How to Delete Duplicate and Near-Duplicate Photos on iPhone

The quickest way to delete duplicate photos on an iPhone is the Duplicates album built into the Photos app (iOS 16 and later). Open Photos › Albums, scroll to Utilities, tap Duplicates, then tap Merge on each set, or tap Select › Select All › Merge to do them all at once. That takes care of exact copies. It does not catch near-duplicates such as bursts, retakes and edited versions, so this guide also shows how to review those by hand and keep only the best one. Everything you remove goes to Recently Deleted for 30 days, so a mistake is easy to undo.

How do I delete exact duplicate photos with the Photos app?

Since iOS 16, your iPhone quietly looks for photos and videos that are the same picture, even if one copy is a different size or file type. When it finds some, a Duplicates album appears.

1. Open Photos and tap Albums at the bottom.
2. Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap Duplicates. On newer versions of iOS the Utilities section sits further down the main Photos screen instead.
3. Each set shows the copies side by side with their sizes. Tap Merge under a set to combine it.
4. To do them all at once, tap Select, then Select All, then Merge.
5. Confirm when your iPhone asks.

Merge does not simply delete one copy. It keeps the best-quality version and combines the useful details from the others, such as captions, keywords and whether you marked one as a favorite. The extra copies move to Recently Deleted.

Why does the Duplicates album miss so many look-alike photos?

Apple's tool is deliberately strict. It only merges photos it is confident are the same image. That is good for safety, but it means most of the clutter in a real library stays put. Common examples it does not treat as duplicates:

• Bursts and retakes. Ten near-identical shots of the same moment, each a slightly different picture.
• Edited copies. If you saved an edited version from another app, or used Duplicate in the share menu before editing, you now have two different files.
• Screenshots of the same thing. Two screenshots of the same message thread are not pixel-identical.
• Resized copies sent back to you. When a friend sends your own photo back through a chat app, it usually arrives smaller and slightly re-compressed. Sometimes iOS still catches this, sometimes it does not, depending on how much the copy changed.
• A photo and its cropped version. A crop is a different image to the software.

None of these will ever be merged for you. They need a person, or a tool that groups look-alikes and lets a person decide.

How do I review similar photos and keep the best one?

Doing this by hand is slow but completely safe, and it works on any iPhone.

1. In Photos, open the Library tab and pinch to zoom out until you can see whole days at a glance. Look for rows of near-identical thumbnails.
2. Tap the first photo in a set, then swipe left and right through the others. Pinch in on faces, eyes or text to compare sharpness.
3. Tap the heart to mark the one you want to keep as a favorite. Do this for every set before you delete anything, so the decision is made calmly.
4. Go back to the grid, tap Select, then drag your finger across the extras to select them, and tap the trash (bin) icon.
5. For burst photos, use Photos › Albums › Media Types › Bursts. Open a burst, tap Select, tick the frames you like, tap Done, then choose Keep Only Favorites.

Deleting is reversible. Anything you remove sits in Photos › Albums › Utilities › Recently Deleted for 30 days, and the space only comes back once that album is emptied.

What about duplicate videos?

Videos are where duplicates cost real space. A single copied video can take more room than a hundred duplicate photos.

The Duplicates album covers videos as well as photos, so check it first. Then look for the copies it will not catch:

• A video you compressed or trimmed while keeping the original.
• A clip that came back to you through a chat app after you sent it.
• An edited export saved next to the original.
• A screen recording you made twice.

Open Photos › Albums › Media Types › Videos and look for matching thumbnails close together. Tap each one to compare the length shown in the corner and the quality. Keep the better one and delete the other. If you are unsure which is the original, keep the larger file: it is almost always the higher-quality version.

Can I get a photo back if I deleted the wrong one?

Yes, for 30 days. Open Photos › Albums, scroll to Utilities, tap Recently Deleted, unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode, select the photo and tap Recover. After 30 days, or after you empty the album yourself, the item is gone for good.

Two things to know. First, the space does not come back until Recently Deleted is emptied, which is why the storage number often does not move straight after a big clean-up. Second, if you use iCloud Photos, a deletion on your iPhone is a deletion everywhere: the photo moves to Recently Deleted on all your devices.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Photos say there are no duplicates when I can clearly see some?

The Duplicates album only shows photos your iPhone judges to be the same picture. Retakes, bursts, crops and re-edited versions look alike to you but are different files to the software. Those need a manual pass, or a tool that groups similar photos and lets you decide.

Does merging duplicates lose quality?

No. Merge keeps the highest-quality copy in the set and folds the other copies' details, like captions and favorites, into it. The lower-quality copies move to Recently Deleted, where they stay for 30 days.

Can I get merged or deleted photos back?

Yes, within 30 days, from Photos › Albums › Utilities › Recently Deleted. Select the item and tap Recover. Recently Deleted keeps items for 30 days, and the space comes back when it is emptied.

Does deleting a duplicate on my iPhone remove it from iCloud too?

If iCloud Photos is turned on, yes. Your library is one library across all your devices, so a delete on the phone shows up everywhere, but it goes into Recently Deleted on those devices as well. If iCloud Photos is off, only the phone changes.

Bottom line: start with Photos › Albums › Utilities › Duplicates and merge what it finds. Then spend a few minutes on bursts and retakes, favouriting the keeper in each set before you delete the rest. Whatever you remove waits in Recently Deleted for 30 days, so you can work quickly and fix any mistake later.

TidyByte does the sorting — you make the calls.

Finds the big videos, duplicates and screenshots. Every deletion is yours to approve, and everything goes to Recently Deleted for 30 days. Free to download.

Written by the TidyByte team, the people who build the app. Steps are checked against current iOS and updated when Apple moves things. Spotted an error? Tell us.