How to Effectively Find and Delete Duplicate Files on Mac?

If you don't want to use third-party tools to delete duplicate photos or files, you can use some built-in Mac functions to find and delete duplicate files on Mac. Although these methods may not be as efficient as specialized tools, they can still help you clean up some duplicate files and save storage space.

1. Use the built-in "Photos" app on Mac
The Photos app is the default tool for processing pictures on Mac. Although it does not have a direct "Delete Duplicate Photos" function, you can reduce duplicate photos through some manual operations.

1. Open the "Photos" app and enter your photo library.
2. Select "Photos" or the album you want to view on the left.
3. Use Naming Rules and Time Sorting to help you filter out similar photos.
4. Manually find duplicate photos and delete them.

2. Use Finder to find and delete duplicate files on Mac (manual method)
Although Finder does not have the function of automatically identifying duplicate files, you can manually find and delete duplicate files on Mac with some search techniques and sorting functions.

1. Open Finder and enter the folder where you store photos.
2. Enter common file names (such as IMG, screenshot, etc.) in the Finder search box to see if there are duplicate files.
3. You can sort files by name, date or size to manually filter out duplicate photos.
4. Select the duplicate files and press Command + Delete to delete them.

Advantages:
No need to install additional software, completely rely on the system's built-in tools.
You can control the deleted files to avoid accidental deletion.

3. Use "Storage Management" to clean up space
Although the Mac's Storage Management function cannot directly delete duplicate photos, it can help you identify which files take up a lot of space, thereby helping you clean up unnecessary files.

1. Click the Apple menu and select "About This Mac".
2. Click "Storage" and then select "Manage".
3. In the "Storage Management" interface, select options such as "Photos" or "Documents" to see which files take up the most space.
4. If you find that there are unnecessary photos or files that take up a lot of storage, you can delete them manually.

Advantages:
Convenient and fast, the system comes with a cleanup tool.
It can help you identify large files, not just duplicate files.
Disadvantages:
It cannot automatically delete duplicate files and needs to be filtered manually.