Gigback

How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone

By Filip Djordjevic, who makes Gigback · Updated

Short answer: To delete duplicate photos on iPhone, open the Photos app, tap Collections, scroll down to Utilities, tap Duplicates, then tap Merge on each set. Photos finds duplicate photos and videos by itself while the iPhone is locked and connected to power. Copies removed by a merge wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Different shots of one moment, and bursts, you sort yourself.

Where is the Duplicates album on iPhone?

In iOS 26 and iOS 27, the Duplicates album is in the Photos app, under Collections, in the Utilities section. Apple added it in iOS 16, and it holds duplicate videos as well as photos. Apple’s guides call it both an album and a collection; they mean the same place. Older versions differ: on iOS 18, tap Utilities, then Duplicates; on iOS 16 and 17, tap Albums, then Duplicates below Utilities.

How to merge duplicate photos and videos

You remove duplicates in Photos by merging each set, which leaves one item where the copies were.

  1. Go to the Photos app on your iPhone.
  2. Tap Collections, scroll down to Utilities, then tap Duplicates.
  3. Tap Merge to combine a set of duplicates, then tap Merge [number] Items.

Repeat for each set. Apple’s iPhone guide for iOS 17 described what a merge keeps: it “combines the highest quality version and all of the relevant data across the duplicates, and keeps that one in your library. The remaining duplicates are moved to the Recently Deleted album.” The guide for iOS 26 leaves that sentence out. Apple’s current guide for Photos on Mac describes the same result: one original appears where the duplicates were, and the others go to Recently Deleted, where you can recover them within 30 days.

A merge does not free space at once. Apple keeps deleted photos and videos in Recently Deleted for 30 days. To clear them sooner, tap Collections, tap Recently Deleted (below Utilities), tap View Album and unlock your iPhone, then tap Select, choose the items, tap the More button and tap Delete. With iCloud Photos, a deletion applies on all your devices. Why deleted photos still take up space

Why is there no Duplicates album on my iPhone?

Either your iPhone has not finished indexing your library, or it has found no duplicates. Apple says detection needs the iPhone to be locked and connected to power. Depending on the size of your library and what else is running in the background, it can be quick or take up to a few days. To check, open Photos, tap Library and scroll down: while indexing is still going, a status message appears at the bottom. If you still don’t see the Duplicates album, Apple’s answer is that your iPhone has not identified any duplicates.

Does the Duplicates album find similar photos and bursts?

Apple describes the Duplicates album as a tool for copies, not for choosing between different shots. A merge leaves a single original where the duplicates were, and Apple’s iPad guide names the confirmation Merge [number] Exact Copies. Apple’s guides do not describe it picking the best of several takes of the same group photo, so those are yours to sort. In your library, tap Select, tap the ones you don’t want, then tap the Delete button.

Bursts have their own tool. Apple’s Burst mode guide has you choose the frames to keep:

  1. Tap the Burst thumbnail, then tap Burst (number). Gray dots below the thumbnails mark the suggested photos to keep.
  2. Tap the circle in the lower-right corner of each photo you want to save as an individual photo, then tap Done.

To delete the entire burst, tap the thumbnail, then tap the Delete button.

How Gigback handles this

If Photos finds your copies, its Duplicates album may be all you need. Gigback’s Smart tab runs its own scan on your iPhone and sorts what it finds into groups. Three of them are about repeats.

Duplicates

The same photo saved more than once, even months apart. The scan reads a small preview of each photo that is already on your iPhone and makes a visual fingerprint of it: a record of which parts of the picture are lighter than their neighbors. Two photos count as copies only when they have the same shape, their fingerprints all but match, and a second, finer comparison agrees. A frame that is almost one flat tone, such as an all-black shot, has no picture to compare, so it is never matched to another. Screenshots are left out, because two different tickets from one app can look alike at that size; old ones have a group of their own.

One copy in each set stays: a favorite first, then a copy that is in one of your albums, then the one with the most pixels, then the largest file, then the oldest. The other copies come preselected, unless they are favorites or in one of your albums.

Duplicate videos

A video counts as a copy when it has the same frame size, the same length to within a fraction of a second, and a matching fingerprint of a still from it. Screen recordings are left out for the same reason as screenshots. The copy that stays is chosen the same way as for photos.

Similar shots

Runs of near-identical photos taken within minutes of each other, such as several takes of one group photo. The best one is marked: a favorite if there is one, otherwise the sharpest frame, and where there are faces, how well they were captured counts most. Nothing in this group is preselected. Choosing between takes is a judgment call, so you pick what goes; Select All ticks everything except the marked photo.

Before anything is deleted

That rule holds in every group: favorites and photos in your albums are never preselected. What you choose moves to Gigback’s review bin and stays in your library until you delete it from there. iOS then asks you to confirm, and the photos wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Gigback does not merge the way Photos does: nothing is carried over from a binned copy to the one you keep. The scan runs on your iPhone with Apple’s on-device frameworks and does not download from iCloud. Gigback has no servers, and your photos are never uploaded. Every group is free to look through, as is one cleanup of up to 20 items; clearing whole groups takes Gigback Pro.

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