How Do I Delete Duplicate Photos on My Computer? (3 Ways)
How do I delete duplicate photos on my computer? With 2 Windows inbuilt tool and a powerful app that deletes duplicate photos, you can easily know the answers.
Saving, copying, or editing photos is something we do a lot in our daily lives. But, this can create extra copies of photos on our computer. You might have noticed that these extra copies take up space and slow down your computer. If you want to learn “How do I delete duplicate photos on my computer?”, keep reading. We'll show you3 simple ways to delete them from your Windows PC.
How do I delete duplicate photos on my computer in 3 ways?
To locate and remove duplicate photos, most people commonly choose CMD, File Explorer, or a duplicate files finder. This part will share you how-to.
Way 1. Delete duplicate photos on Windows via CMD
Using CMD can be a bit time-consuming and requires patience. It's important to enter precise command lines and file extensions, as inaccuracies may result in a failure in finding and deleting photos on Windows PC.
Step 1. Open CMD as an administrator. To do this, click on Start, then type "cmd" into the search bar, and choose “Run as administrator”.
Step 2. Type this command into CMD: "dir /s /b *.extension". Replace ".extension" with the type of files you want to find duplicates of. For example, if you're looking for duplicate JPG files, type "dir /s /b *.jpg".
Step 3. Press Enter. CMD will begin scanning for duplicate files, and it will display the results with duplicated files in a list.
- You can also find duplicate files using the “WMIC FINDSTR” command:
- 1. Open CMD and type "FINDSTR /?" to see all options for the "FINDSTR" command.
- 2. Type "FINDSTR /I /C:WINDOWS *.jpg" to search for all JPEG images in the WINDOWS folder.
- 3. The results will show all the JPEG images in the WINDOWS folder, with duplicates highlighted in red.
▌To remove duplicate files in a specific folder, follow these steps:
Step 1. Open the folder using File Explorer.
Step 2. Right-click on the folder you want and select "Copy as path".
Step 3. Open Command Prompt. Type "del /s /f *.duplicate" and hit Enter. This command will remove all duplicate files in the current folder and its subfolders.
For a more advanced file deletion, you can use wildcard characters with this command. Just type "rmdir /s /q DirName", and it will delete all folders in "DirName" and its subfolders.
Way 2. Use File Explorer to find and delete duplicate photos
File Explorer will be easier than CMD, but you still be patient in typing the photos expansion such as .png, .tiff, .raw, .jpg/.jpeg, .heic/.heif, .psd, .webp, and so on.
Step 1. Go to the lower-left corner next to the Windows icon. Type "Indexing Options" into the search bar and then click on "Indexing Options".
Step 2. Click on "Modify" and select "Show all locations". A pop-up will appear, asking for your login details. Make sure you're using an administrator account when making changes here.
Step 3. Check if all the boxes are ticked under the "Changed selected locations" section. If they are, click "OK", then hit the "Close" button. If not, make sure to check all the boxes.
Step 4. Press the Windows key and E key on your keyboard at the same time to open File Explorer. It's easier to locate your files under your user account. To access your user account, go to Windows (C:), and then select the Users folder.
Step 5. Click on "Search" in the upper-right corner, and enter the following extensions based on their format. The common picture file extensions include .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .tiff, .psd, .raw, .svg, .ico, and .webp.
Step 6. Organize the search results by Name:
• Under the "Panes" section, choose "Preview pane".
• Under the "Layout" section, select "Details".
• In the "Current view" section, click "Group by," and then pick "Name".
• To arrange the files in ascending order, click "Group by," and select "Ascending".
Step 7. Examine the files to find duplicates saved in different locations. Check the "Date modified" column to identify the latest version of each file.
Step 8. After reviewing the files, select the one you want to delete, and then press the DELETE key on your keyboard.
Way 3. Rely on a Duplicate Files Finder to quickly delete duplicate photos
CMD and File Explorer answer you about “how do I delete duplicate photos?” However, these tools requires much patience and time. If you choose a powerful app that deletes duplicate photos, the process can be much quicker and easier. AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup is one such effective tool. It can rapidly scan your computer and list all the duplicates of pictures, archives, documents, and audio files.
To cater to various preferences, this tool also offers customization options. What’s more, you don't have to worry about accidental deletion because it is equipped with a Recover Data feature to help you easily retrieve lost data.
The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer
Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. Click the "Find Duplicate Files" tab. You can either click "Scan Now" to start the scan of your system C: drive. Or, click "Custom Scan" to manually select paths to be scanned. (Here, we take the "Custom Scan" as an example.)
Step 2. After clicking "Custom Scan", all local and external drives on your PC will be displayed. You can also click the "Add Path" button, and then a browse folder window will pop up. So you can add more paths on this PC, like Desktop, Downloads, and other folder paths.
Step 3. Once necessary paths are added, you can click the "Scan Now" button to start the scan process.
Step 4. The scan process might take time. After the scan is complete, all duplicate files will be listed. You can click the button behind to locate them.
Step 5. You can either manually select duplicate files, or click the "Smart Select" button to automatically select unnecessary duplicate files to delete.
Tips: If the "Smart Select" is ticked, only the oldest duplicate file will be unticked. It means that all duplicate files except the oldest one will be ticked to delete. (The oldest file means the file that was created first. This file will not be deleted. All other duplicate files are conside red copies of the oldest file. )
If you manually select all copies of duplicate files, you will get a pop-up warning window to keep at least one copy of the duplicate files. If you indeed want to delete all copies of duplicate files, you can click "OK" so all copies of duplicate files will be selected to delete.
After unnecessary duplicate files are selected, please click the "Clean Now" button to start the deletion.
Step 6. The deletion might take time. After the process is finished, the selected files will be deleted, and you will get a cleaning completed window displaying how much data you deleted in total.
Conclusion
How do I delete duplicate photos on my computer? The 3 shared methods can help you a lot. AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup is a worthwhile app that deletes duplicate photos. If you are aim to extend drive space, functions like PC Cleaner, App Mover, and Allocate Free Space will be powerful assistant as well.