Using Finder to find duplicate filesĪ Note on How to Remove Duplicate Items in iTunesįortunately iTunes provides the ability to check for duplicate files, as follows: The main drawback with this method is the amount of time it takes to go through the items one at a time. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t let you determine whether the files are true byte-level copies but there is enough information presented to be able to make an informed decision. Just delete any files that you don’t want to keep but make sure they really are duplicates first. This method is fairly accurate because it shows identical files listed by name, type, and size.
We have tested and found these apps to be effective, but its worth noting there are many more available on the Mac App Store: For example, it’s possible that multiple identical files have different filenames – utilities such as those mentioned below can help to analyse the contents of files on a byte level to determine if they really are duplicates. They all do pretty much the same thing but some have much more comprehensive features and allow you to filter by filename only or the actual content.
Some are free whereas others charge a small fee.
With other strong features such as Smart Scan, Junk Files, and real-time monitoring for your CPU and Network usage, Cleaner One Pro will make sure your Mac is always at its best performance.There are dozens of apps available in the Mac App Store which can find and remove duplicate files. The Duplicate Files feature will scan and find duplicate files in your selected folders automatically, saving you time from searching Smart Folder manually.Īfter the scan, it offers a preview of the duplicate files so you can check again before deleting.
If you want to find and delete duplicate files effectively, it is better to use a third-party app.Ĭleaner One Pro is an all-in-one tool for Mac cleaning and performance optimization. However, most of the time, we cannot remember the exact files that have been duplicated. Delete Duplicates with One ClickĪlthough Smart Folder can be very helpful, it still requires you to have a general picture of what kinds of duplicate files exist on your Mac. Keep in mind that only if you are familiar with the command lines, otherwise you might meet some issues with your Mac. If you want to delete those files, you will need to manually navigate to those files and manually delete them.ģ. The text file only list all the duplicate files path names, so the list might be rather long.Ģ. The command lines will generate a text file to the folder you’ve specified.ġ. ! -type d -exec cksum \ | sort | tee /tmp/f.tmp | cut -f 1,2 -d ‘ ‘ | uniq -d | grep -hif – /tmp/f.tmp > duplicates.txt Copy and paste the following command lines and hit enter.įind.
For example, you can type cd ~/Downloads and hit return to move to the Downloads directory.Ĥ. Type **cd ~/Folder Name to navigate to the folder you want to scan. Type Terminal **to run Terminal Application.ģ. If you have experience with Mac Terminal, using command lines or scripts can also be a fast option to identify duplicate files. You can also create several filters at the same time to further narrow down the search.įind and Remove Duplicate Files with Terminal
After using the computer for a while, you could have gotten a lot of duplicate files without even noticing. It is hard to keep track of all the files on your Mac, especially if you are constantly downloading things.