How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone

Duplicate pics on iPhone take up valuable space, eventually slowing your phone down. Lots of iPhone users dread organizing their photo gallery; let's face it, sorting through thousands of snaps takes time. 

Thankfully, you no longer need to do this manually (unless you want to, of course). We'll show you some smart ways to locate and remove duplicate photos.

Keeping your photo library organized will help reclaim precious storage space and keep your iPhone running smoothly and glitch-free. Let's dive in.

Why do you have so many duplicate pics on your iPhone?

When you try to take photos, does your camera freeze or crash? You could be running out of space. And a quick way to reclaim some is by deleting useless duplicates. But where do they all come from?

When you take a moment to investigate, it's amazing how quickly they build up without us realizing. From accidentally snapping the same shot multiple times to iCloud or Google Photos sync errors and saving the same photo over and over again, HDR photos, and editing apps, duplicate images can consume a serious amount of space.

Sometimes, figuring out how we accumulate so many duplicates can help us combat the problem. Take a moment to think about where most of your duplicates come from.

Locate and delete duplicate photos on iPhone in one tap

When it comes to knowing how to remove duplicate photos on iPhone, you'll be pleased to hear you no longer need to spend hours or days painstakingly trawling through your back catalog of photos, finding and deleting duplicates; thankfully, there have been some big developments in iPhone photo management.

You can say goodbye to duplicates in just a few clicks, thanks to the Apple notarized CleanMy®Phone app. This simple-to-use tool performs an in-depth scan of your iPhone, grouping together years' worth of duplicates for your review and instant removal. Here's how it works:

1. Open the app on your iPhone, and under Declutter, tap Scan.

2. Wait for the scan to finish, and scroll down to duplicates.

3. Review items and tap Clean > Delete. They are now sent to the Recently Deleted album in your Photos app — don't forget to empty it.

How easy is that! 

How to get rid of duplicate images on an iPhone manually

If you'd rather remove duplicates manually, there are a couple of ways you can do this; let's take a look.

1. Scroll and delete

If you've got time on your hands, then the old-fashioned method of simply scrolling through your photo library folder, selecting duplicates, and hitting the Trash icon at the bottom right is for you.

Taking a trip down memory lane can be therapeutic, and this method gives you complete control over what you're deleting.

2. iOS 16 Duplicates folder

Since iOS 16, Apple has introduced a new Duplicate photo folder, which detects doubles and groups them together for your review. 

Update your iPhone to use this feature, then follow the steps below:

• Open the Photos app.
• Select Albums and scroll down to the Utilities section.
• Open Duplicates.
• Here, tap Select (top right), go through and select the items for removal, and then tap the Trash icon (bottom right) to delete them.

How to merge duplicate photos on iPhone

Another option is to merge duplicate photos on your iPhone. Apple detects the highest quality duplicate and removes the lower quality versions. Here's how to take advantage of this feature:

1. Open your Photos application.

2. Select Albums > Duplicates.

3. Scroll through the duplicates and select Merge next to the photos you want to condense down. You can select all photos at once and merge them.

This feature also helps to reduce the hundreds of duplicate snaps we have on our devices.

But if you're looking for a smarter way to organize your photos, then I've got good news.

The CleanMy®Phone app (mentioned above) also has an AI-powered Organize tool, which quickly analyzes your entire photo library, categorizing them into folders based on themes like food, text, pets, travel, and more. You can then review the images and keep the best ones; here's how:

1. Open the app and select Organize at the bottom.

2. Choose the time frame or set up a custom filter and tap Scan.

3. Once complete, browse the categories and select items to remove.

But what if you don't want to keep any duplicates? That's no problem. Head to the next tip.

How to mass-delete duplicates on iPhone

Some people just want to remove all duplicates in one go without messing around; they just want to free up space. 

If you've synced or backed up your images and need some quick space, here's how to delete all duplicates:

1. Open the Photos app.

2. Select Albums and scroll down to the Utilities section.

3. Open Duplicates.

4. Tap Select > Select All.

5. Hit the Trash icon to delete all your duplicates in one go.

Let's finish up with a couple of duplicate photo FAQs.

Duplicate pics on an iPhone FAQs

I'm running the latest iOS software, but no duplicate folder.

Here's a quick way to double-check which iOS you're running on your iPhone: open the Settings app and go to General > Software Update.

If you're up-to-date, and there's no Duplicates folder under Utilities in your photo albums, then this means you don't have any duplicates currently on your device.

Does burst mode create duplicates?

Burst mode on iPhone is great for capturing the perfect moment, especially if it's an action shot, but you might end up with hundreds of similar photos. Funnily enough, Apple doesn't categorize these as duplicates.

If you want to remove all your burst photos, here's how:

1. Open the Photos App > Albums.

2. Select Bursts under Media Type. Tap Select > Select All.

3. Finally, tap the Trash icon.

Well, that's it; we've pretty much covered everything you need to know about locating and removing duplicate pics on an iPhone manually or automatically. So we hope you found a method that suits you.