Use the Duplicates collection in Photos
Your iPhone finds copies of the same photo or video by itself, in iOS 16 or later.
- Open Photos and tap Collections.
- Tap Utilities, then Duplicates.
- Look through the sets. Tap Merge on one set to keep a single copy.
- To do them all at once, tap Select, then Select All, then Merge and confirm.
What Merge keeps and where the rest go
Merge keeps one photo with the highest image quality and combines the useful details from the other copies into it. The extra copies move to Recently Deleted, where they stay for 30 days in case you change your mind.
Duplicates counts exact copies, even when their hidden details differ, and also copies that look the same but differ in resolution or file format. When a set is not an exact match, your iPhone lets you merge only the exact copies.
Duplicates not showing?
- Check your iOS. Duplicates needs iOS 16 or later.
- Lock it and charge it. Your iPhone only looks for copies while it is locked and connected to power, so leave it charging overnight.
- Give it time. On a big library it can take a few days. While Photos is still going through your library, a note at the bottom of Library says so.
- Still nothing? Then it has not found any copies.
What the Duplicates collection misses
It looks for copies of the same photo. It does not group different shots that look nearly the same, like five tries at one group photo taken seconds apart, and it does not touch the extra frames from burst mode. For most people those are the bigger pile.
Bursts have their own place under Collections, Media Types, Bursts. Open one, choose the frames worth keeping, and your iPhone offers to delete the rest.
Clear duplicates and similar shots with Scrub
In Scrub, open Sweep. It sorts your library into piles, with the space each one takes:
- Duplicates: exact copies of the same photo. One is kept.
- Similar shots: groups of near identical photos. The best one is kept.
- Burst extras: the extra frames from burst mode. The best one is kept.
Review a pile and clear it in one go. Nothing is deleted until you confirm, and deleting goes through Apple's own check. You can try every pile free with 5 items, and Scrub Pro clears the rest.
Why your iPhone ends up with duplicates
- Saving the same photo again from a chat or a website.
- Editing a photo with another app, which saves a new copy.
- Using Duplicate in Photos to try a different edit.
- Apps that save a copy of everything you post.
Before you delete
- Deleted photos wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days, so you can still bring one back.
- With iCloud Photos on, deleting removes the photo from all your devices.
- The space comes back once Recently Deleted is emptied. See how to free up storage on your iPhone.