2 Best Ways to Find and Delete Duplicate Files on Mac

Apple’s MacBooks come with a costly but limited SSD space and barebones option to optimize storage on macOS. So if you’re in the habit of downloading the same files multiple times or just making copies just to be safe, your Mac’s storage tends to swell with files that multiply over time. Removing these duplicates will create more space for new downloads and app installs. However, the task of finding and deleting duplicate files on Mac is daunting.

Even if your Mac is running low on disk space or you like tidy stuff, there’s good reason to get rid of duplicate files (documents, photos, apps, downloads, packages, music, video, etc.). By removing duplicate files, you can better organize your existing files and get a convenient backup to cloud storage or external drives.

Let’s explore two ways to find and remove duplicate files on your Mac.

Create Smart Folders to Find and Remove Duplicate Files on Mac

Finder on macOS offers Smart Folders, a universal search criteria option to find all types of files. For example, you can search for audio, video, documents and other files from a window; You don’t need to type the terms over and over again.

Stage 1: Open a Finder, click File and select New Smart Folder.

Step 2: From the window that opens, click the + icon in the upper right corner and add the search field.

Note: By default, Smart Folders will select “This Mac” as the search location. You can change it to Macintosh HD or a Shared folder from the top.

Stage 3: Select the first drop-down option to choose between the type of search, ranging from Date Last Opened, Date Last Modified, Created to, Name, Content, and Others.

If you select Others, you’ll see a new popup asking you to choose one of several features.

Step 4: From the second drop-down menu, choose the type of file you want to search, from application to text.

Depending on how you customize your search, you can continue to press the + icon in the upper right corner to further customize the two drop-down menus.

For external drives, you need to click on the External Drive name from the left side pane under Locations. Then press Command+F to launch Smart Folders and then select your External Drives name at the top. It’s boring, but that’s how it works.

Let’s say you can search for Images that were opened in the last month. And that should show you a list of images you’ve accessed in that month. The more you fine tune your search queries.

Use Gemini 2 to Find and Delete Duplicate Files on Mac

If you don’t want to create tedious search criteria for Smart Folders, you can purchase a third-party duplicate file finder app. We recommend the slick Gemini 2 as it’s fluid and fast with a nice user interface. It comes with a trial version that gives you an almost premium experience in the full version.

Even if you want to check how much duplicate trash your Mac has accumulated, Gemini is the best tool for testing the waters. Just download and install the Gemini 2 trial version. Then let it scan all the duplicate files and folders on your system.

First, the Gemini app creates a folder map for the selected location. It also makes it easy for the app to quickly search for the same location a second time.

For this guide, we decided to search for duplicate multimedia files on an external 4TB hard disk drive. So the search took some time compared to the one on the Mac’s onboard SSD storage.

When the search is complete, you will receive a notification for it. This window is so awesome that you can click on the different colors of the ring to view a breakdown of the duplicate content types (Audio, Files, Apps, etc.) it finds. Pretty cool, right?

Ideally, you should be fine with the Smart Cleanup option to get rid of these duplicates. However, you can click the Review Results button to examine whether these matches actually contain the files you need. We recommend this instead of pressing Smart Cleanup for the first time. Because the duplicate search results will give you a nice three-column view of the files and folders the app has found.

For folders, click on the corresponding in the middle column to view the content in the right pane. The left column shows a classified list of definitive copies.

Now it’s entirely up to you where you want the app to deselect certain files or folders from its search. After all, it’s an app and it can’t read your brain to leave a certain type of file or folder alone.

One of my favorite features of this app is that it gives you the option to review its actions. When you press this button, it will send all these duplicate files to Trash. This means you still have one last chance to review those files. You can also recover them from Trash before deleting them permanently.

There is an option for you to let the app delete these duplicate files directly from the locations in Preferences > Removal. However, if you need it later, check out our guide on recovering files emptied from Trash on Mac.

If you have a lot of data that you need to review frequently, you can get Gemini 2 from the official MacPaw store for $19.95 for an annual license or pay $44.95 upfront for a lifetime one-time purchase.

Get Gemini 2 from the MacPaw Store

Zip, Zap, Zoom

Gemini 2 can scan your music libraries, system files and even external storage to find and remove these duplicate files that are taking up space. In the end, even 50MB to 1GB of space can make a world of difference when needed.

I use Gemini 2 with Smart Folders to keep my 128GB MacBook Air free of unnecessary clutter. If storage and organization are really important to you, you should try at least one of these two solutions in this post.

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