How to find and delete duplicate photos
Duplicates appear on their own: a photo saved twice from a messenger, restored from a backup, a burst of ten shots. Phones can find exact copies themselves; similar shots need your judgement — but that can be quick too.
Exact copies on iPhone
Since iOS 16 the Photos app finds duplicates for you:
- Open Photos and find the Duplicates album under Utilities (at the bottom of your albums or collections).
- Duplicates are shown in groups. Tap Merge on a group — the best-quality photo stays with combined metadata, the rest go to Recently Deleted.
- To handle everything at once: Select → Select All → Merge.
No Duplicates album? Either no duplicates were found or the iPhone is still indexing your library (this happens while it is locked and charging).
Exact copies on Android
- Files by Google (preinstalled on many phones or available on Google Play): Clean → Duplicate files. It suggests keeping one file from each group.
- Samsung: some versions offer this under My Files → Analyze storage → Duplicate files.
- Google Photos does not back up the same photo twice, but it does not remove copies stored on the phone itself.
Similar shots and bursts
Most of the wasted space is not exact copies but near-identical shots: five attempts at a group photo, a burst with someone blinking, ten sunsets in a row. The system will not merge them — technically they are different files. Only you can decide which shot is the best.
To keep this from turning into an hour of ticking boxes, go through photos one by one, full-screen, and decide on each right away. That is how Nixo works: swipe left to trash, right to keep. Similar shots come one after another, so the weaker ones in a series are gone in seconds. Nothing is deleted until you confirm at the end.
How not to delete too much
- Before a big cleanup, make sure you have a backup (iCloud, Google Photos or a computer).
- Deleted photos stay in the trash for 30 days (Recently Deleted on iPhone, Trash in Gallery or Google Photos) and can be restored.
- If iCloud Photos or Google Photos sync is on, deleting on the phone deletes from the cloud too.
- Once you have checked everything, empty the trash — otherwise no space is freed.
Free up space in a couple of minutes
Nixo shows your library one photo at a time: swipe left to delete, right to keep. Videos and screenshots have their own filters, and everything is processed on your phone.