Google Photos duplicate images: what to do?
Having duplicate images in Google Photos is not only annoying but also takes up valuable storage space. But how does it come about that duplicate images are created on Google Photos and how can you remove them again?
Duplicate images on Google Photos - how duplicates are created
Google Photos basically works with duplicate detection, which means that identical photos are generally only uploaded once. It will check if an image has already been uploaded using the remove duplicates feature. If so, its upload will be skipped. In addition to duplicate detection, the photo backup client hides duplicate images. If you still see duplicate images in Google Photos, they are either a copy or a near-duplicate of the same photo. These arise when the photo has been altered in any way. Even opening and saving again with Photoshop is sufficient to create a duplicate.
Other reasons for creating duplicate images in Google Photos can be switching devices or uploading the images from multiple devices. Also, the fact that you uploaded images using the previous Google backup app, Picasa or Desktop Uploader can result in duplicate images. Because compared to these programs, the newer Google Photos backup program works according to different rules, which means that duplicate images are sometimes not recognized correctly.
Remove duplicates on Google Photos
There are several ways to remove duplicate images from Google Photos:
If the number of duplicates in Google Photos is manageable, you can remove them manually like this:
- Sign in to the official Google Photos website.
- Click on Photos in the left bar and now find all the photos that you no longer need.
- You can remove them by clicking on Delete.
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To prevent Google Photos from creating duplicate files, you must go to the website from Google Photos under Settings the synchronization of photos and videos with Google Drive deactivate. How to stop all videos and photos from Google Drive from automatically syncing to Google Photos. Take advantage of Google Photos' identical duplicate detection. This scans all content before uploading it and checks whether it really hasn't been uploaded yet. You can easily check whether your duplicate detection is active. To do this, upload an image that already exists in Google Photos.
No matter which method you finally decide to use, you should always be careful when removing the duplicate images Make sure your Google Photos backup app doesn't sync from cloud to local storage performs. Otherwise, deleting the duplicate images may also delete the source photos on your local storage.
