How to Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone

Excess duplicate photos and videos on phones are simply a result of us not being satisfied with only one or two snaps and captures. And that results in duplicate photos and videos taking up unnecessary space, making it challenging to store essential items when needed the most. 

For a good person with photography skills, getting the perfect photo and videos with all the right angles and lighting is necessary. We always think that we will delete unwanted images later. But guess what? Most of us simply forget to do so. In the end, you find your phone loaded with unlimited snaps and reels. 

For android phone users, you must manually delete the duplicate ones in the storage. But suppose you have recently updated your phone. In that case, a feature notifies you of the exact photos and videos on the phone. You can make your selection and delete that is not needed. 

Nevertheless, iPhone users are getting a much better way to get rid of duplicate photos in storage. As the latest iOS 16 is reeling in, it has brought a ton of new upgrades to the built-in applications. One such valuable and much-needed feature upgrade is the Photos app. 

If you have already updated your iPhone to iOS 16, you can check it yourself. New operating system upgrades always bring an excellent experience to the users with better features and functions. A unique and additional feature to the Photos app, this time around, is the “Duplicates” folder. 

You may as well guess by the name itself what its purpose is. Every duplicate image and video on your iPhone will be separately stored in the Duplicates folder of the Photos app. If there are multiple copies of the same idea, it has the ability to merge them. If necessary, it can also remove all the duplicate ones, keeping only the best image, to save storage space on your iPhone. 

While there are other ways to remove duplicate content from your iPhone, let’s see how this new “Duplicate” folder in the Photos app works in iPhone s running on iOS 16. Suppose you think this is not the solution. In that case, you can always find and use a reliable Duplicate photo detection app for iPhone/iOS. 

How to delete duplicate images via the Photos app in iPhones running on iOS 16?

No doubt, iOS 16 has a lot of new things to offer to iPhone users. The built-in Duplicate folder is one of the most valuable additions to the Photos app. This folder will delete duplicate content in the Photos app in bulk or at a time. But you can always restore them from the recently deleted folder like before. 

The best thing about this feature is that it automatically selects and keeps the best image with the highest clarity and quality. In a way, it removes the other image versions that do not fit the best category. 

Here’s how you remove duplicate photos on iOS 16 iPhone. 

• Take your latest updated iOS 16 iPhone and open the “Photos” app.
• In the app, navigate to the “Albums” tab.
• Under the Albums section, find the “Duplicates” folder option.
• Inside the Duplicates folder, you can find the duplicate photos and videos starred on your iPhone.
• If you wish to merge multiple duplicated images, click on the” Select All” option followed by the “Merge Duplicates” option.
• Merging duplicates makes the removal process more straightforward.

Whether you merge duplicate photos or not, removing pictures and videos in the iPhone is easy. Just go to the top-right corner of the screen, select the images and click on the Delete button. 

Alternate ways to delete duplicate photos and videos in an iPhone

It is good if your iPhone is upgraded to iOS 16. But for those who haven’t, there are other alternative ways to eliminate duplicate content in the photos app. 

Manually delete duplicate images on iPhone.

We all have been following the manual prices to delete unwanted stuff and duplicate photos or videos from iPhones for a long time. So, there isn’t much to explain about it as it is self-explanatory. 

However, there are a few tricks to make this manual process quick and not tiresome while deciding what to keep or not. Check here:

• Open the Photos app on your iPhone and navigate to the “Library” section, followed by the “All Photos” option. That will display all the photos on your iPhone in chronological order. You can then see all the similar-looking images on the same page, making it easier to pick the duplicates when scrolling through.
• You can also sort your photos based on geographical locations, dates, and people.

After selecting the images you do not need, go to the trash can icon at the bottom of the screen and click on the “Delete Photo” option. 

Clear duplicate photos in an iPhone via third-party applications or programs.

Several third-party applications or programs for iPhone scan and remove duplicate photos and videos. Keeping the pictures of the highest quality, they remove blurry images, unclear object photos, similar images, and unwanted screenshots. One application we will discuss here is the Gemini Photos app for iPhones to clean all the cluttered storage spaces. 

The Gemini Photos app is downloadable from the Apple App Store. 

• Launch the app and scan the storage space.
• After a while, go to its “duplicates” category.
• Click on the images to review them.
• Select the pictures that you want to remove. Then, click on the “Delete Duplicates” option.
• Confirm this action by hitting the “Delete” button.

Even after you clear the duplicate images, they can be found in the recently deleted folder. To permanently eliminate them, you can do it in the Photos app. 

• Go to the Photos app > Albums > Recently Deleted > select the “Delete All” option.

All the duplicate content on your iPhone is now permanently deleted. 

Tips to prevent duplicate images in an iPhone

Since we got an insight on removing duplicate images and videos in an iPhone, here are a few tricks to prevent duplication altogether. 

• Many apps like Whatsapp and Facebook have auto-downloads enabled. Disabling this auto download function helps prevent multiple downloads of images and reels, resulting in duplicate content on the device.
• We always share memories with others by transferring the content via email or WhatsApp. Instead, you can use shared albums among iPhone users from the Photos app.
• If using Airdrop to transfer images, turn off the iCloud Photos. You may get a headache while removing duplicate photos if you do both.
• Apply only one technique to sync photos across all your devices. If you use both iCloud sync and Google photos sync, duplicate images will be everywhere.

Therefore, it is better to limit the application usage to only one.