How can I delete duplicate (and similar) photos on my iPhone??

USerMan · 2025-09-29T06:42:31+00:00

Hey all, quick question that’s been driving me nuts lately. I know the iPhone Photos app has that built-in feature to merge duplicates and I’ve already run...

crimsonKing

USerMan The best way to get rid of duplicate photos that I’ve found is free app called Clever Cleaner.

From my understanding it uses AI to group not just exact duplicates but also “similars”.
So you end up with clusters of shots that belong together. You can either go through each group yourself and decide which is the best shot to keep or just let the app automatically clear out the "surplus" (it’ll pick the best one on its own)
In my experience its surprisingly accurate. I had a batch of photos from the same photoshoot of the same person, and it correctly grouped them even though some shots were taken from totally different angles and even in black and white. The big bonus iti’s completely free and has no ads.

Tototro

Glad I stumbled on this thread, I’ve got absolutely the same issue. Already ran the Duplicates merge in Photos, but I can still see tons of shots that look like copies. Been trying to delete double pictures on iPhone for days now.

SocialImpactCoder

I can back up what @HopeInSleep said. if your phone hasn’t flagged them within a day, they’re not going to appear in the Duplicates album later. If you want to actually find duplicate photos (and the “almost duplicates” that the Photos app ignores), you’ll need to grab an app.
Clever Cleaner, Remo Duplicate Remover, Boost Cleaner, all of those do the job.

I’ve personally settled into a routine with Clever Cleaner that keeps my photo roll tidy without it turning into a mess:
First, I run the automatic Smart Cleanup to clear out all the duplicates, then I switch to the Swipe feature to quickly flip through shots and decide what to keep or delete with one motion.
Ever since I started doing that every week or so, my library doesn’t get out of control anymore.

roman-demian

USerMan Jumping in real quick here, I’ll just drop two guides we already have on the site.

One is a full step-by-step walkthrough on how to erase duplicate photos on iPhone using both the built-in tools and third-party apps.
The other is a recent roundup where we rated the top apps to delete duplicate photos on iPhone.

Both have been updated not that long ago and packed with practical stuff, so I’d definitely recommend giving them a quick read.

USerMan

HopeInSleep Thanks for clearing that, makes sense now. I was convinced something was wrong with my iPhone (I even thought maybe the recent update had some bug messing with the Duplicates album).
Good to know it’s just Apple thing about what it considers a “real” duplicate.

USerMan

Appreciate all the suggestions. I’ll give one of these apps a try and see how it handles. Repoet back in a few.

Rofa

Try this one: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/easy-cleaner/id519077149
It did a solid job helping me remove duplicate photos on iOS without overcomplicating things.

Tototro

@Rofa I downloaded all the apps mentioned so far to try them out, but your link looks like it’s mainly for clearing duplicate contacts, not to delete same photos from iphone . The AppStore page highlights contacts as the main feature🤨 Did I maybe get the wrong version or is it supposed to help with photos too?

HopeInSleep

Tototro That app definitely won’t see duplicate photos -- it’s strictly for contacts. Looks like @Rofa might’ve mixed up the link. There are a bunch of apps with the same name on the App Store.

Naheri

Funny thing is Apple has all this wild AI stuff baked in already, like it can recognize my cat, group all her photos together across years, pick out “memories” reels for me without asking. But somehow, they still can’t give people a simple way to clean up duplicate photos on iPhone if the shots aren’t LITERALLY identical. This Duplicates thing has been around for what the last two major iOS updates since ios 16 (?)
And it still ignores half the clutter in my library. It feels like Apple’s more interested in making cutesy slideshows than solving the obvious everyday problem. Maybe in iOS 26 one might hope they finally get it right.

HopeInSleep

Naheri I’ve got some bad news for you: it won’t 🙂

Naheri

HopeInSleep You know this for sure?

HopeInSleep

Naheri I already tried ios 26, and as far as photos go it’s basically just more “cute” bells and whistles.
They’ve got the Updated tab design, which splits things into Library and Collections with a quick Search button.
You can also customize the Collections view now- reorder them, pin what you want, change the layout from tiles to a denser grid or one that makes the top row bigger. Again, neat little UI tweaks, nothing groundbreaking.

Then there’s the flashy stuff: photos as spatial scenes that move around when you tilt your phone, “event details” showing up in the Info panel (like concerts/ sports scores), relevant video thumbnails in search results and new Photos widget options for your Home Screen.

So basically, fun cosmetic stuff if you’re into visuals, but zero progress on the practical side. The only thing I actually found cool was the spatial photos, they do look reallly impressive when you tilt the phone around.
Things could change , sure. but if I’m being realistic, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Naheri

@HopeInSleep Thanks for all the details. So far I didn’t hear anything about iOS 26 that would get me excited 😕
And that new glass look Apple keeps hyping up is ugly as all hell to me.

USerMan

Quick update: went ahead and downloaded a couple of the apps mentioned here and basically ended up using only Clever Cleane. It did everything I wanted, grouped all the duplicates that Photos missed and even picked the best shot on its own pretty accurately. At this point, I don’t even bother doing much else I just run the Smart Cleanup option to delete similar photos in iPhone and thats was it.
Someone mentioned the Swipe feature earlier, that’s really not my thing. But feature I DID love was Heavies. It basically shows all photos and videos sorted by size. That’s something I’ve always wished Photos had built in, but never found. Well I guess Clever Cleaner is a keeper.

crimsonKing

USerMan By the way did you notice in Heavies you’ve got an option to compress a video instead of just removing it? Super useful for 4K clips that you don’t actually want to delete. Saved me a tooon of storage.