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[2024 Guide] How to Delete Duplicate Photos in Google Photos
Why do I have duplicate photos in Google Photos? Is there a way to delete duplicate photos in Google Photos? Read this guide to find the answers.
By Lena / Updated on December 28, 2023
Is There a Way to Delete Duplicate Photos in Google Photos?
I recently switched phones (Samsung S5 to iPhone 8). All of my photos from my Android phone were back up in google photos, and when I switched to the iPhone I noticed that duplicates were also created in google photos.
What would I need to do to get rid of the duplicates (sometimes there's even 3 or 4 copies) of these photos in google photos? I'm trying to find and delete duplicate photos without taking them out one by one.
- Question from Google Community
Google Photos is one great cloud service to help us backup photos on iPhone and Android. Not only can we upload photos from multiple devices, but we can also access them on different devices. However, when you browse through the uploaded photos, you find a lot of duplicate photos. These duplicate photos are useless except for taking up space. This guide will tell you how to delete duplicate photos in Google Photos to free up space for more pictures.
Why Are There Duplicate Photos in Google Photos?
In fact, Google Photos has one feature called “identical duplicate detection” that can prevent repeated uploads of the same images. Every image has a unique “hash code” and Google will check the hash code of each image to ensure one picture will not be uploaded twice. If a photo has been uploaded to Google Photos, then it will skip that photo and check the next one.
● However, if you make any changes to the image. For example, cropping, adding stickers, copying and pasting, the hash code will change. The new file may be almost identical to the original file, but because the hash code is different, Google will think it is another photo. If there is a slight difference, Google Photos will treat them as different photos and upload them both.
● In addition, bugs or glitches will also cause duplicate photos in Google Photos. When you upload photos from a different device or enable the “backup & sync” feature, it may upload a picture that is already in the cloud because these two pictures have slightly different metadata.
● If you set up Google Drive to sync with Google Photos, you will also see duplicate photos that were already in the library. You can go to Settings of Google Photos and check if you have the sync option turned on.
To avoid duplicate photos in Google Photos, you can choose to stop the sync with Google Drive or delete duplicate photos on iPhone, Android phone and computer.
How to Delete Duplicate Photos in Google Photos
Although Google Photos works to avoid uploading duplicate photos, it doesn't recognize subtle differences between images, after all, the algorithm is not perfect. You can find and delete duplicate photos in Google Photos by yourself.
So far, there is no automatic way to find duplicate images in Google Photos or any other cloud storage services. Duplicate photo cleaners can only help you find duplicate photos stored locally. If you are using Backup and Sync app on computer, you may go to the next part to see how to find duplicate photos on that folder.
Steps to Find and Delete Duplicate Photos in Google Photos
You can take advantage of the Search feature to delete duplicate photos in Google Photos. Although you can not delete all duplicate photos at once, you can find duplicate photos quickly.
Google Photos will analyze all your photos and classify them according to Google's algorithm. For example, if you want to find photos taken at the beach during a trip, you can simply search for a keyword like “beach”, then it will show all the pictures related to the beach.
1. If you are on a computer, open a browser and go to the website of Google Photos; If you are on an iPhone or Android phone, open Google Photos app.
2. Tap the search bar and enter what you want to find, people, pets, things, places.
3. It will list all similar-looking images according to your keywords > Select the pictures you want to delete and move them to the trash bin.
- ★Tips:
- These deleted photos will also be removed from other devices or from their shared locations.
- Photos that have been moved to the trash will stay there for 60 days, during which time you can recover photos that have been deleted by mistake.
How to Delete Duplicate Photos on Android, iPhone and Computer
One of the reasons why there are duplicate photos in Google Photos is because there are duplicate photos on the device. In order to get the best one, you will try to take multiple shots, which will result in many duplicate photos and those duplicate photos will upload to Google Photos.
The duplicate photos will not only occupy the phone memory but also the cloud storage space. You can try to delete duplicate photos on Android phone, iPhone or computer to free up space as well as avoid duplicate photos in Google Photos.
One PC-based iOS data management tool called FoneTool can do you a favor. Its Photo Deduplication feature will scan your Android phone, iPhone, or computer and find all duplicate/similar photos based on photo contrast technique. You can delete all duplicate photos at once.
Steps to Delete Duplicate Photos on Android
1. Download, install and launch FoneTool. If you want to find duplicate photos on iPhone or Android phone, please connect them to computer via USB cable.
2. Choose Toolbox > Photo Deduplication.
3. If you want to delete duplicate photos on iPhone, please choose Scan iOS Device; If you want to delete duplicate photos on Android phone and computer, you should choose Scan Computer. Here we choose the latter.
4. Click Add Folder to select your Android device and click Start scanning.
5. Select the unwanted photos and click Delete button to remove duplicate photos. Or you can choose the Migrate to button to move photos to computer.
FoneTool is one professional iOS data manager, if you are an iPhone user, you can let it help you backup iPhone or transfer photos, videos, music, messages between iPhone and computer/external hard drive/flash drive without effort.
Final Words
That’s all about how to delete duplicate photos in Google Photos. There is no way to delete all duplicate photos at once but you can quickly find duplicate photos via the Search function.
To avoid Google Photos uploading duplicate photos, you can rely on FoneTool to help you delete duplicate photos on your mobile phone and computer.