplicate File Remover
- Best Free Duplicate File Remover
- Best Free Duplicate File Remover Mac
- Freeware Duplicate File Remover
Find and Remove Duplicates
DupeGuru (Free) dupeGuru is an open source duplicate file finder Mac, Windows, and Linux users can download, install, and use completely free of charge. Thanks to its quick fuzzy matching algorithm, dupeGuru is highly efficient and capable of discovering hundreds of duplicates in a very short amount of time.
The bad news is that duplicate files are eating up space on your Mac potentially causing your Mac to slow down and perform poorly. The good news is that there is an easy way to get rid of duplicate files with just a couple of clicks. The easy way is to use the best duplicate file finder for Mac.
There are a number of apps to find and delete the duplicate photos, videos, music files, documents and other types of duplicate files on a Mac. They vary in performance, ease of use and more. In this article, you will find a list of them along with a review for each.
What makes a reliable duplicate file finder for Mac?
Capability of identifying duplicate files
A duplicate file finder is an app designed to detect duplicate files. Such apps use particular algorithms to compare files and identify the duplicates. Different apps may use different algorithms. For example, the algorithm PhotoSweeper uses can only handle images, resulting in its inability to find other types of duplicates. Easy Duplicate Finder uses SHA-256, which is a bit slow. Cisdem Duplicate Finder uses a combination of algorithms, leading to high performance in the detection of various types of duplicate files.
Safe support for Photos and iTunes (now Music)
Unlike on Windows where photos and music files are stored in normal folders, the photos and songs on your Mac are typically stored in Photos Library (managed via Photos app) and iTunes Media (managed via iTunes app) respectively. The fact is that many duplicate file finders for Mac will consider Photos Library and iTunes Media normal folders when searching for duplicates in the two places. As a result, they will damage your library or cause the loss of files or related data. To safely delete these duplicates, you need to use an app designed for Photos and iTunes.
There are other criteria to consider. The two ones above are the most important.
The best duplicate file finders for Mac
#1 Cisdem Duplicate Finder
Compatibility: macOS 10.10 or later, including Big Sur
Cisdem Duplicate Finder is the best of its kind due to its high performance, safety, ease of use, etc.
Thanks to the advanced algorithms it uses, the app can quickly identify true duplicate files by content and find duplicate photos, audios, videos, Word documents, PDFs, presentations, archives and other types of duplicate files on your Mac and external storage devices (e.g., external hard drives, SD cards and more). It also finds near-duplicate photos, which is a plus for making the app a great duplicate photo finder for Mac.
Designed for Photos and iTunes, Cisdem Duplicate Finder will scan your Photos Library or iTunes Media, display the found duplicates for you to view, and remove the unwanted duplicates from within the Photos app or iTunes app with your permission, just like a human would when removing photos or songs. Your Photos Library and iTunes Media will be safe and unaffected except being duplicate-free.
Once the app finishes scanning Photos, iTunes or Mac folders for duplicate files, it will display the detected duplicates in its results window for you to easily view and preview. What’s more, its smart Auto-Select feature will automatically select duplicates for you to mass delete with a single click. Click the Delete button, and now all dupes are gone! If not satisfied with auto-selection, you can manually select or use the selection rules provided.
Pros
- Quickly find all types of duplicate files on Mac based on content
- Also find near-duplicate images
- Support Mac and external storage devices
- Safely remove duplicates from Photos, iPhoto, Music and iTunes
- Come with 3 preview modes, including a side-by-side mode
- Provide a smart Auto-Select feature and up to 8 selection rules
- Offer 3 deletion methods, including Move to Trash
- Support Apple silicon
#2 Gemini 2
Compatibility: macOS 10.10 or later
In addition to the best duplicate file finder for Mac, there are other great apps available to help rid your Mac of duplicate files. Gemini 2 is one of them. People are often impressed by how good looking the app is. But a beautiful interface can only be the cherry on top. What’s important is the ability to find duplicate files on a Mac.
The app supports finding the double files in normal folders, iTunes and Photos and is capable of detecting duplicate photos, duplicate audios, duplicate documents and some other types of duplicates. It does a good job of deleting duplicate files in folders even the large ones. But it occasionally fails to work when scanning a big Photos Library. In such a case, try to re-scan.
Best Free Duplicate File Remover
In February 2021, Gemini 2 introduced the Duplicates Monitor feature aiming to better help users get rid of duplicate files by notifying users when new duplicates appear. The feature does what it’s designed for. But it uses lots of CPU and may slow down your Mac.
Pros
- Comes with a beautiful interface
- Scan your Mac for various types of duplicate files
- Support Photos and iTunes
- Let users directly preview files within the app
- Provide an innovative Duplicates Monitor feature
Cons
- Incompatible with macOS 10.9 or earlier
- Expensive
#3 Tidy Up 5
Compatibility: macOS 10.12 or later
Designed by Hyperbolic for “pro users” (as advertised), Tidy Up 5 is a good duplicate file finder for Mac for experienced users. Inexperienced users may find its interface overwhelming and confusing.
Supporting all popular file types such as images, Tidy Up 5 can detect and delete the duplicate files in Mac’s folders and Photos. Although the app offers an option to scan iTunes for duplicate items, it does a poor job. In the test, it failed to find any duplicates, which do exist, in my iTunes.
The app comes with two modes: Simple mode and Advanced mode. New users can start with the simple one. Both modes offer an array of scan options and criteria. Each scan for duplicates requires (at least) a little configuration. Compared to the other best Mac duplicate file finders talked about above, this one is less easy to use.
Pros
- Search for a variety types of duplicate files on Mac
- Find and delete duplicates in Apple Photos on Mac
- Provide 2 modes for users to choose from
- Highly customizable
- Support hard links
Cons
- Don’t support macOS 10.11 or earlier
- Not good at finding duplicates in iTunes
- Not that user-friendly
#4 Easy Duplicate Finder for Mac
Compatibility: macOS 10.6 or later
Easy Duplicate Finder is available for both macOS and Windows. Highly compatible, it works well on a Mac running Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave or High Sierra or even an earlier version.
Its wizard-style interface is simple to navigate and use, guiding users through the whole process of the identification and removal of duplicate files, which is especially helpful for novice users.
This piece of file deduplication software can scan your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or iMac, etc. for duplicate songs, duplicate photos and more. When the scan is complete, it will give you two options: using Auto Remove to immediately eliminate duplicates or using Manual Review to view duplicates and then remove the unwanted ones. The latter allows you to examine the files you are handling and deleting and is more reliable.
The app excels at looking for the duplicates in iTunes and normal folders. However, when searching for duplicate photos in Mac Photos app, it will return no results or false positives. If you allow it to deduplicate, your Photos Library will get damaged.
Pros
- Capable of detecting common types of file duplicates
- Support iTunes
- Provide an Auto Remove feature for quick duplicate removal
- Very user-friendly interface
Cons
- Relatively slow scan
- Poor support for Mac’s Photos
- A bit expensive
#5 Duplicate Detective
Compatibility: macOS 10.7 or later
This Mac duplicate file finder and remover looks less sophisticated due to its unpolished interface. It actually does a fair job of scanning for and removing duplicate files on Mac.
You can use it to scan folders and Photos. However, it can’t identify all the duplicates in a given folder or library. Some dupes will be missing. And also, it can’t provide consistent performance. If you want to clean up duplicates in iTunes, this app won’t help. In the test, the duplicate songs it found didn’t even exist in my iTunes.
Pros
- Support all common file types
- Can find the duplicates in Photos on Mac
- Offer an option to create an alias when deleting duplicates
- Easy to use
- Lightweight
Cons
- Incapable of finding all duplicate files in a location
- Can’t work well with iTunes
#6 Duplicate Sweeper for Mac
Compatibility: macOS 10.8 or later
Duplicate Sweeper is another lightweight macOS duplicate file finder and deleter. The app’s minimal interface is easy to use and navigate. Its welcome screen provides users with brief usage instructions. Even someone who is completely inexperienced can easily use it.
The app can only delete duplicate files in the folders on a Mac. In other words, you can’t use it to weed out the duplicates in your Photos or iTunes. Therefore, it may not be desirable for Mac users. But it can be a choice to consider if the duplicate files on your Mac do reside in folders.
Pros
- Able to look for photo duplicates and other common types of duplicates
- Lightweight
- Ease-to-use interface
Cons
- Can’t identify the duplicates in iTunes and Photos
- Sometime fail to detect all dupes
- Limited customization
#7 dupeGuru for Mac (free)
Compatibility: macOS 10.12 or later
There are also free Mac apps available for the removal of duplicate files. What is the best free duplicate file finder for Mac? dupeGuru may be the answer.
dupeGuru is free to use and open source. There is some sort of maintenance, but the app hasn’t been properly updated for years. Therefore, there can be compatibility issues with newer macOS versions.
The freeware app comes with three modes: Standard, Music and Picture, allowing you to look for and delete duplicate pictures, duplicate music files and some others in folders on Mac. It’s not designed for Apple Photos and iTunes. Even though it allows you to scan Photos Library, its deduplication algorithm will damage your library and cause data loss.
Pros
- Completely free to use
- Open source
- Offer 3 modes to handle different types of duplicate files
- Fairly configurable
- Can find certain visually similar pictures
Cons
- Possible compatibility issues
- No support for Photos and iTunes
- Can’t find all dupes in the folder it scans
#8 Disk Drill for Mac (free)
Compatibility: macOS 10.12 or later
Disk Drill is actually a data recovery app, but it offers a feature called Find Duplicates. The feature is available in the free and paid versions of Disk Drill, which makes the app available as a free duplicate file finder.
You can find the feature in the sidebar under the Extra tools section. Like dupeGuru, this app can scan only folders for duplicates. To perform a scan, you need to add a folder and click the Start Scan button. There is no instant preview of duplicate files. To preview a duplicate, you need to click the eye icon next to it, which can cause inconvenience when it comes to image duplicates.
Pros
- Free to use
- Easy-to-understand interface
- Scan Mac folders for file duplicates
Cons
- Incapable of detecting all duplicate files
- Can’t scan Photos and iTunes
- Inconvenient preview
How to find and remove duplicate files on Mac with a duplicate file finder
I hope the list and reviews above are useful and helps you do a comparison so as to pick the app you need. This part will show you how duplicate removal software typically works.
1. Download and install the software. Open it.
2. Click the plus icon + to add a folder or drive. Click Scan.
3. Once it finishes scanning for duplicate files, you can view and preview the duplicates. It lets you view by file type.
4. Duplicates are already automatically selected for mass removal.
If not happy with auto-selection, you can select by hand. Or, highlight all items under the All tab with Command-A and then apply a desired selection rule.
5. Click Delete.
6. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. Now the unwanted duplicate files on your Mac are removed.
If you want to remove duplicates from Mac Photos app or iTunes app, it will require a couple of additional steps. Please see the official user guide for details.
By the way, you can also manually eliminate the file duplicates in Mac folders by using Finder’s Find function, which can be a time-consuming and tedious process. Alternatively, it’s possible to find duplicate files on Mac using Terminal, the terminal emulator coming with macOS. But stay away from Terminal if you don’t have some command line knowledge.
Conclusion
Removing duplicate files can help free up storage space, possibly making your Mac run faster. Also, it’s easier to manage files on a duplicate-free computer. The best duplicate file finder for Mac can help you effortlessly, effectively and safely root out duplicates from your Mac, no matter where they reside and how deep they hide. In addition, there are other great apps to consider.
Which duplicate file finder for Mac you are using?
/Duplicate Finder /Find Duplicate Files on Mac to Remove for Free
I found that there are many duplicate files on my mac. Do you have such a situation? How do I search for duplicate files Mac?
Yes, I have the same situation as you. And I used Duplicate Finder by iMyMac PowerMyMac to quickly find the duplicate file and delete them. You can try it. Next, Let me tell you how to find duplicate file with quick ways and how to delete all duplicate files on Mac.
Mac is one of the well-designed machines which has the ability to help you deal with either your work or in your everyday life. However, over the days that you use this, eventually, your system has a risk of going slow because more and more files are created. If this happens, it is then necessary for you to manage your files especially those duplicate files on your Mac. But how to find duplicate files on Mac?
Article GuidePart 1. Why Are There So Many Duplicate Files on My Mac?Part 2. How to Find Duplicate Files on Mac to Remove?Part 3. Conclusion
Part 1. Why Are There So Many Duplicate Files on My Mac?
Why is my Mac duplicating files? One of the reasons as to why you are running out of storage on your Mac computer is because of some Mac duplicate files. At some point, you might be over thinking if why is your Mac computer duplicating your files right? Well, there are actually many reasons for 'why does my Mac duplicate files' question:
One reason is that when you try to move a patch of images to your Mac and have them viewed in Photos App. When you do this, you are actually making two copies, one copy is moved to your folder and the other copy is in your photo library. And sometimes you need tools to locate these photos for you.
Another reason is when you tend to view your email attachments first before you download them. In some cases, once you try to open one of your email attachments, your Mail app automatically downloaded a copy of the file that is why you automatically have two copies of those attachments.
One more reason for having a duplicate file is that when you unknowingly download a photo of the file twice. And if you have tried before moving a file to your external drive without deleting the original copy, that is also one reason for duplicating it.
You can actually find duplicate files on your Mac computer manually. But if you do so, you will consume a lot of time just by sorting out thousands of duplicate files on your Mac computer and that could also be exhausting on your part. Never worry because we will show you the best and easiest ways on how you can find duplicate files on your Mac computer to remove.
Part 2. How to Find Duplicate Files on Mac to Remove?
'How do I find duplicate files on my Mac to delete?' You can find duplicate files like music, photos, videos, or documents by using your Terminal command or by using a specific duplicate file finder software for Mac computer. Either way can both work. But what is the best way to find duplicate files?
What Is the Best Duplicate File Finder for Mac?
Duplicate Finder by iMyMac PowerMyMac will be the best duplicate file finder software that you can use to find and remove duplicate files Mac that are stored on your Mac computer.
This duplicate finder can scan all your Mac folders like your Downloads, Documents, Desktop and it can detect your duplicate photos, videos, apps, documents and more all in just one click of a button. This software is a safe, well-designed and a user-friendly tool. It can scan your Mac computer and can display all your duplicate files.
Free Download and Try PowerMyMac to find duplicate files. Let your mac have the best life.
PowerMyMac can detect duplicate files not only a same name of the files but also by their size, the date it was created and their file type. The software also allows you to preview your files like your photos, documents so that you won't be able to mistakenly delete your important files. It can also clear your system caches and junk files. So, how to remove duplicate files on Mac? To use PowerMyMac in finding duplicate files Mac to remove just follow the steps below:
- Launch PowerMyMac and select 'Duplicate Finder'. Open the desired folder by choosing the path and then click the 'Scan' button for the program to check for duplicate files Mac.
- Once the scanning process is complete, have a view of all duplicates.
- Select all the duplicate files you want to remove. When you're done, just click on 'Clean' to delete all the selected duplicate files.
Find Duplicate File Using Terminal Command
Using Terminal Command can find duplicate files quickly. However, just to give you a headstart, this method is for those people who had barely used terminal before. It might mess up your Mac OS X if you enter the wrong command. Follow the steps below to use this method.
- Launch Finder and type terminal for it to bring out the Terminal Tool.
- Select a folder that you want to clean its duplicates and locate them with a cd command in Terminal.
- Copy this command (
find . -size 20 ! -type d -exec cksum {} ; | sort | tee /tmp/f.tmp | cut -f 1,2 -d ‘ ‘ | uniq -d | grep -hif – /tmp/f.tmp > duplicates.txt
) and then click 'Enter
'. - A file named
txt
. the duplicate will then be created in the folder that you have chosen earlier. You can find and delete duplicate files manually according to txt. file.
Using this method have an inconvenience side on your part because you will still manually locate and delete duplicate files Mac one by one. Searching using Terminal sometimes is not accurate in Mac.
Find Duplicate Files on Mac via Finder
You can use New Smart Folder in Finder to find duplicate files but you need to sort the files by Kind, Date, Name or Contents. This way may need your patience. Just follow the steps below:
- Launch Finder on Mac.
- Click File from the Apple menu, then select New Smart Folder.
- Click the Plus button beside Save and you can begin to search files by choosing parameters like Kind, Date, Name, Contents, or others.
- Once the searching results are displayed, you can right-click them and choose 'Move to Trash' to delete.
Part 3. Conclusion
So, with the shown methods above, now you know how to get rid of duplicate files on Mac. And PowerMyMac will still be highly recommended for you to find duplicate files and delete them. You can free try this software from the official website. It can locate and remove all your duplicate files, it can clean up your junk files and more.
Having the PowerMyMac installed on your Mac computer can be very handy because once you feel like your Mac is running slow or you feel like you have too much data stored on your Mac, you can just simply use it and get your computer clean up for you to experience a better speed like it was newly bought.
ExcellentThanks for your rating.
Rating: 4.6 / 5 (based on 74 ratings)
People Also Read:
PowerMyMac
A powerful all-in-one App for Mac
Free DownloadBest Free Duplicate File Remover
Karlier2019-09-10 18:01:06
Duplicate files make my Mac run slow, so I have to regularly check and delete duplicate files and, wasting time! It's time to have a smart tool to help me do that.
iMyMac2019-09-10 18:25:23
Thanks for your support! We have a free trail for Mac Cleaner, you can have a try first. If you have any questions while using this software, please contact us via iMyMac Supporter Email: support@imymac.com.
Jiminy2019-05-07 01:21:19
Best Free Duplicate File Remover Mac
Great ideas! Duplicate files are always a bother for me. But I don’t get a clear idea on how to do it on my own. So I will try your product to help me find duplicates and remove them. Your article explains this issue well.
iMyMac2019-05-08 10:03:33
Thanks for your support! We have a free trail for Mac Cleaner, you can have a try first. If you have any questions while using this software, please contact us via iMyMac Supporter Email: support@imymac.com.
Clean up and speed up your Mac with ease