How to find and delete identical pictures, images and photos. Programs for finding duplicate photos

Good day!

I think that many users have dozens (or even hundreds) of gigabytes of pictures, wallpapers, videos, music, and other files on their disks. And I should note that in different catalogs (in wallpaper collections, for example) there may be quite a lot of copies (duplicates). Often, after removing them, it is possible to free up several gigabytes of space on the HDD!

There are special programs and utilities to search for duplicates. They are ways to scan your hard drive(s) in a relatively short time and present you with everything that is the same. Then, as a rule, all you have to do is tick off what to delete - and voila, the place is cleared!

In this article I will give several such “cleaners” that will help you free up space on your hard drive. So...

Addition!

Universal (search for any files)

Universal programs for finding duplicates are suitable for working with any files: documents, photographs, videos, etc. As a rule, their work is based on searching for files of the same size and checksum. Those. these programs look for exact copies that match 100%!

Thanks to this, their operating speed is quite high. However, they cannot find, for example, almost identical pictures that are saved in different formats and with excellent resolution. To do this, you need to use a special one. The software I recommend below...

CCleaner

One of the most famous PC cleaning utilities. However, not many users know that its arsenal includes a function for searching for duplicates (and a very good function!).

To open this option: you must download the latest version of the program, in the menu "Service" choose "Search for duplicates" , specify settings and click the button "Find" .

I note that the search is quite fast, you can filter files by their size and name date. You can also manually specify specific drives (folders) to search. In general, quite convenient!

Glary Utilities (Glary Duplicate Cleaner)

Glary Utilities is an excellent set of utilities for all occasions. Contains all the most necessary tools for cleaning, maintaining and optimizing Windows. I have already recommended this complex several times on the pages of my blog...

In its arsenal of built-in software there is one small utility Glary Duplicate Cleaner. It allows you to quickly find duplicates of a wide variety of file formats: TXT, RAR, ZIP, MP3, WAV, AVI, JPG, BMP, etc. (in general, all the most popular ones are definitely there, see the screenshot below).

Setting Scan Settings / Glary Duplicate Cleaner

There is also a small filter with search criteria: by name, size, time. There is an option to skip files of a certain size (for example, you can skip files that weigh less than 100 KB).

I note that the package Glary Utilities is free and fully translated into Russian. In general, rating 5 on a 5-point scale!

AllDup

This is a small free utility that can very quickly scan all your drives and remove all duplicate files. The developers note that their search algorithm is 10-30% faster than other similar products.

Personally, I haven’t checked the speed, but I would note the following: the utility works on all Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8, 10 operating systems (this is a certain advantage!).

After the search, the AllDup utility will present you with the results: you can familiarize yourself with each duplicate and delete it directly from the program interface. Comfortable!

Duplicate File Finder

A free tool for cleaning disks of duplicate files. The program compares files on the specified disk (directory) byte by byte. There are standard filters: file extension, file name, creation date, and size.

You can either view the search result (an example is shown in the screenshot above) in the program itself (and make a decision) or export it to HTML, CSV and TXT files. By the way, I would note that the program has a fairly convenient viewer that allows you to view a picture, text, video.

Total Commander

This famous Commander (a good Explorer replacement) also has a file search function. To open it, click on the “magnifying glass” icon in the top menu of the program (see screenshot above).

Of course, there are not many opportunities here, but nevertheless...

To search for photos, pictures, graphics

These programs can search not only by the size (checksum) of the file, but also by the contents of the picture. For example, you have several identical desktop wallpapers located in two different folders (but these pictures have different sizes and resolutions).

So, the programs given above would not have found these duplicates, because... they “cannot” appreciate what is shown in the pictures. In this case, you need to use special. tools (more about them below)...

Image Comparer

This is a very small utility that specializes in searching for similar images. I note that she compares not just the size, but what is shown in the picture (see screenshot above). All popular image and photo formats are supported: RAW, JPEG, J2K, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF, TGA, etc.

After the search, you will be presented with a list of duplicates: after going through it, you can view all copies and delete those that you do not need. What’s interesting: the program shows you the percentage of similarity of certain pictures (the difference between them stands out as squares when viewed).

Of the minuses: if you specify a large disk (several terabytes), the program will take a very long time to scan. I recommend that you go through the pictures using rougher tools before using it. (for example, CCleaner, AllDup, etc., see above).

DupeGuru Picture Edition

A very simple utility that is designed to quickly search for identical pictures. I note that similar pictures will be found even if they have different formats (for example, JPG and Tiff as in the screenshot above).

Among the advantages of the utility:

visual comparison of pictures;
the program is completely free;
simple interface, designed in a minimalist style;
Russian language support;
ability to export search results;
support for all the most popular versions of Windows XP, 7, 8, 10.

ImageDupeless

Program ImageDupeless allows you to find duplicate pictures, regardless of file size, format, resolution, and other characteristics (it will sort of “look” at all the pictures for you and find similar ones).

The program also has a very interesting function for burning images to CDs (creating a kind of CD galleries).

Note: to save time, compare newly received pictures with an existing gallery (this way you will save a lot of time, because completely scanning all the pictures on the disk is much longer than searching in the created gallery).

Comparison result: please note that the resolution and size of the pictures are different!

Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder

The program uses advanced algorithms to compare graphic images found in pictures and photographs. Thanks to this, it is possible to find similar and identical images, even if they have different formats (GIF, PNG, JPG, etc.) and resolution.

I note that the user has the option to specify a similarity feature (that is, you can set, say, to find only those pictures that are 95% similar to each other).

After conducting a search: you will be able to view all found duplicates and manually delete all unnecessary ones. By the way, the program places 2 identical images next to each other (see example above) so that you can clearly see the difference. Very convenient!

To search audio and video files

Audio Comparer (Electronic Ear)

Audio Comparer - the program will listen to almost 300 tracks in 10 minutes.

Audio Comparer is not as simple an application for finding duplicates among music files (MP3, MP2, MP1, WMA, AIF, WAV, WavPack, FLAC, APE, AAC and OGG) as it might seem at first glance... It " listens to music and compares tracks with each other using a special algorithm: the comparison is made by audio track, and not by size or file name (as is done in many other analogues).

Thanks to this, identical tracks can be found even if they are saved in different formats. Audio Comparer is a kind of electronic ear that can listen to all your music very quickly.

I note that there are quite a few such programs, so each deserves special attention! I recommend you to get acquainted!

DupeGuru Music Edition

A very interesting program dupeGuru Music Edition for searching for identical and similar music tracks. There are filters for searching: by bitrate, information in tags, duration, size, etc.

All the most popular formats are supported: MP3, WMA, AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC. After the search, the found duplicates can either be deleted or moved to other directories.

I would also note the presence of the Russian language and support for modern OS Windows 7, 8, 10 (including 64 bits).

Music Duplicate Remover

Music Duplicate Remover - a utility that allows you to easily and quickly find copies of audio files located in different folders (disks) and saved in different formats. Thanks to its electronic ear technology, it can listen to all your songs on the disc, analyze them and provide you with a report with all similar tracks (an example of such a report is shown in the screenshot above).

I note that the utility works great with standard presets (that is, after downloading and launching it, there is no need to delve into the settings for a long time, you can immediately start scanning).

Note! Music Duplicate Remover supports the following audio formats: MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, APE, WAV.

Duplicate Video Search

Quite a powerful program for deleting identical videos saved in different folders (suitable for those who have a lot of different videos, music videos, top 100 collections, etc.). It will help you “go through” your collection of files and remove all duplicates.

I note that the program uses a unique “cast” technology (i.e., a kind of “electronic eye”), which allows you to find similar videos, even if they are saved in a different format, they have a different resolution and they are compressed with a different codec.

Peculiarities:

The following video formats are supported: AVI, MKV, 3GP, MPG, SWF, MP4, WMV, WTV and FLV (see screenshot above);
search for full copies of videos and similar ones (where excellent resolution, bitrate, format, codec);
the program automatically selects the video with the worst quality among all takes (however, you can manually specify which copy to delete);
convenient and visual presentation of search results: thumbnails for each video and the path to the directory where it is stored;
You can either view the video or delete it directly from the program window.

Video Comparer

Video Comparer - a program designed to search and compare videos on your hard drive. In a relatively short period of time, she can view all your videos and show you in a convenient table all the files that repeat each other (complete takes, similar videos, videos with the same content but different quality, etc.).

I note that the program has various filters that will allow, for example, to search for videos only of a certain format (or set the duration of the video).

Peculiarities:

supports formats: 3GP, AVI, ASF, ASX, WMV, VOB, XVID, MP4, MPEG;
the ability to search among hidden files;
the ability to automatically select similar videos for deletion;
video filters by duration, quality and extension;
convenient presentation of search results: previews for each video; size; the folder where it is located; Name; similarity percentage.
the ability to backup to a separate folder;
logging;
support for almost all popular Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 (32/64 bits).

Additions, as always, are welcome.

Good luck!

Let's say you have some kind of image (drawing, picture, photograph), and you want to find the same (duplicate) or similar one on the Internet. This can be done using special tools from Google and Yandex search engines, the TinEye service, as well as the amazing PhotoTracker Lite browser extension, which combines all these methods. Let's look at each of them.

Search by photo in Google

Provide a link to the image on the Internet
Uploading a file from a computer

As a result, we get a complete list of similar pictures from the image that was chosen as a sample:

There is another good way that works in the Chrome browser. While on the page with the image you are interested in, move the mouse cursor to it, right-click and in the tooltip that opens, select “Find image (Google)”:

You will be immediately taken to the search results page!

Search by images in Yandex

With Yandex, everything is no less simple than with Google :) Follow the link https://yandex.by/images/ and click the camera icon in the upper right corner:

Enter the address of the image on the Internet or upload it from your computer (you can simply drag it to a special area at the top of the browser window):

The search result looks like this:

You instantly have access to the following information:

What are the online dimensions of the image you uploaded as a sample for searching?
List of sites where it appears
Similar pictures (modified based on the original one or based on which the algorithm decided on their semantic similarity)

Many have probably already heard about the online service TinEye, which Russian-speaking users often call Tinai. It is developed by experts in the field of machine learning and object recognition. As a consequence of all this, Tinay is great not only for finding similar pictures and photographs, but their components.

TinEye's indexed image database contains more than 10 billion items, and is the largest in the entire Internet. “Everything can be found here” - this phrase perfectly characterizes the service.

There is another way to search in one click. By default, the “Show quick search icon” item is activated in the application settings. When you point at a photo or picture, a round green icon pops up, clicking on which starts a search for similar images - search results for Google, Yandex, Tinay and Bing will automatically open in new tabs.

The extension was created by our compatriot, whose hobbies are closely related to photography. He originally created this tool to quickly find his photos on other people's sites.

When you might need it

You are a photographer, you post your photos on the Internet and want to see on which sites they are used and where your copyrights may be violated.
You are a blogger or copywriter, write articles and want to choose an “unhackneyed” image for your material.
What if someone uses your photo from your VKontakte or Facebook profile as an avatar on a forum or a fake account on some social network? But this is more than possible!
You found a photo of an actor you know and want to remember his name.

In fact, there are a huge number of cases when searching by photo can be useful. You can give another example...

How to find the original of a given image

For example, you have some kind of photograph, perhaps cropped or photoshopped, and you want to find its original, or a better quality version. How to do it? Conduct a search in Yandex and Google, as described above, or using PhotoTracker Lite and get a list of all images found. Next, follow the following:

The original image is usually larger and of better quality than the altered copy resulting from cropping. Of course, you can set a picture to any size in Photoshop, but when you enlarge it relative to the original, artifacts will always be observed. They can be easily noticed even with a cursory visual inspection.
Original photographs often have watermarks indicating the author of the photo (last name, website address, company name, etc.). Of course, anyone can add a watermark to absolutely any image, but in this case, you can look for a sample photo on the website or by the author’s last name, he probably posts his portfolio online somewhere.
And finally, a very simple sign. If your sample photo is black and white (sepia, etc.), and you find the same, but full-color photo, then you obviously do not have the original. much more difficult than converting a color photo to black and white :)

Good day.

Statistics are an inexorable thing - many users sometimes have dozens of copies of the same file (for example, a picture or a music track) on their hard drives. Each of these copies, of course, takes up space on the hard drive. And if your disk is already “filled” to capacity, then there can be quite a lot of such copies!

Cleaning duplicate files manually is not a rewarding thing, which is why I want to collect in this article programs for finding and removing duplicate files (even those that differ in both file format and size from each other - and this is a rather difficult task !). So…

List of programs for finding duplicates

1. Universal (for any files)

They search for identical files by their size (checksums).

By universal programs, I mean those that are suitable for searching and deleting duplicates of any type of file: music, movies, pictures, etc. (below in the article, “its own” more precise utilities will be given for each type). Most of them work according to the same type: they simply compare file sizes (and their checksum), if among all the files there are identical ones in this characteristic - they show you!

Those. thanks to them, you can quickly find complete copies (i.e. one to one) of files on the disk. By the way, I’ll also note that these utilities work faster than those that are specialized for a specific type of file (for example, image search).

DupKiller

I put this program in first place for a number of reasons:

supports simply a huge number of different formats in which it can search;
high speed;
free and with Russian language support;
very flexible settings for searching for duplicates (search by name, size, type, date, content (limited)).

Duplicate Finder

This utility, in addition to searching for copies, also sorts them as you please (which is very convenient when there are an incredible number of copies!). Also, add byte-by-byte comparison, checksum verification, and deletion of zero-sized files (and empty folders too) to the search capabilities. In general, this program does a pretty good job of finding duplicates (both quickly and efficiently!).

Those users who are new to English will feel a little uncomfortable: Russian is not in the program (maybe it will be added later).

Glary Utilities

In general, this is not one utility, but a whole collection: it will help you delete “junk” files, set optimal settings in Windows, defragment and clean your hard drive, etc. Including this collection there is a utility for searching for duplicates. It works relatively well, which is why I will recommend this collection (as one of the most convenient and universal - as they say, for all occasions!) once again on the pages of the site.

2. Programs for finding duplicate music

These utilities will be useful to all music lovers who have a decent collection of music accumulated on their disk. I’m picturing a fairly typical situation: you download various collections of music (the 100 best songs of October, November, etc.), some of the compositions are repeated in them. It is not surprising that, having accumulated 100 GB of music (for example), 10-20 GB can be copies. Moreover, if the size of these files in different collections were the same, then they could be deleted by the first category of programs (see above in the article), but since this is not the case, then these duplicates cannot be found by anyone except your “hearing” And special utilities (which are presented below).

Music Duplicate Remover

The result of the utility.

This program differs from others, first of all, in its fast search. It searches for duplicate tracks by their ID3 tags and sound. Those. she will listen to the composition for you, remember it, and then compare it with others (thus doing a huge amount of work!).

The screenshot above shows the result of her work. She will present her found copies to you in the form of a small tablet, in which a percentage similarity figure will be assigned to each track. In general, quite convenient!

Found duplicate MP3 files...

This utility is similar to the one above, but it has one undoubted advantage: the presence of a convenient wizard who will guide you step by step! Those. a person who launches this program for the first time will easily figure out where to click and what to do.

For example, in my 5000 tracks in a couple of hours, I managed to find and delete several hundred copies. An example of how the utility works is shown in the screenshot above.

3. To search for copies of pictures, images

If you analyze the popularity of certain files, then the pictures will probably not lag behind the music (and for some users they will surpass them!). It’s hard to imagine working on a PC (and other devices) without pictures! But finding pictures with the same image on them is quite difficult (and time-consuming). And, I must admit, there are relatively few programs of this kind...

ImageDupeless

A relatively small utility with fairly good performance in finding and eliminating duplicate images. The program scans all the images in the folder and then compares them with each other. As a result, you will see a list of pictures that are similar to each other and you will be able to make a conclusion about which one to keep and which one to delete. It is very useful, sometimes, to thin out your photo archives.

An example of ImageDupeless working

By the way, here is a small example of a personal test:

experimental files: 8997 files in 95 directories, 785MB (archive of pictures on a flash drive (USB 2.0) - gif and jpg formats)
gallery occupied: 71.4MB
creation time: 26 min. 54 sec.
time for comparison and output of results: 6 min. 31 sec.
result: 961 similar images in 219 groups.

Image Comparer

I have already mentioned this program on the pages of the site. It is also a small program, but with fairly good image scanning algorithms. There is a step-by-step wizard that starts when you first open the utility, which will guide you through all the “thorns” of first setting up the program to search for duplicates.

By the way, just below is a screenshot of the utility’s operation: in the reports you can view even small details, where the pictures are slightly different. In general, it’s convenient!

4. To search for duplicates of films, videos

Well, the last popular file type that I would like to dwell on is video (films, videos, etc.). If once before, having a 30-50 GB disk, I knew in which folder where and what movie takes up how much (and they were all against each other), then, for example, now (when disks have become 2000-3000 GB or more) - they are often found the same videos and films, but in different quality (which can take up quite a lot of space on your hard drive).

Programs for finding and deleting identical files were considered. The procedure is, of course, necessary, but what to do if you need to detect and erase identical or similar pictures or photographs from your computer? Of course, use a special program.

The utility is called Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder and you can download it from .

It is free, small in size and has a version that does not require installation. The only thing that spoils it is the lack of a Russian-language interface, but it is so intuitive that it’s quite easy to understand. Especially after reading this article.

So, the main program window looks like this:

The found images are shown on the left and right, and the percentage of similarity is shown in the middle between them.
Below the images, their properties are displayed, such as extension, resolution and size (you can focus on them when searching).
By clicking on the picture you can open it in .
1 - allows you to move an image to another folder
2 - opens a folder with an image
3 - deletes to trash

Now about Settings (Settings in the top menu)

On the left you indicate which formats to look for.

Move Files to Recycle Bin- delete file to trash

Delete Files without Confirmation- delete without warning

Search Only 100% Indian Pictures- search only for 100% matching images

Automatically Check for Updates- automatically check for program updates

Set it as you prefer, click OK and read on.

Let's look at this menu

it is needed to add folders for scanning and searching.

In order, the assignment of the buttons from left to right: Add, Delete, Move Up, Move Down, Clear.

Button Start Search- To start searching.

Check mark on Scan Subdirectories- search by subfolders (which are inside).

After the search is completed, if there are results, the program window will look like this:

I deliberately covered up the paths, but the essence did not change.

The bottom part shows the path of the original image (Original Image), a similar image (Dublicate Image) and the percentage of similarity (Similarity).

There is nothing more to explain here, except that switching between found duplicates is carried out in the lower list.
This is how you can quite easily find not only identical pictures and images, but also photos on your computer.

Most programs for cleaning and optimizing Windows have built-in modules for searching and removing duplicates.

True, their effectiveness seems somewhat questionable, since the search for duplicate files is carried out not by their content, but by metadata.

Therefore, it is better to use specialized utilities for these purposes.

There are programs that search for duplicates only among text documents, there are programs designed to search for duplicates of photographs, audio and even video. Today we would like to bring to your attention five applications whose main task is to search for identical and similar images.

Dup Detector

A simple and effective utility for finding duplicate images. Supports JPG, BMP, PNG, TIF, PCX, TGA, WMF, EMF and PSP formats. Dup Detector's capabilities include pixel-by-pixel comparison of images within one or more galleries (folders). A distinctive feature of the program is the option to set the percentage matching range when searching.

Among the disadvantages, the relatively slow speed of operation should be noted. In addition, when displaying results, the utility only shows two images at a time. Interface language - .

DupliFinder

A simple and convenient program for finding and removing duplicate photos and other images. The search is carried out by comparing MD5 checksums. Otherwise the program is similar to Dup Detector. It supports working with subdirectories, displaying the percentage of similarity, and previewing comparison results. Selected duplicates can be deleted. Disadvantages include somewhat slow speed and the need to install a Java package. Interface language is English.

Similar Images Finder

A lightweight program for searching for identical and similar images in various formats. SimilarImages supports about 30 formats, including JPG, JPEG, BMP, PNG, ICO, CUR, as well as the lesser known RAS, PGX, WBMP, MNG, PCX, DCX and some others. It is possible to automatically and manually remove duplicates.

VisiPics

Another good tool for finding the same or similar pictures. Allows you to find images even with minor changes. Works both with individual directories and with entire sections. It is possible to filter by degree of similarity. The supported formats are JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PCX, TIFF, TGA and RAW. The main drawback is the somewhat inconvenient user interface and the lack of Russian language.