Let’s Clean Up Those Duplicate Photos on Your Phone!

Hey there! Is your phone constantly telling you it’s running out of
storage? Trust me, I’ve been there. Last month, I discovered I had over
1,000 duplicate photos eating up my storage (yes, really! ). The
culprit? Those pesky auto-saves from WhatsApp and that time I got
paranoid and backed up my entire camera roll… twice.

Let me walk you through exactly how to tackle this — it’s way easier
than you might think!

If You’re Team iPhone (iOS)

First up, amazing news if you’ve got iOS 16 or newer (to check, go to
Settings \> General \> About). Apple finally heard our prayers and built
in a duplicate finder! Here’s exactly what to do:

1. Pop open your Photos app (you know, the one with the rainbow flower
icon)
2. Scroll down in your Albums tab — keep going past your shared albums
and favorites
3. Look for an album called “Duplicates” (if you don’t see it, you
either have no duplicates (lucky you!) or need to wait a bit for
your phone to finish scanning)
4. Here’s the fun part: you’ll see your duplicate photos paired up side
by side. How neat is that?
5. Tap “Merge” for any duplicates you want to combine. Don’t worry —
your phone is smart enough to keep the highest quality version.
Neat, right?

Quick tip from someone who learned the hard way: if you’re looking at a
duplicate set and one version has edits you want to keep, select that
one specifically before merging!

Android Users, I’ve Got You Too!

If you’re using an Android phone, the process is a bit different but
just as straightforward. Let’s tackle this together:

Using Google Photos (my personal favorite method): 1. Open up Google
Photos (if you haven’t downloaded it yet, grab it from the Play Store —
it’s free!) 2. Look at the bottom of your screen and tap “Library” 3.
Now, this is important: scroll through the Utilities section until you
find “Clean up device” 4. You should see a “Remove duplicates” option.
If you don’t see it right away, give it a minute to scan your photos

Fun fact: I found 236 duplicate selfies using this method last week. No
judgment — we’ve all been there trying to get that perfect angle!

Here’s a Cool Trick Using Files by Google: 1. Download Files by Google
if you don’t have it (it’s like having a Marie Kondo for your phone) 2.
Open it up and look for the “Clean” option at the bottom 3. Scroll until
you see “Duplicate files” (sometimes it takes a minute to appear) 4.
Here’s the best part: it shows you exactly how much space you’ll save.
It’s like a game trying to free up as much as possible!

Let Me Share Some Real Talk About Manual Checking

Sometimes our phones miss things, so here’s what I do every few months
(usually while watching Netflix):

1. Go to your photos and sort by date:
– Look for photos that seem identical
– Check the timestamps — duplicates often have the same exact
time
– Pro tip: Pay special attention to screenshots. I don’t know why,
but they seem to duplicate like rabbits!
2. Check your camera roll after big events:
– Just attended a wedding? Odds are you’ve got multiple copies of
the same group shots
– Going through vacation photos? You probably took three nearly
identical sunset pics (we all do it!)

## Here’s What I Wish Someone Had Told Me Earlier

Before you go on a deleting spree (we’ve all been tempted), remember: –
Back up your photos first! I cannot stress this enough –
Take an extra second to check before hitting delete — especially for
those precious baby photos or wedding shots – Some “duplicates” might
actually be burst shots or slight variations you meant to keep

My Personal “Never Again” Strategy

Want to know how I prevent duplicate chaos now? Here’s my system:

1. I do a quick clean-up every Sunday night (it takes like 5 minutes, I
promise!)
2. I turned off auto-save in WhatsApp for everything except family
photos
3. I use only ONE cloud service (picking between iCloud and Google
Photos was hard, but I had to commit!)

## Let’s Wrap This Up!

Remember, the goal isn’t perfection — it’s having a photo library that
brings you joy instead of stress. Start with just 10 minutes today, and
I bet you’ll be amazed at how much space you can free up!

P.S. Did this help you find any embarrassing duplicate selfies? Don’t
worry — your secret’s safe with me! Drop a comment below if you have
any questions or if you’ve discovered any other cool tricks for keeping
your photo library clean. We’re all in this together!