How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone?

deepthinker · March 21, 2025, 8:30pm

I noticed that my iPhone has a lot of duplicate photos and it’s taking up storage space. I’m not sure the best way to clean them up efficiently without losing any important pictures. How can I easily remove duplicates?

MikeAppsReviewer · March 21, 2025, 10:35pm

Clean Up Your iPhone Photo Library in Minutes (For Free!)

Tired of scrolling endlessly through duplicate or nearly identical photos on your iPhone? Good news – cleaning up your photo gallery doesn’t require pricey apps or a degree in tech wizardry. While iOS itself has a feature to delete duplicates for free, let’s be real… most of your clutter comes from similar photos that don’t get flagged as duplicates. You’ve probably got thousands of them clogging up precious storage space. Reddit users swear by the Clever Cleaner app, and after giving it a whirl, I have to agree – it’s free, fast, and freakishly efficient.

Need to Declutter Your iPhone? Here’s Your Life Hack:

Notice how every vacation, outing, or selfie session leaves you with 30 versions of the same shot? Yeah, same here. Luckily, I found an easy way to clean all that fluff—without lifting a finger too much. Here’s a step-by-step guide to simplifying your photo library:

Steps to Delete Duplicate and Similar Photos on iPhone

Download Clever Cleaner: Hop onto the App Store and grab this free app. It works like a charm for organizing and deleting unnecessary photos.
Grant Permission: Once downloaded, allow the app access to your photo library so the AI can analyze and categorize your photos. Worried? Don’t be – I was skeptical too, but nothing sketchy happened after multiple scans!
Wait for the Magic: The app will take 2–6 minutes to scan everything, depending on how packed your library is. Get yourself a coffee – or scroll Reddit while you wait.
Review Everything: The app smartly groups similar photos and automatically picks the best one out of the lot. You can double-check the suggestions before committing to any changes.
One-Tap Cleanup: Hit ‘Smart Cleanup’, and let the app work its magic. Afterward, don’t forget to empty the trash folder in your Photos app to finalize the process.

Results? Spoiler Alert: They’re Awesome!

I cleared 11 GB of useless photos in minutes. No more repetitive selfies, blurry snapshots, or five versions of the same sunset hogging space on my iPhone!

Want More Options? Explore These Helpful Resources:

Here are a few additional guides and discussions to dive deeper into cleaning up your iPhone:

So, why not kick storage anxiety to the curb and give this app a shot? Who knows – you might just rediscover some golden moments buried in a mountain of blurry duplicates!

ChasseurDEtoiles · March 22, 2025, 12:40am

Well, here’s the thing — tackling duplicate photos on an iPhone can either be a smooth ride or feel like you’re trying to untangle Christmas lights. If you want the most straightforward method, there’s no denying the “Photos” app in iOS has a built-in “Duplicates” album now (if you’re on iOS 16 or newer). It’s like a hidden trick — just go to the Albums tab, scroll to the Utilities section, and voilà, you’ll find duplicates nicely identified for merging. But, and it’s a BIG but, this will only catch actual duplicates – not all those slightly-different angles when you couldn’t decide on your best duck face.

If you’re wading through a swamp of “almost duplicates” (you know, the 20 shots of the same sunset from a slightly different perspective), then Clever Cleaner seems like a no-brainer. Yeah, Mike already hyped it up, but hear me out — apps like this leverage AI to separate the trash from treasure. It’s kinda uncanny how it chooses the best shots for you.

Now, if you’re paranoid about handing over access to your photos (which, fair), you could try doing it manually. Brace yourself; it’ll take hours. Open your Photos app, view by date, and painfully swipe through seeing which ones can get the axe without taking out a cherished memory. Personally, after five minutes, I’m already done mentally.

Oh, and those paid “premium” cleaners people rave about? Meh, hard pass here — why shell out cash when free options like Clever Cleaner work just fine? It’s just… why? Stay skeptical.

Choose what works best for your patience level, but TBH, anything beyond a couple hundred pics is worth handing off to an app. Doubt you’d even notice the “deleted” photos once they’re gone. It’s like Marie Kondo for your phone — if it doesn’t spark joy, THANK IT, and kick it to the trash.

CazadorDeEstrellas · March 22, 2025, 2:45am

If you’re drowning in duplicates, here’s the deal: iPhones on iOS 16 have that nifty built-in “Duplicates” album. It’s convenient-ish but definitely not the savior Apple wants you to think it is. Why? It ONLY picks out actual duplicates—like pixel-for-pixel identical photos. So, those 12 almost-same-but-slightly-different selfies you took trying to nail your “effortless” look? They stay. Forever. In storage purgatory.

You could sit and swipe through your library manually, deciding what stays and what goes. But who has that kinda time? Seriously, unless you’re on some Marie-Kondo-meets-data-savvy mission, this path is tedious.

Now, apps like the Clever Cleaner app – yeah, yeah, I know @mikeappsreviewer and @chasseurdetoiles already fangirled over it – actually come in clutch for sorting through your chaos. I was skeptical too (because, let’s face it, apps claiming to “fix problems effortlessly” often flop harder than my New Year’s workout plans). But Clever Cleaner surprised me. It scans your pics, picks out duplicates and similar ones, and even chooses the best one. You still get to review before it yanks anything for good, so no worries about losing The One Perfect Pic™. Oh, and it doesn’t charge—because ain’t nobody here trying to pay just to delete stuff.

But let’s say you’re me-level paranoid about apps accessing everything—even free ones. You could always export your photos to a computer, use software to cull the duplicates (Google Photos or Lightroom’s duplicate/mirror image detection, maybe?), and then re-upload neatly. Doable…but sooo much effort. No thanks.

Bottom line: iPhone’s “Duplicates” feature is passable for basics, Clever Cleaner wins for being practical (and free), and manual cleanup is your worst nightmare unless you wanna go full monk mode for hours. Your call.