Statistics window

If you want to see the statistics of types of duplicate files, in the menu bar, click View and select Overview.

You will see a window showing the size of the types of duplicates you have. You can choose to preview the details in either a bar chart or a pie chart.

Similar Folders

Duplicate File Finder allows you to find not only duplicate files and folders, but also Similar folders. Similar folders are nearly identical, and contain both duplicate and unique files. They are presented in a convenient way for you to quickly compare them and identify unneeded copies.

What are Similar Folders?

Imagine you have several folders on your Mac or drive that contain identical and unique files. In this case, these folders are not duplicates, as they keep different data. The folders on the screenshots below keep two duplicate files and one unique file. In the Duplicate File Finder program such folders are called similar folders.

Similar Folders

To see similar folders, switch to the Similar Folders tab from the sidebar.

Here you will find a visual representation of duplicates in two folders. The intersection of the two folders shows how many duplicates they have, while the other parts of the folders represent unique files.

Below the chart, you can see the list of copies and non-repetitive files. Please note that the app prevents the removal of unique files, so you don’t have to worry about unintentionally removing files you need to keep. You can select only identical files for removal.

If the folders keep mostly duplicates and only one or several unique files, then the visual view would be like in the screenshot example, where one folder is located inside another one.

Note, that one folder may have several similar folders at the same time.

Once you’ve decided from which folder you want to delete the duplicates, tick the checkbox near the appropriate folder.

Once you select all unneeded files, click Review to Remove in the bottom right corner. You will be switched to the preview screen of all selected duplicates. If you are sure you don’t need them anymore, do the last step – confirm by clicking the Remove button.

Duplicate Folders

Duplicate folders are folders that have identical content and keep the same duplicate files. Note that these duplicate files can have different names.

Take a look at the screenshots below. These folders contain duplicate files and no other data, so they are duplicate folders.

Before checking your Mac or any disk for duplicate folders, check if this option is turned on in the app’s settings.

1. Open Settings in Duplicate File Finder.
2. In the General tab, tick the checkbox for “Find duplicate folders.”
3. Scan your data for duplicate folders.

The application will shos duplicate folders in the appropriate tab of its window. Here, you can select all duplicate folders and remove them.

Please note that files inside duplicate folders are not displayed in the Duplicate Files section. So, when you remove duplicate folders, nothing changes in the Duplicate Files section.

Also, note that duplicate folders can contain other duplicate folders inside them. The application shows the folders of the top level of the directory only. It doesn’t display the inside duplicate folders.

Similar Media

Apart from finding absolutely identical photos and music by size and binary data, Duplicate File Finder also finds and displays similar photos and audio files.
If you like to take many pictures to get the best one, then you may have plenty of unnecessary similar photos. Here’s how to manage your similar photos, quickly sort them, organize them, and remove unwanted pics. The process of clearing unneeded similar audio files will be the same.

1. Switch to the Similar photos section from the sidebar.
2. Here, you will see photos grouped by similarity.



3. Review each group of similar photos and select unneeded ones. The different color frames indicate which photo from the list is displayed in the Preview section.
4. You can also use the Auto Select feature to automatically keep one picture in each group and select all other files.
   
5. Once you have selected all unwanted photos, click on Review to Remove and confirm their deletion.

Select Duplicates in Folders

If you have many duplicates, it might take a significant amount of time to review each file and select unneeded copies in a specific folder. That’s why Duplicate File Finder provides a special feature that will help you to complete this task much faster.
Go to the Select duplicates in folders tab.

You will see a new window with a list of your folders and detailed information about how many duplicate and unique files each of them has.

Here you can also preview the duplicate files. For this, click on the folder and you will see its content.

To select all duplicates in a specific folder, just mark the appropriate checkbox near the folder’s name. You will see how many duplicates were selected in this folder – the number is marked by red color in the second column.

If you want to allow duplicates to remain in a specific folder, you should click on the Star icon near its name. The Blue Star means that duplicates in this folder will be kept. Duplicate files in other folders will be selected for removal. The number of files to be kept is shown in the third column. So, if you want to select duplicates in a folder for removal – tick the checkboxes near the folder’s name.

If you want to keep all files in a folder, and select their duplicates in other folders – click the Star icon near the folder’s name.

If you don’t see checkboxes and star icons for selecting folders, this means that your scanned folders don’t have common duplicates.
The same will be true if you scan only one folder, all the found duplicates are inside this folder, and this folder doesn’t have subfolders.

There is one last step to remove all duplicates from a selected folder. All you need to do is to click the Review to Remove button. The application will let you preview the files once more and, if everything is in order, confirm your task by clicking the Remove button.

Note that when you remove duplicates in the “Select Duplicates in Folder” window, you can be assured that you will not remove all copies accidentally. At least one duplicate will be kept because the application makes it impossible to select all folders and duplicate copies.

Restore Removed Files

By default, the application moves all these files to the Trash when you remove duplicates with the application. If you accidentally removed some files and would like to restore them, follow the steps below.

1. Go to the Menu Bar → Duplicate → select Restore Removed Duplicates or use the Command+Y shortcut. Also, you can just click the Show Removal History button in the removal window.
   
2. Select the files you want to restore using the checkboxes for files and groups of files. Then click the Restore button.

Note, to be able to restore the duplicates, the option Log Removed Duplicates has to be enabled. You can check it in the Settings → Remove tab. Tick the checkbox for the “Log removed duplicates” option.

Also, note that if the duplicates are deleted from the Trash, you will not be able to restore them. It is only possible to restore files in the Trash folder or have duplicates in other folders. You can see next to each file name whether it is Restored, Restorable or Not Restorable.

In case you want to clear the removal history, right-click on any item in the left panel and choose Clear All History in the context menu.

How to find the original files of the previously removed duplicates

Usually, we have a lot of duplicates in different folders. That is why it can be challenging to remember where the original file is located. Fortunately, the Duplicate File Finder application can show you the original data of the previously deleted duplicate.

To manage this, you should open the Duplicate File Finder’s removal history. You will see the list of all deleted files grouped by the date of removal. Select the necessary file in your list and click on the icon called “Show Original file in Finder”.

This option will open the Finder window with the path to where the original file was stored.

Shortcuts

There are a lot of quick navigational shortcuts in the app that make your duplicate cleanup process even faster and easier.

General Navigation

Similar Media tab

Selecting the files

*This shortcut works only when the option to remove all duplicate copies is enabled.

Other Shortcuts

The algorithm for searching for duplicates

Before checking files for identity by their data, the algorithm for finding duplicate files uses the main characteristic – sizes of the files. This means that if two or more files have the same size, they are then compared by their data. The filename is not taken into account. Users often rename files, so identifying duplicates by name is not reliable. Furthermore, different files might often have the same name.

For example, If there are two identical files with img.png and myphoto.PNG, they will be displayed as duplicates. However, if two files differ from each other in size – even by one byte – they will not be displayed in the application.

With the app, you can find duplicate files in several folders or even hard disks per single session.

Removing and moving files

Sometimes you may get a message that the app cannot remove duplicate files or the folders cannot be merged. There are several reasons for this:

1. You are trying to remove files from an external drive which is mounted as Read Only. For example, you mount NTFS external disk and don’t have a special driver to make the disk writable on Mac. You should, therefore, install the necessary extension to allow the removal of the duplicates.
2. You are trying to remove files from the external volume that does not have the Trash folder as yet. By default, Duplicate File Finder moves files to the Trash. If no Trash folder has been created, the app does not have enough permission to remove a file. You should switch to the Finder window and from there remove any unneeded file on that external drive/volume. The Trash for external volume will then be created, after which Duplicate File Finder can remove identical files.
3. Your files might be locked. Check file permissions – select a file/ folder in the Finder, use CMD+I shortcut to verify the permissions.
4. Your files might be used by another application.

Read detailed guides on how to troubleshoot situations when removing duplicates or merging folders:

• Troubleshooting the issues when merging duplicates
• Troubleshooting the issues when removing duplicates
• Troubleshooting the issues when moving folders
• Troubleshooting the issues when restoring files
• How to troubleshoot issues when scanning and removing duplicates in Photos Library
• Duplicate File Finder skips scanning the Time Machine backups

Duplicates in Cloud storage

Duplicate File Finder can find duplicates on any disk and even in cloud storages.

Follow the guides below to learn how to download files from the most popular cloud storage and find duplicate files:

• Guide on how to delete duplicate files in iCloud
• Guide on how to delete duplicate files in OneDrive
• Guide on how to delete duplicate files in DropBox
• Guide on how to delete duplicate files in Google Drive

Duplicates in the Music library

Launching the Music app by Duplicate File Finder

Duplicate File Finder finds duplicate audio files in your Music library. If you usually keep your music files in the Music app, please enable the option “Open the Music app to synchronize detected duplicates in your Music library.” This will allow Duplicate File Finder to check whether these files are included in your Music Library and correctly process the removal of the duplicates.

For this, do the following:

1. Go to Duplicate File Finder’s Settings.
2. Switch to the Scan tab.
3. Mark the checkbox next to the “Open the Music app to synchronize detected duplicates in your Music library” option.*

Once you enable this option, Duplicate File Finder will check detected duplicates in your Music Library. Before doing this, it will show you a confirmation window to open the Music app.

Click Open Music to allow Duplicate File Finder to synchronize duplicates in Music Library.

In this window, you also can enable the option to Automatically launch the Music app when needed. For this, just mark the checkbox next to the appropriate option.

Grant access to the Music app

When Duplicate File Finder removes duplicates from the Music app, the Music library should automatically be updated; however, in some cases, you might face an issue. This can happen if you switched off access to the Music app for Duplicate File Finder.

You need to allow Duplicate File Finder to access the Music app to solve the issue.

Please follow the next steps to grant access and solve the issue:

1. Open System Settings → go to the Privacy & Security section.
2. Scroll down and click Automation in the right panel.
3. Enable the Music option for Duplicate File Finder.
4. Once you have granted access, go to Duplicate File Finder and click Open Music.

Autoselecting in Music Library

In the Duplicate File Finder Preferences → Auto Select tab, you can set up to automatically select duplicates in Music Library when using the Auto Select button. For this, just mark the checkbox for the “Select in Music Library” rule.

When you enable the “Select in Music Library” rule, you will see the following notification:

Thus, when using the Auto Select button for files in Music Library, don’t forget to open the Music app, or allow Duplicate File Finder to do this automatically.

Specify a folder for duplicate removal

Imagine you have two folders with with many duplicate files. You want to choose from which specific place to remove the duplicates and where to leave them untouched. In other words, you need to remove them from one folder but keep them intact in another. It may be inconvenient to go through each file and flag it manually. That’s why Duplicate File Finder provides you with the possibility of skipping this operation and making duplicate removal superfast and easy. There are two scenarios for this task:

Compare folders for duplicates with the Auto Select button

1. Launch Duplicate File Finder.
2. Open the app’s Settings and switch to the Auto Select tab.
3. Add folders from which you want to remove duplicates to the “Always Select in specified folders” list.
4. Add folders you in which want to keep files to the “Never Select” list.
5. When the scan is finished, click the Auto Select button. You will see the selected duplicate files in the specified folders. Review the selected files and click Review to Remove.

   

Compare folders for duplicates with the Context Menu

1. Choose the folders you want to scan and click Find duplicates.
2. After the scan has been completed, switch to the Duplicate Files tab, where you can preview the duplicates of all the file types. When you click on each file, you can see which folders contain them.
   
3. Right-click on the file from the path representation and call the context menu. Use the “Select All Copies in …” command for the specified file.
   

Compare two Macs for duplicates

Duplicate File Finder can help you even if you want to find duplicates between two Macs. For this, follow the steps below:

1. Connect your two Macs using Apple File Sharing. For this, go to the System Settings → General → Sharing.
2. Enable the File Sharing option.
3. You use the afp connection to have a more stable connection with the smb. For this, click the Options button to set it up there.
4. After this, you will be able to select the whole disk or some folders from another Mac you want to compare.
5. Now open the Duplicate File Finder application and add folders from the local Mac and the connected one. Click to find duplicates. Please note, if you select the whole disk, the scanning process could be very long.
6. After the scan is complete, you can use the Select Duplicates in Folder option to easily select duplicates on one of your Mac’s folders.
   

How to speed up duplicate search

Finding duplicate files can take time, especially if your Mac stores a large number of items. To make the process faster and more efficient, you can adjust several scanning settings in the app. Here’s how to optimize your duplicate search for speed and accuracy:

• 1. Set up the size of duplicate files
• 2. Enable or disable scanning hidden files
• 3. Enable or disable full-scale scan
• 4. Skip certain files from duplicate search
• 5. Use automatic selection of duplicates
• 6. Set up permanent removal of duplicates

To accelerate the speed of the duplicate search, you will need to open the app’s settings window. For this, launch the application, go to Menu → Duplicate File Finder → Settings or use Command (⌘)+ Comma (,) key shortcut.

Now, let’s take a look at each tab and learn how it can help you in your task.

1. Set up the size of duplicate files

Imagine that you have a huge number of files and the application has to compare one file with another to find the copies. In this section, you can manually specify the minimal size of files to be scanned with Duplicate File Finder. This means that if you, for example, set up the slider at 1 MB, the application will skip all files smaller than the specified size, so that, even if you want to find duplicate files across multiple drives, it would be much faster than scanning absolutely all the files.

This option would be especially useful when you need to free up some space on your disk very quickly. So, when you increase the size settings of the file, the app needs to check fewer items and hence the process of scanning is speeded up. It takes less time to search for identical images or videos.

2. Scan hidden folders

Duplicate File Finder can find even hidden files and folders. There is a special option you can enable, and Duplicate Finder will also scan all hidden folders for duplicates.

However, it is recommended that you disable this option because it may slow down the scanning process.

3. Full-scale duplicates scan

Duplicate File Finder compares the contents of files to find duplicates. Enabling search across all file contents slows down the scanning process. If the option is disabled, then the application checks only parts of the files.

This rule applies only to binary file formats. For simple formats (e.g. text, bmp), Duplicate File Finder checks the file completely.

4. Skip files from duplicate search

In the Skip List tab, you can add folders, files and extensions that will not be checked for duplicates. Why add items to Skip List? Imagine you have created duplicates for sharing in DropBox, Google Drive or any other cloud storage. You may want to add these folders to the Skip List, so they won’t be scanned by the duplicate file cleaner application.

Use this option also when you have important folders and would like to protect them. By default, the Skip List includes system extensions and some files and folders in order to prevent accidental deletion of files which are critical to the system.

5. Use automatic selection of duplicates

When you have too many duplicates, it will take too much time to preview each one of them and select certain ones manually. If you know from which folders exactly you want to remove duplicates, Auto Select option will help you.

You can add specific folders where you usually accumulate files. Or, in reverse, add folders to the Never Select list to insure against selecting copies of needed files.Also, you can add prefixes and suffixes used in the file name to be selected. And finally, you can enable or disable other selecting rules for the Auto Select option by marking the appropriate checkboxes and choosing the needed option for each of them.

Then you can select all duplicates due to your rules with one click by using the Auto Select button. This option is one more way to speed up the duplicate cleaning process.

6. Set up a permanent duplicate removal system

Remove empty folders
When you select and remove duplicate files from the folders, they become empty. Then you usually need to find these folders and move them to Trash. But you don’t have to do so if you use our double file cleaner application. Duplicate File Finder can delete the empty folders automatically after cleaning the duplicates. Just enable the option “Remove empty folders.”

Log removed duplicates
In case, you want to preview the history of deleted duplicate files from your Mac, enable this option. For this, click on Duplicate in the applications menu bar and select “Restore Removed Duplicates”. If some files were accidentally removed to the Trash bin, you can select them and restore.

Removal method
By default when you remove files with Duplicate File Finder, they are sent to Trash. Here you can enable the Remove option to delete your files permanently without moving them to Trash. This can save you the time taken to go to Trash every time and empty it. However, you should be careful and understand that in this case you will have no chance of recovering your files.

We have given you short tips on how to operate the application’s preferences so that duplicate cleaning is fast. Read more about quick ways to find and remove duplicates on Mac.