How to Remove Duplicate Photos on iPhone and Free Up Storage

TechRound Team

3 months ago

—TechRound does not recommend or endorse any apps, programmes, technology, advice or practices. all articles are purely informational—

If you are low on iPhone storage and want to free your media library from hundreds (if not thousands) of duplicates, there are a variety of methods to help. You may already be freeing up storage by removing additional files via the Duplicates album in the Photos app. But this may not always be possible and work.

Can I Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone Using Native Features?

Yes, with the iOS 16 update, Apple introduced the Duplicates album in the Photos app, a built-in tool designed to help users merge identical photos and free up storage. The idea was simple; if your library contained exact copies, iOS would detect them and offer to merge them into one.

According to Statista’s latest report, iOS 17 is installed on 77% of Apple devices, and with the latest iOS 18 update, chances are you’ve already had this feature on your device for quite some time. While it sounds great in theory, in practice, many users – like this Redditor are surprised to find that not all duplicates show up there:

“I accidentally duplicated the 1,300 favourited photos I had a few times, and now I’m sitting at 5K favs. I want to delete the duplicates, but they don’t show up in the duplicates tab. What do I do?”

This is a common issue: Apple’s Duplicates album doesn’t always recognise what users expect it to. That’s because the system is extremely strict about what it considers a duplicate.

Here’s what it takes for a photo to show up in the Duplicates album:

Exact pixel data – The image must be a bit-for-bit match. Even slight edits, such as cropping, adding a filter, or adjusting brightness, create a new unique file
Identical metadata – The file must have the same timestamp, format, and camera settings. Any difference in these values, even a small shift in exposure, results in a unique image
Matching file hash – Apple’s Photos app likely uses cryptographic hash functions (such as SHA-256) to compare files. If the hash values are identical, the system considers the images duplicates

Because of these criteria and the fact that you can free up even more storage by removing not just exact duplicates but also visually similar images, it makes sense to look beyond Apple’s built-in solution.

How to Get Rid of Duplicate (and Near-Duplicate) Photos on iPhone

Duplicate remover apps are quite a popular segment and for good reason. They’re usually intuitive and with the recent advancements in AI, more and more of them can find photos that any human would flag as the same or at least similar.

This process can be seen when using apps and programmes such as Clever Cleaner for iPhone (Free). Not only is its AI capable, but it is also one of the few free apps on the App Store.

Most duplicate finders advertise as free, only to hit you with a trial announcement the moment you open them pushing monthly subscriptions and bombarding you with adverts at every turn.

You can start to delete duplicate photos on an iPhone as follows:

Open the app and go to the Similars tab. This is where Clever Cleaner sorts photos that are duplicates or visually similar
Tap Smart Cleanup at the bottom. The app will quickly scan your library and suggest images for deletion
If you don’t want to remove a particular group, simply tap Restore to keep it
If you’re happy with the suggestions, Slide to delete and confirm
Prefer a hands-on Cleanup? Tap on a group of similar photos and manually decide which ones to keep. The app’s AI preselects the Best Shot, but if you prefer a different one, you can choose it instead
Once you’ve made your choice, tap Move to Trash to delete the marked photos or Skip All to keep the group and move on to the next set
When finished, tap Empty Trash at the bottom. The app will ask for confirmation before deleting the selected photos

Clever Cleaner follows Apple’s standard deletion process, all removed photos will remain in the “Recently Deleted” folder in the Photos app for 30 days. If you want to free up space instantly, you can manually clear this folder to be sure the deleted photos no longer take up your storage.

Video Tutorial

Third-party apps are a potentially effective way in which to deal with duplicate photo troubles, but many of them have additionally useful functions. As you may have already seen in these apps or read on the official Clever Cleaner app’s page, some of these apps come with several other cleaning features designed to help you manage your media library. If your goal is specifically to maximise your iPhone’s storage, these tools may in some cases be worthwhile:

The Screenshots feature helps you spot all the temporary captures, things like receipts, reminders, or social media screenshots you probably don’t need anymore. The app shows exactly how much space they’re using, and with just one tap, you can bin them all at once, or if you’d rather go through them manually, you can review and delete them individually
If you take Live Photos, you might not realise how much space they eat up. Clever Cleaner’s Lives feature lets you convert them into regular still photos without the animation. This significantly reduces their file size without affecting the image itself. As you select the Live Photos you want to optimise, the app even shows you in real time how much space you’re freeing up
Some of the biggest culprits when it comes to storage issues are oversized media files, especially videos. Many of these apps have features to make it effortless to identify the largest videos in your library. It sorts everything from largest to smallest. From there, you can decide what to delete, or keep in just a few taps

How to Clear Duplicate Photos on iPhone in The Photos App

Apple’s built-in duplicate remover is much more limited, but since everyone already has it on their iPhone, it is worth paying it some attention.

To remove duplicate pictures on an iPhone in the Photos App:

Open the Photos app.
Scroll down to the Utilities section.
Select Duplicates. This is where iOS automatically groups exact copies.
The Photos app displays duplicate sets for you to review. Tap on a group to compare the images.
Tap Merge to let iOS keep the highest-quality version.
Repeat until your library is clean.
Continue merging duplicates until no more are left in the album.

Or, if you have a large number of duplicates, you can merge all at once:

Tap Select in the top-right corner.
Tap Select All to highlight every duplicate in the album.
Tap Merge (number) at the bottom to merge everything in one go.

Future iOS updates may lead Apple to refine the system to detect near-duplicates, offer better batch management.

Merging doesn’t instantly free up storage. When you merge photos, iOS isn’t actually combining them. In reality, the system just deletes the surplus copies and keeps the best version. This means that, like any other deleted photo, they aren’t truly removed right away. To free up storage immediately, you can:

Open the Photos app.
Scroll down and tap Recently Deleted in the Albums section.
Tap Select, then Select All.
Tap Delete (number) to permanently remove them.

Deleted Duplicates But Still Need More Storage?

To conclude, there is no such thing as too much free space. Now you know how to erase duplicate images on an iPhone, along with a few other ways to clean up your media. But your Photos app isn’t the only place you should be looking if you need to free up even more storage.

After your Photos library, the next best place to look is often apps and their data. Many apps store unnecessary files, and managing them properly can save gigabytes of space. Here’s where to start:

Offload apps – iOS lets you remove an app without losing its data. Go to Settings, then General, then iPhone Storage, tap on an app, and choose Offload App. This keeps your files but removes the app itself, so you can reinstall it anytime
Clear app caches – Some apps store a lot of temporary data that builds up over time. Safari, for example, can hold hundreds of MBs in cached websites. To clear it, go to Settings, then Safari, tap on Clear History and Website Data
Manage social media app storage – Apps like Snapchat, Telegram, and WhatsApp store cached media, stickers, and chat logs that can occupy gigabytes of storage. Some of them have built-in cleaning tools; check their settings for storage management options
Delete unused downloads – Streaming apps like Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube often keep offline downloads you no longer need. If you clear these, it can instantly free up space