Best Duplicate Photo Cleaner Apps for Mac in 2022

We live in an age of images, and nowhere is this more apparent than on our devices. Whether it’s our smartphones or computers, it’s often difficult to ensure that the many, many photos we take each year don’t occupy too much space. In fact, this problem is only getting worse over time, with Google revealing in November 2020 that around 28 billion new photos and videos are now uploaded to its Photos app every week. 

This is a staggering number, and Google was actually forced to abandon its policy of unlimited image uploads for its apps in 2020. Meanwhile, other Big Tech firms, from Apple to Microsoft, put a limit on how much their customers can store on their respective cloud servers. This leaves users in a bind, since without the option of free and unlimited cloud storage, they’ll have to manage the photos on their devices themselves. 

Fortunately, there’s one type of tool Mac owners can use in order to prevent images from consuming too much memory on their hard disks. This is the duplicate photo cleaner (also known as the duplicate finder), which can find and remove any unnecessary copy of your photos, thereby leaving your Mac with extra storage space. In this article, we run through the best duplicate photo finders for Mac, explaining their pros and cons while including download links.

What makes a good duplicate photo finder app?

All of the apps detailed above are good duplicate photo finders, with each of them capable of finding and deleting duplicate files with a minimum of fuss. However, if you come across any that aren’t covered in this article, here are a few points to keep in mind when evaluating a duplicate file finder.

• Ease of use: As with any kind of app, the first thing users should be looking out for is the ease of use. An app or program should be straightforward to navigate and use, with a minimum of excess options, buttons, and icons. This is to ensure that you can get the most of it, while also avoiding you having to spend too much getting to grips with its functionality.
• Power and simplicity of search function: Duplicate file finders should let you select which folders and areas of your Mac to search for copies. Needless to say, they should also be accurate — and fast — in terms of finding duplicates. Also, in the case of duplicate photo finders, it’s usually very helpful if they show you a preview of the duplicate images found.
• Affordability: While it’s often a good idea to spend a bit extra money when purchasing an all-in-one antivirus and security package for your Mac, duplicate photo finders can be bought for very modest sums of money. So if you have found an app that focuses only on finding duplicates, make sure it isn’t overpriced, with small one-time fees being the norm.

Summary

Duplicate file finders are extremely helpful apps that can free up significant chunks of disk space on your Mac. 

Many of the best come as part of comprehensive antivirus packages, so if you’re also on the lookout for a security solution for your Mac, these may be the way to go. Alternatively, apps that focus solely on duplicate finding are usually very affordable and may come with extra options for fine-tuning your duplicate file search.

Either way, finding duplicate photos and files is a simple and cost-effective way of decluttering your device and making it run more efficiently. 

*This review is based on a subjective assessment