How can I delete duplicate photos on Google Photos?

Delete Duplicate Photos
1

I’ve noticed that I have a lot of duplicate photos on my Google Photos account. It’s taking up a lot of space and making it hard to find the pictures I actually want. Can someone guide me on the best way to find and delete these duplicate images efficiently? Thanks in advance!

2

Oh man, finding and deleting duplicate photos in Google Photos is sort of tedious but definitely necessary. I went through this just last month. Here’s how I did it:

  1. Google Photos doesn’t have a built-in duplicate finder: That would be too easy. You’ll have to go through them manually, which is sucky but inevitable unless you use third-party apps.

  2. Third-party apps:

    • Believe me, some of them work wonders. Try out these:
      • “Duplicates Cleaner for Drive” or “Google Photos Cleaner”: They’re add-ons you can find in the Google Workspace Marketplace. They scan your photos and fish out duplicates.
      • “Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro”: This one gives you more control, showing you potential duplicates with a high similarity rate.

  3. Manual Method:

    • Start scrolling through your photos. For similar photos, Google sometimes groups them together when you upload them, so thank the Google gods for small mercies.
    • Use the “Info” button on photos to compare details like timestamps and locations; could help pinpoint duplicates.
    • Delete duplicates as you find them, hopefully, you have some spare time because this takes a while.

  4. Backup First:

    • Before you go full Marie Kondo on your photo collection, back everything up to an external drive or another cloud service. Better safe than sorry.

  5. Prevention is Better:

    • Cleanly sort your photos before uploading them.
    • Use features that reduce accidental uploads such as Google Photos’ settings to prevent auto-backup from all folders.

Hope this helps, and prepare a strong cup of coffee; you’ll need it!

3

You could spend an eternity manually sorting through your photos, but who has time for that? Instead, let’s talk code and algorithms. Google’s lack of an internal duplicate finder is baffling, but technology’s got alternatives:

  1. DIY Python Script: Get techy! Write a Python script to use Google Photos API to download your library and compare image hashes. You’ll need some basic coding skills. A specific library like “ImageHash” can help identify duplicate images by creating a simplified ‘hash’ of each photo to compare.

  2. Database Efficiency: Ever considered your photos as data entries? Using SQL or a relational database to store your image metadata might simplify identifying duplicates. Load data into a SQLite database and use queries to find duplicates based on timestamps, filenames, or image hashes.

  3. Cloud Magic: Google Cloud Platform has robust machine learning capabilities. Use Cloud Vision API to analyze your images at scale and get similarity indexes. Automate this pipeline using Google Cloud Functions and Cloud Scheduler.

  4. Apple Fanboy Approach: Leverage an Apple Photos library, if you have a Mac. Apple’s Photos app has a decent duplicate detector, then sync this cleaned library back to Google Photos. True cross-platform absurdity.

Don’t forget to revert typical methods when tech seems too daunting. Backup everything before you unleash scripts or apps – redundancies are lifesavers. And remember, you’re not alone, we all suffer through Google’s puzzles.