staff@slashgear.com (Jordan Wirth)
2024-04-20 09:30:02
www.slashgear.com
Both Android and iPhone offer easy ways to remove unintentional copies of photos and files congesting your device. Google Photos on Android detects duplicates automatically and removes them in the background; duplicates in your photo album are likely just nearly identical shots from the same photoshoot. Some photos may creep into your local storage, though, such as if you saved a photo to your Downloads folder to upload to a website. In that case, Files by Google can, in a few taps, remove any duplicate files (photos or otherwise) it identifies. Files is an excellent app for decluttering, in general, so open it every couple of months to trim all the excess.
The iPhone does not have automatic duplicate removal. Head to the Photos app, then to Albums > Utilities > Duplicates. There, you can merge duplicates to retain the highest-quality image and metadata of both images. Note: iPhone uses on-device processing to find duplicates, so it may take a couple of days after taking them before they show up on your device.
You’ll have to find duplicate files on your iPhone manually, or download a third-party app; the platform does not have a Files by Google equivalent. If you have a cloud storage app for backing up photos or videos on either device, consider enabling Smart Storage (for Android) or Optimize Storage (for iPhone). Both automatically free up space by offloading photos and videos, downloading them only when you need them later.