WhatsApp andother communication appshave lots of content for doomscrolling onmobile tabletsand phones. It’s common to download the same pictures multiple times from them. But editing and sharing are tricky because you’re dealing with mixed-up copies. If you aren’t careful, you might accidentally delete the wrong ones. You’ll have to browse and select the files for deletion one by one to avoid mistakes.
Wiping the extra photo copies from your file manager or gallery app is quicker. Plus, it avoids unnecessary costs when Google Photos is your main photo management app. It shares the 15GB storage space across Photos, Drive, Gmail, and other applications. Exceed this limit, and you’ll pay for additional storage. Here’s a detailed tutorial on how to remove unwanted duplicate photos.
How to remove duplicate photos from your gallery app
Google Photosis your device’s cloud-based storage service. It provides smart organization, editing tools, and facial recognition, among other features. It lacks a built-in feature for removing duplicate files, but there’s a tool that removes copies you backed up. This way, you have more room to save new media on the device. If you haven’t saved any images in the cloud, you won’t see the option to free up space.
Meanwhile, Samsung Galaxy smartphones have the Gallery app. It can detect excessive pictures and offer suggestions to clean them up. Unlike Photos, which is a universal Android app, Gallery only exists for Samsung users. Here’s how to use both apps to remove duplicate files.
Remove duplicate images in Google Photos
Remove duplicate images in Samsung Gallery
How to remove duplicate photos with your file manager
Your Android phone has a file manager app for organizing directories in its internal and external storage. Typically, all pictures should be in the Digital Camera Images (DCIM) folder. The file path may vary depending on the app you use. The default one on Google Pixels and select Android devices running the near-stock version is Files by Google (formerly Google Files). Samsung My Files is exclusively for Galaxy devices. Use both to clear duplicate pictures from your device with the following steps.
Remove duplicate photos with Files by Google
If you don’t see theDuplicate filescard, you may not have excess image copies or the app hasn’t detected them yet. Give it some time and try again, or use alternative methods.
Remove duplicate photos with Samsung My Files
How to remove duplicate photos with third-party apps
There are manythird-party file managersand duplicate photo removers on the Google Play Store. You’ll find them by searching for “duplicate photo cleaner” or related keywords. You can also download apps on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computers and connect to your phone with USB cables.
Such apps scan your internal storage or hard drive to identify duplicates. Be mindful of your privacy and security when installing them. Read the reviews within the store and from experts online. Although the Play Store is generally safe to shop apps from, malicious programs manage to sneak past its detection.
Also, most of these apps contain ads. They may even offer ridiculous pricing for premium features like bulk deletion, cloud storage integration, and ad removal.
Apple devices can also remove duplicate content
Manual selection is effective in removing photo duplicates, but it’s time-consuming. The above steps should help you rid your Android device of photo copies. One best practice to avoid deduplication is to periodically check for and remove them. They tend to come back over time.
If you’re not an Android owner, you’lluse different methods on Apple devicesbecause of the varying operating systems and apps. On your iPhone or iPad, Apple Photos helps you find similar images and merge or delete them permanently.
