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Bonniewest's avatar
Bonniewest
Bronze Contributor
Feb 20, 2025

Is there any good duplicate file finder on Mac?

I usually use Windows 11, but I occasionally use Mac for work. Recently, I found that the hard disk space of Mac is getting less and less. I want to clean it up. As a result, I found that there are m...
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RonaldWhite's avatar
RonaldWhite
Iron Contributor
Feb 20, 2025

I usually use Windows 11, but I have to switch to Mac occasionally for work. Some time ago, I also encountered the problem of my hard drive being full of duplicate photos. Manual cleaning was too troublesome... After a round of research, I finally found several useful duplicate file finder for mac methods, sharing with you!

Method 1: Use Finder + Smart Folder 
Mac's built-in Finder can actually help you find duplicate files on mac. Although it is not smart enough, you don't need to install software.

  1. Open Finder and click File → New Smart Folder.
  2. Click the "+" sign in the upper right corner, and then filter by file type, date, and size.
  3. Manually compare the file name and size to find duplicate files.
  4.  Suitable for small-scale sorting, but if there are many files, this method is too time-consuming...

 

Method 2: Use Terminal Command
If you know a little about command lines, you can use Terminal commands to find duplicate files.
Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities).

Enter the following command to let Mac find duplicate files (for example, in the Downloads folder):

find ~/Downloads -type f -exec md5 {} \; | sort | uniq -w32 -d


This command will list the duplicate file paths according to the file MD5 checksum calculation.
You can delete these duplicate files manually.

 Advantages: Pure Mac built-in function, no software installation required.
Disadvantages: Need to know some terminal operations, and only list the file path, will not automatically delete.

 

Method 3: Use Duplicate File Finder on Mac 
If you are too lazy to toss and want to get it done quickly, then use a tool like Duplicate File Finder for Mac, scan + delete in one step.
Recommend a few useful ones:

  • Duplicate File Finder (free version works, paid version unlocks more features)
  • dupeGuru (open source and free, the interface is a bit ugly but useful)
  • Easy Duplicate Finder (trial version can scan, but you have to pay to delete)

 

If you have a lot of files, it is recommended to use a tool like duplicate file finder for Mac directly, which saves time and effort!

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