Deleting duplicate photos on your iPhone can free up valuable storage space and help you organize your photo library. Thankfully, iOS offers built-in features to easily identify and remove these duplicate images. This guide will walk you through the process of deleting duplicate photos on your iPhone.
iPhone showing duplicate photos
Identifying and Merging Duplicate Photos in the Photos App
Starting with iOS 16, Apple introduced a dedicated “Duplicates” album within the Photos app, making it incredibly simple to manage duplicate photos. Here’s how to access and use this feature:
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Open the Photos app: Launch the Photos app on your iPhone.
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Navigate to the Duplicates Album: Scroll down to the “Utilities” section and tap on the “Duplicates” album.
iPhone showing multiple photos selected in the Photos app
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Review and Merge: The Duplicates album displays sets of identical or very similar photos. Examine each set and decide if you want to merge them.
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Merge Duplicates: Tap “Merge” to combine a set of duplicates. The system intelligently keeps the photo with the highest quality and most relevant data. The other duplicates are moved to the “Recently Deleted” album. To merge multiple sets, tap “Select,” choose the sets you want to merge, and then tap “Merge.” You can also select all duplicates with “Select All.”
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Confirm Merge: A confirmation prompt will appear showing the number of items to be merged. Tap “Merge [Number] Items” to proceed.
Understanding the Merge Process
When you merge duplicate photos, your iPhone combines them into a single photo, retaining the best qualities of each. Here’s a breakdown:
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Highest Quality Retained: The merged photo preserves the highest resolution, best lighting, and most complete metadata from the duplicates.
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Data Consolidation: Relevant data like captions, keywords, and location information are combined into the merged photo.
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Duplicates Moved to Recently Deleted: The duplicate photos that are not kept are moved to the “Recently Deleted” album, where they remain for 30 days before being permanently deleted. You can recover them within that timeframe if needed.
Permanently Deleting Duplicate Photos
After merging duplicates, you can permanently delete the unwanted copies from the “Recently Deleted” album:
- Access Recently Deleted: In the Photos app, go to “Albums” and then scroll down to “Utilities.” Tap on “Recently Deleted.”
iPhone showing Delete Photo option
- Select and Delete: Select the photos you want to permanently delete. Tap “Delete” and confirm your choice. You can also delete all items in the “Recently Deleted” album. Remember, photos deleted from this album cannot be recovered.
Conclusion
Managing your iPhone’s photo storage is crucial, and deleting duplicate photos is an effective way to free up space. Utilizing the built-in Duplicates album in the Photos app offers a streamlined method for identifying, merging, and permanently deleting duplicate images, ensuring you retain the best versions of your precious memories while optimizing your device’s storage.
