How To Delete Duplicate Files On Mac For Free

Using Finder to Find and Delete Duplicate Mac Files. If you would rather avoid installing a third-party app, use Finder to find and delete duplicate Mac files instead. This method is incredibly time-consuming and can lead to more mistakes, but it doesn’t risk your security.

Let Gemini delete the duplicate files on its own. But for files you do care, click on the triangle icon next to the file name in the middle pane. This will reveal a drop down menu that will list the path of the all matched duplicate files. Click on all the other versions of the file and you’ll see a preview in the right. Get more free disk space by removing unnecessary duplicate files and folders from your Mac. Remove duplicate files on any mounted disk or folder. Use Duplicate File Finder FREE to find and remove duplicate files. Get the PRO version to delete duplicate folders, merge similar folders, mass select duplicates and more.

/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:

  1. 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.
  2. Once the scanning process is complete, have a view of all duplicates.
  3. 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.

  1. Launch Finder and type terminal for it to bring out the Terminal Tool.
  2. Select a folder that you want to clean its duplicates and locate them with a cd command in Terminal.
  3. 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'.
  4. 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:

  1. Launch Finder on Mac.
  2. Click File from the Apple menu, then select New Smart Folder.
  3. Click the Plus button beside Save and you can begin to search files by choosing parameters like Kind, Date, Name, Contents, or others.
  4. 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.

Find Duplicate Files On Mac

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.

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Comment ()

Karlier2019-09-10 18:01:06

How To Remove Duplicate Files On Mac Free

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

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

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Intelligently select duplicate files automatically, and you can choose to remove the newest or oldest files. Check the duplicate files with different categories, sort the duplicates by size, name, count, and type and search file by keywords.

Windows 8's built-in search function is pretty good at finding individual files and all the other files that share the same name. However, it does not do a good job of clearly flagging identical files, and doesn't sport a feature that only returns duplicate files and makes them easy to clean up. You can instead use a third-party duplicate file scanning program to find identical files on an external hard drive without having to search through folders.

Using Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

  • 3: CloneSensor; CloneSensor is a very different duplicate file finder with a view to organizing the collections of files.It has ultra fast searching speed with optimized algorithm and provides many batch processing commands to find and delete duplicate files.
  • Select Files to Remove: If this doesn’t give you enough info, click the magnifying glass button beneath a duplicate to open its folder in Finder, to help you determine which version, or versions.
1.

Download, install and run Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (link in Resources).

2.

Put a check mark next to the external hard drive on the Disk Drives tree list. You can also put a check mark next to any other hard drives you want to compare files with.

3.

Click the 'Look for all file types' radio button to search for all files, or select the 'Look for these file types only' option, and then select the individual file types if you're looking for media and program duplicates.

4.

Click 'Search' and wait for the process to complete.

5.

Check the box next to any file you want to delete from the list of sorted duplicate files.

6.

Click 'Delete Selected Files' to send duplicate files to the recycling bin.

Using Duplicate Cleaner Free

1.

Download, install and run Duplicate Cleaner Free (link in Resources).

3.

Select the external hard drive from the Available Folders tree list, and then click the arrow to add it to the search area. You can also add any other hard drives or folders at this step.

4.

Click the 'Scan Now' button and wait for the scan to complete.

5.

Click on the 'Duplicate Files' tab to see the duplicate files listed and grouped together.

6.

Check the box next to any files you want to delete, and then click the 'File Removal' button.

7.

Check the button next to 'Delete to Recycle Bin,' click 'Delete Files,' and then select 'Yes' at the prompt window to remove duplicate files.

Using Fast Duplicate File Finder

1.

Download, install and run Fast Duplicate File Finder (link in Resources).

3.

Freddie mac cash for keys program. Check the external hard drive on the Browser For Folders tree list. You can also select any other hard drives you want to compare files with. Click 'OK.'

4.

Click 'Start Scan' and wait for the scan to finish.

5.

Check the box next to any files you want to delete from the duplicates listing, and then click the 'Delete Checked Files' button to delete duplicates.

Easyfind mac duplicates

Tips

  • Duplicate files can amass a large amount of space on a hard drive, so removing them is a good way to free up space.
  • Duplicate file finding programs can scan multiple drives at once, letting you eliminate duplicate files that exist on separate drives.
  • All three of the example programs let you move duplicate files to a different location as opposed to deleting them. You can use this functionality to double-check the files before deleting them.

Delete Duplicate Files On Mac

Resources (3)

Check For Duplicate Files On Computer

About the Author

How To Delete Duplicate Files On Mac For Free

Dan Stone started writing professionally in 2006, specializing in education, technology and music. He is a web developer for a communications company and previously worked in television. Stone received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and a Master of Arts in communication studies from Northern Illinois University.

Photo Credits

  • Siri Stafford/Digital Vision/Getty Images
Cite this Article
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Stone, Dan. 'How to Find Duplicate Files on an External Hard Drive Without Searching Folders.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/duplicate-files-external-hard-drive-searching-folders-69868.html. Accessed 06 September 2019.
Stone, Dan. (n.d.). How to Find Duplicate Files on an External Hard Drive Without Searching Folders. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/duplicate-files-external-hard-drive-searching-folders-69868.html
Stone, Dan. 'How to Find Duplicate Files on an External Hard Drive Without Searching Folders' accessed September 06, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/duplicate-files-external-hard-drive-searching-folders-69868.html
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Duplicate files are a waste of disk space, consuming that precious SSD space on a modern Mac and cluttering your Time Machine backups. Remove them to free up space on your Mac.

There are many polished Mac apps for this — but they’re mostly paid software. Those shiny apps in the Mac app store will probably work well, but we have some good options if you don’t want to whip out your credit card.

Gemini and Other Paid Apps

Mac Duplicate File Finder

If you do want to spend money on a duplicate-file-finder app, Gemini looks like one of the best options with the slickest interfaces. The trial version worked well for us, and the interface certainly stands out from barebones, free applications like dupeGuru. Gemini can also scan your iTunes and iPhoto library for duplicates. If you’re willing to pay $10 for a better interface, Gemini seems like a good bet.

Mac

There are other, similarly polished duplicate-file-finders in the Mac App Store, too — but Apple flags this one as an Editors’ Choice, and we can see why.

As a bonus, the demo version of Gemini allows you to search for and find duplicates, but not remove them. So, if you really wanted, you could use the demo to find duplicates on your Mac, locate them in Finder, and then remove them by hand. Other paid duplicate-file-finder apps have demos that function in a similar way, so this may be convenient if you just want to run an occasional scan and you don’t mind deleting a handful of duplicates by hand.

There are many good-quality, paid duplicate-file-finding apps for Mac. You can find them with a quick trip to the Mac App Store.

dupeGuru, dupeGuru Music Edition, and dupeGuru Pictures Edition

RELATED:10 Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive

How To Delete Duplicate Files On Mac For Free Download

We also recommended dupeGuru for finding duplicate files on Windows. This application is both open-source and cross-platform. It’s simple to use — open the application, add one or more folders to scan, and click Scan. You’ll see a list of duplicate files, and you can select them and easily move them to the Trash or another folder. You can also preview them, verifying that they actually are duplicates before tossing them away.

/mac-change-program-default-for-file-type/. dupeGuru is available in three different flavors — a standard edition, an edition designed for finding duplicate music files, and an edition designed for finding duplicate pictures. These tools won’t just find exact duplicates, but should find the same songs encoded at different bitrates and the same picture resized, rotated, or edited.

Free

This application is utilitarian, but it does its job well. You don’t get the shiny interface that you do with the paid Mac apps, but it’s a good free tool for finding and clearing duplicate files. If you want a free application for finding and removing duplicate files on a Mac, this is the one to use.

iTunes

iTunes has a built-in feature that can find duplicate music and video files in your iTunes library. It won’t help with other types of files or media files not in iTunes, but it can be a quick way to free up some space if you have a big media library with duplicate files.

To use this feature, open iTunes, click the View menu, and select Show Duplicate Items. You can also hold the Option key on your keyboard and then click the Show Exact Duplicate Items link. This will only show duplicates with the same exact name, artist, and album.

After you click this, iTunes will show you a sorted list of duplicates next to each other. You can go through the list and delete any duplicates from your computer if they actually are duplicates you want to delete. When you’re done, click View > Show All Items to get back to the default list of media.

That’s it? Yup, that’s it. We didn’t want to recommend potentially confusing Terminal commands that output a list of duplicates to a text file, awkward methods that involve scrolling through a list of all the files on your Mac in the Finder, or applications that require disabling the Mac’s Gatekeeper feature to run untrusted binaries. The tools above will do the job, whether you want a barebones-and-free utility or a polished-but-paid application.

Find Duplicate Files On My Computer

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