A Free Method to Find Duplicate Photos

Read time 7 minutes

Photos are the best way to save the memories of your special occasions. You can take many photos of the same occasion, and they do not even take a large space like videos. Since the emergence of smartphones, each of us is taking more photos than earlier. We can also save the images on our computers and view them using several photo viewing applications.

Here, we will go through a process to find duplicate photos on our computer and manage them. One of our clients recently told us the problem he had to face due to multiple duplicate files.

“Last summer, we went to a hill station on vacation, and there we took several photos on our smartphones. After coming from vacation, I copied the photos on our computer. Later, my wife and daughter told me that they have also copied the same photos on our computer. Now the same photos are duplicated three times, and I am facing problems in searching and deleting them.”

It is a common scenario where the user copied the same photos multiple times in different folders, and now, they are unable to search and delete the files manually. It occupies the unnecessary space in the limited hard-drive drives.

Here are some simple questions asked by many users and their answers:

Q. How do the duplicate photos are created on the computer?

A. There are various reasons behind the occurrence of duplicate photos. This can happen when the user downloads a file multiple times or copies images from a smartphone or USB/Flash drive. This can also happen when the user copies a folder to another. The duplicate photos do not pose a threat, but they occupy the storage space without any need.

Q. How to recognize the duplicate photos?

A. Generally, duplicate photos have the same name. So, it is not easy to identify them manually, but in some cases, there is a numeric value in front of them. If you see a numeric value in front of an image, it means that it is a duplicate file. The same thing is with the downloaded image; if you see that the downloaded image has a numeric value in front of it, then it means that it is downloaded earlier.

Q. How to stop copying the photos multiple times?

A. There are several methods that you should take while transferring the photos to the computer-

• Do not download the images from the Internet multiple times.
• Make sure that the pictures are transferred from USB/flash drive/smartphones only once.
• Upload the images to cloud storage to get notifications when you are uploading a duplicate image.

Q. How to find the duplicate photos on the computer?

A. There is no default method to find duplicate photos on the computer, although you can manually go into the folders and check for similar images there. But it is a time-consuming process that will take much effort to look for a large number of photos.

Q. Is there an automatic way to find duplicate photos?

Yes. Kernel Duplicate File Finder is a simple tool to find duplicate photos on a computer. You can use it to find many other types of duplicate files as well.

Kernel Duplicate File Finder

Kernel Duplicate File Finder tool can look for duplicate items on a computer. It can look for duplicate photos in different formats like jpg, jpeg, png, gif, tiff, bmp, jp2, ico, exif, raw, etc. Here is the process that you can use to find the duplicate photos using the software-

1. The home screen of the software shows a Plus icon to select the folders and drives. Click it.
2. Select a folder that you suspect has the duplicate photos. Click Select Folder.
3. You can add multiple folders and then click the Start Scan button.
4. In the File Type Selection Settings, use the checkbox to select the Image Files. Then click the OK button to start the scan.
5. The tool will run the scan to find the duplicate items.
6. The tool will show the total duplicate photos along with their formats also. Click the Pre-Operation Analysis button to manage the duplicate items.
7. Choose the option to handle the duplicate items. As you only want to find the duplicate photos, so choose Move files to another folder. Then click Display Duplicate files.
8. The tool will show the files that will be affected by your selection. Click Proceed.
9. Click the Confirm Operation button to confirm your selection.
10. Select the folder where you want to save the duplicate photos.
11. The files are successfully moved to the selected folder.

Now you have found all the duplicate photos in your folders.

Conclusion

Duplicate photos occupy the hard drive space without any usage, and they can create confusion for the users. You should use the Kernel Duplicate File Finder tool and find the duplicate files from the whole drive or folders. You can move them to another folder, move them to the Recycle Bin or delete them permanently. It gives you great control over your data and makes space available on your drives.