Streamline Your iPhone Photo Library with iOS 16’s Duplicate Detection

As the holidays approach, it’s the perfect time to tackle one of the most frequently overlooked tasks: cleaning out your bloated iPhone photo library. Over the year, we accumulate countless images—from snapshots of loved ones to receipts and random parking space numbers. A thorough culling can help you reclaim valuable storage space and remove unwanted photos.

Effortless Duplicate Photo Management

Before considering upgrading your iCloud storage, there’s an incredibly simple solution embedded in your device. If you’re utilizing iOS 16 or later, the Photos app features a handy folder called Duplicates. This tool automatically collects all identical and near-identical images, allowing you to delete them quickly and efficiently.

No more laborious searching through your library—this intuitive feature enables you to recover a significant amount of space with just a few taps. It’s a straightforward solution that’s likely been right under your nose.

Introduced in 2022, Apple’s duplicate detection functionality operates as you’d expect. Using advanced on-device AI, it identifies not just exact copies, but also photos that may appear similar but differ in resolution, file format, or subtle details. This includes lower-quality images shared on social media or multiple shots taken in rapid succession.

How to Clear Duplicates from Your iPhone

Ready to tidy up your photo library? Follow these simple steps:

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone.

2. If you’re on iOS 16, tap the Collections button. If you’re on an earlier version, skip to the next step.

3. Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap Duplicates. Here’s where you’ll find all your duplicate photos for deletion.

4. To remove all duplicates simultaneously, tap Select and then Select All. Alternatively, you can delete in smaller groups by selecting pairs individually.

5. After selecting, tap Merge [number] to consolidate the duplicate photos detected by your iPhone and send the extras to the trash.

If you’d rather delete duplicates one at a time, simply tap the Merge button next to each pair. Confirm the merge by tapping Merge [number] Copies to remove the duplicates from your library while keeping the best version.

Rest assured that the originals remain safe; duplicates are moved to the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before permanent deletion.