- Duplicate photos
- Similar photos
- Photos
How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone, and similar ones
Merge exact copies for free in Photos › Utilities › Duplicates. Then handle similar photos and bursts, which Apple's Duplicates album never shows.
To delete duplicate photos on iPhone, open Photos, scroll down to Utilities, tap Duplicates and use Merge. It's free, built in since iOS 16, and it keeps the best copy. What it won't touch are the photos most people mean when they say duplicates: twelve shots of the same sunset, a burst, three takes of one group photo.
- Apple's Duplicates album finds exact copies, including copies saved at a different size or format.
- Merge keeps the highest-quality version with the combined details and moves the extra copies to Recently Deleted.
- To iOS, similar photos and bursts aren't duplicates, so you pick those by hand or with an app.
- Space comes back only after Recently Deleted is emptied, or after 30 days.
Delete duplicate photos with Apple's Duplicates album
Photos checks your library on the iPhone and collects images that are the same picture. That covers a photo you saved twice from iMessage, a picture someone forwarded on WhatsApp that you already had, and shots imported again from an old phone. If you don't see the album, Photos may still be indexing your library, which happens while the iPhone is locked and charging. Or you may simply have no duplicates.
Step 1
Open the Duplicates album
PhotosUtilitiesDuplicates
On iOS 18 and later, scroll down past your library to Utilities. On iOS 16 and 17 it's under Albums, in the Utilities section.
Step 2
Merge one set
Each row shows the copies side by side with their sizes. Tap Merge next to a set and confirm.
Step 3
Or merge them all
Tap Select, then Select All, then Merge. Check the count in the prompt before you confirm.
Step 4
Empty Recently Deleted
PhotosUtilitiesRecently Deleted
Merged copies wait here for 30 days. Tap Select and Delete All when you want the space back now.
I think it's safe to merge the whole album at once without studying each pair. Merge keeps the highest-quality version and folds details like captions, keywords and favorites into it. Every extra copy also sits in Recently Deleted for 30 days if a merge surprises you.
Deleting or merging on your iPhone removes the photo from every device signed in to the same Apple Account, and from iCloud. That's what you want for space. If you meant to keep a copy elsewhere, export it to a computer first.
Similar photos are the bigger pile
True duplicates are rare in most libraries. Similar photos are everywhere. You take eight frames because someone blinked, the dog moved or the light changed, and iOS treats each one as its own photo. The Duplicates album will never show them, and together they usually weigh more than the exact copies do.
Bursts are the one case where Apple helps. Open a burst, tap Select, tick the frames you want, tap Done and choose the option that keeps only those. For everything else, tap Select in your library, drag a finger across the rows you don't want, and tap the trash icon. It works. It's also slow when one weekend left you 300 photos.
How Sappari picks which similar photos to clear
Sappari starts from a choice you already made. If you hearted a photo in Apple Photos, Sappari finds the frames around it that look nearly the same and offers them for removal. A set with no heart is left alone. Favorites, edited photos, photos in your albums, and hidden or shared photos are never suggested.
On my own iPhone I reviewed a shoot of 7 photos with 1 heart, and Sappari suggested 5 frames. The other one wasn't close enough, so it stayed. You see every frame before it goes, tap Keep this too on anything you want to save, then confirm once.
For similar photos with no heart, Sappari suggests the sharpest frame to keep and you decide. It also finds duplicates that Apple's Duplicates album misses, and blurry or accidental shots (pocket photos, a finger over the lens) get a list of their own.
| Photos Duplicates album | Sappari | |
|---|---|---|
| Exact copies | Yes, with Merge | Yes, including some the album misses |
| Similar photos and bursts | No (bursts by hand) | Yes, grouped by shoot next to your hearts |
| Which photo stays | The highest-quality copy | Your hearted photo, or the sharpest frame as a suggestion |
| Blurry and accidental shots | No | Yes, in their own list |
| Where it runs | On the iPhone | On the iPhone, nothing uploaded |
| Cost | Free | Free scan and 50 items a day; Pro removes the limit |
| Deleted photos | Recently Deleted for 30 days | Recently Deleted for 30 days |
If your library is mostly one-off photos and the Duplicates album is empty, you don't need Sappari for this. It earns its place when you shoot the same thing many times and heart the ones you like.
Sappari's scan is free and runs on your iPhone. Clear up to 50 items a day, plus one full shoot, without paying.
Coming soon to the App Store
Questions
Duy Bui · Developer of Sappari
Duy Bui builds Sappari on his own, from Vietnam. He writes these guides from what he learned making a photo cleaner that never deletes without asking, and the Sappari figures in them come from his own iPhone library.
