How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone
Duplicate photos on iPhone take up valuable space and eventually slow your phone down. Sorting through thousands of snaps manually takes time — and most people just don't.
The good news: you no longer have to. Below are the smartest ways to find and remove duplicate photos, from built-in iPhone tools to one-tap solutions.
Why do you have so many duplicate photos on your iPhone?
Duplicates build up faster than you'd expect — and usually without you noticing. The most common culprits are accidentally snapping the same shot multiple times, iCloud or Google Photos sync errors, HDR versions being saved alongside originals, editing apps saving new copies, and tons of screenshots you meant to delete. Over time, these pile up and consume a serious amount of storage.
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.
How to delete similar photos on iPhone
The fastest way to delete duplicate photos on iPhone is with CleanMy®Phone — you don’t have to sort through photos manually, or wait for Apple's indexing to finish.
- Detects both exact duplicates and similar photos
- AI-powered sorting groups your photos by theme so you can review and remove in bulk
- Compresses videos and batch-converts Live Photos to free up space without deleting anything
- Shows intelligent storage analytics — so you always know what's taking up space
Here's how to use it:
- Open the app and select Organize.
- Browse the categories and select items to remove.
- Tap Remove to clear them out.
How to get rid of duplicate photos 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. Use the Duplicates Folder in the Photos App (iOS 16+)
Since iOS 16, Apple automatically scans your library and groups duplicate photos into a single Duplicates folder — making it easy to merge or delete them in a few taps.
- Open the Photos app.
- Go to Albums > Utilities > Duplicates.
- Tap Merge next to individual sets, or tap Select > Select All > Merge to clear everything at once.
When you merge, iPhone keeps the highest-quality version and discards the rest.
2. Scroll and delete duplicates on iPhone manually
If you've got time on your hands, the old-fashioned approach still works — scroll through your library, select duplicates, and tap the trash icon.
Definitely slow, but occasionally therapeutic.
2. Handle burst photos separately
Burst mode is great for action shots, but it generates dozens of near-identical frames fast. Apple doesn't classify these as duplicates, so they won't appear in the Duplicates folder.
To clean them up:
- Open the Photos app.
- Go to Albums > Media Types > Bursts.
- Tap Select > Select All, then tap the trash icon.
Duplicate pics on an iPhone FAQs
I'm running the latest iOS software, but no duplicate folder.
This is especially common after an iOS 18 update. The Photos app needs time to re-scan your entire library in the background — it can take several days on large libraries. Leave your phone plugged in and locked overnight to speed it up. If the folder still doesn't appear, it means no exact duplicates were detected.
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. Apple treats burst photos as a separate media type, not duplicates.
Does iCloud cause duplicate photos?
Yes — sync errors between iCloud and Google Photos are one of the most common sources of duplicates. If you use multiple cloud services, check each one for overlapping libraries.
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.
