How to find and delete duplicate files on Mac
Duplicate files can be a real pain – not only do they clutter your Mac and make important files much more difficult to find, but they also use up your storage space unnecessarily. However, no matter how organized you are with your files and folders, duplicates are bound to appear one way or another. If you find that the time has come to clear out all duplicates on your Mac, there are a few different ways you can do this, either manually or through duplicate sorting apps.
Why do I get duplicates?
You may be surprised how many duplicate files are stored on your Mac without you even noticing. They are especially difficult to spot if they are located in different folders. There are plenty of reasons for this happening, however, the most common ones include:
- Accidentally downloading the same file twice from the internet or email (either by double-clicking the download button or by forgetting you already have the file);
- Making multiple back-ups on the same device;
- Transferring the same photos, videos, or music from one device to another multiple times;
- Creating file copies accidentally;
Searching for duplicates manually
While it is a very time-consuming task, you can absolutely find and delete duplicate files on your Mac manually. Using the Smart Folders feature in your Finder is perhaps the easiest way. Smart Folders allow you to search files by a specific category, such as date, title, file type, etc. Duplicate files will likely have the same titles with an automatically added version number at the end. For example, a duplicate for “document.pdf” may be called “document (1).png”. Duplicates are also highly likely to be created on the same day as the original files, so keep an eye on the dates of the files too. Image and video files are perhaps the easiest when looking for duplicates, as you can look at the image thumbnails rather than titles.
Some people may also use the Mac Terminal function to locate duplicate files using the “find ./ -type f -exec md5 {} \; | awk -F ‘=’ ‘{print $2 “\t” $1}’ | sort | tee duplicates.txt” command. While this can often be a quicker way to find and delete duplicates, it also requires a bit more technical skill to understand how the Terminal commands work. Either of these methods will do the job, however, they’re far from ideal as you will be guaranteed to spend hours on this tedious task.
Using duplicate sorting apps
A much easier and quicker way to find and delete duplicate files is by using dedicated duplicate sorting apps. What these apps essentially do is scan your Mac thoroughly and present you with a list of files that are duplicated, which then can be simply deleted in bulk. Most of these apps support different file types and even work with various storage types (e.g. your external cloud or external hard drive).
There are dozens of duplicate sorting apps available, each offering different functionality. Some of them are free and some may have a small fee. If you are looking for one, some of the best apps to check out are Gemini 2, dupeGuru, Duplicate Sweeper, Disk Drill, and Easy Duplicate Finder.
