How To Find Delete Duplicate Files On Mac (5 Basic Steps)

Anyone who buys a Mac expects to experience the best performance. However, that is not always the case. Sometimes you might end up with a few performance problems because the Mac is not optimized.

One of the reasons you end up with reduced performance is that there is less disk space for you to work with. Other than having unnecessary system junk on the disk, sometimes it is the duplicate files that can also cause the performance lag.

For some reason, people always end up with duplicate files taking up unnecessary space. It is why you should consider deleting them. Today, we want to look at more reasons why you should remove the duplicate files on your Mac and the best methods to help achieve this process. Keep on reading to learn more.

Why You Should Delete Duplicate Files on Mac

The most obvious reason would be to free up enough space on your Mac to save the important files. Considering that some duplicate files might take up multiple gigabytes of space, deleting them creates more space on the disk.

The overall performance of the mac improves than before. This is because the Mac now has more disk space to work with improving its overall performance.

Finding a specific file becomes easier as you do not have to go through the multiple copies.

You will also have enough space to make more Time Machine backups to avoid any worries about losing data.

Other than those mentioned above, you can still experience more benefits that come with a faster Mac.

Steps for Finding and Deleting Duplicate Files on Mac

1. Use Gemini 2 Software

We all know how hard it can be manually searching for the duplicate files on your hard drive. It will take a lot of time and it is why we need to consider using a third-party software. The software in question is the Gemini 2 software from MacPaw.

The software has been revised over the years to make it better at identifying the duplicate files even deep in the system. We find that it is ideal for tracking songs, photos, movies, documents, and other file duplicates.

For many, they will find the Gemini 2 software having a fantastic interface that is still easy to use. The onscreen instructions are also understandable so that you do not end up deleting the wrong files from your Mac.

So, how do you use the software to find and remove duplicate files? Simply follow the steps highlighted below.

• Once you install Gemini 2, launch it to access its tools . A window such as the one shown below appears.
• Click on the large “+” sign to select the Folder you want to scan or click on Add or Drop Foldersto go to the second page of the software.
• The second page allows you to add or drop the folders you want to scan for duplicates. Depending on the folder you need to optimize, drag and drop it on the window as shown below. This part is ideal for custom search of duplicate files in various folders.
• Next, click on Scan for Duplicatesin the window that appears. The Gemini 2 software will proceed to scan the selected location for the duplicate files.
• Give it enough time to go through the selected folder to find these duplicate files. The amount of time it takes will vary based on the folder size.

Once the Gemini 2 tool finds these duplicate files, you will have two options on how to deal with them. They include Review Results and Smart Cleanup.

The Smart Cleanup option will automatically delete all the duplicate files the software found on your Mac. Once the software cleans up these duplicate files, you will have the option of seeing what you have deleted. Click on Review Thrashed button to see these files. At this stage, it is still possible to revert some files individually or all of them. If you are satisfied with the deleted files, click on Doneto finish deleting them from your Mac.

The other option was to Review Results. The aim of this part is to check out what duplicate files have been found and decide which ones to delete or keep. If you want to keep some of the files, uncheck them to retain them on your hard drive and delete the rest.

If you follow the steps mentioned above on how to use Gemini 2 software, it should be easy to find and delete the duplicate files on Mac.

Below is a video with more tips on how to use Gemini 2 software.

2. Using iTunes

If you suspect that you have duplicate music files on your Mac, then consider using the iTunes app to find them. Considering you are always using it, sometimes it is possible to have multiple duplicate media files.

To find the duplicate files, Click on File from the iTunes Menu and then point to Library to see more options. From the Menu that appears, click on Show Duplicate Items. That is it. iTunes will go through the files highlighting the files with similar file names as duplicates. You might have to do through the found files manually to find exact duplicates to delete them.

It is worth mentioning that iTunes is limited to searching in your Media Library. Well, since the bulk of your content will be in this category, it is also an ideal way of finding and deleting duplicate files on your Mac.

3. Use Finder

Another easy method to find duplicate files includes using Finder on Mac. From the Finder menu, click on View and choose Show View Options in the menu that appears. A separate window will appear depending on the folder that was open. Choose Kind and Size from this window as shown in the image below.

Click on Use as Defaults so that the files in the folder can be displayed based on the size and kind. This will show you the duplicate files or files with the same size. It should be easy to proceed with deleting such files once you find them grouped under the same size and kind.

4. Work the Terminal Magic

Not every Mac user considers opening the Terminal to type in commands. It is not fun for most users. They always want an interface they can point and click. For the Mac wizards who love to play around with the terminal, then they should find this method great for finding and deleting duplicate files.

The terminal is good for finding duplicate files in large folders. Make sure that you follow the steps keenly to avoid messing up big time. Here is how you use the Terminal for searching duplicate files.

• Open Terminaland then enter the command cd~ followed by the folder name. Let us say you want to search the Documents folder, then you should type cd~ /Documents. Press Enter after writing this command.
• Next, type the following command exactly as it is into your Terminal window.

find . -size 20 \! -type d -exec cksum {} \; | sort | tee /tmp/f.tmp | cut -f 1,2 -d ‘ ‘ | uniq -d | grep -hif – /tmp/f.tmp> duplicate.txt

• The terminal will generate a duplicate.txt file in the folder you were searching. In our case, it is the Documents folder. Open the txt file to see the duplicate files. You can now manually search and delete them from the folder.

Do not forget to empty Trash to completely remove these files from the Mac hard drive.

5. Use MacBooster 8 to Find Duplicate Files

The MacBooster 8 is an honorable mention you can still use to find and delete duplicate files. The manufacturer made the software to be intuitive and easy to use generally. Once you install the software, it should be easy to use it to find the duplicate files on your Mac.

• Once you launch the software, click on the Duplicate Finderoption on the left panel
• Click on Scanfor the software to go through the Mac looking for duplicate files
• Once the software finds these files, select which you want to delete and click on Remove.
• Depending on the size and number of files you want to delete, it takes a few minutes to get the job done.

Just like that, you have cleaned the duplicate files from Mac with MacBooster 8.

In Summary

Duplicate files on Mac take up unnecessary disk space, so consider deleting them more often. Take your time to go through the various methods we have highlighted above to find the one that works for you. We would recommend using the Gemini 2 software as it is thorough in finding these duplicate files and making your job easier deleting them.