Programs for finding duplicate photos. Programs for finding duplicate files (or how to find identical pictures, photos, documents, audio and video in different folders)

How many photos do you have on your computer? A lot of? And how many of the total do they occupy? copies of photographs? Don't have copies? You are my naive ones.

I have 5624 photos in my photo album. Of these, 251 were duplicates (exact copies). Why do I need them? Do you need extra, absolutely similar photos that take up disk space? That's right - no.

But there is a small, convenient, simple, fast program in Russian that finds and manages identical images. How does he find it? Yes, he finds it very well, even with different names, compressed, changed, inverted. Do you need her?

It is called a program for finding copies (duplicates) of photographs (any images) - Image Comparer. It is very easy to use - see for yourself...

Copies of photos - Image Comparer program

You can always download the latest version from manufacturer's official website. Or using the search.

So we installed Image Comparer. Now you have a shortcut to this program on your desktop...

Now let’s figure out how to actually find copies of photographs...

When you launch it for the first time, this window will appear. The checkmark below is optional.

The first point is to search in the specified (in the next step) folder, and the second (below) is to look for copies between the specified folders...

...select a folder from a photo album, for example...

Everything is clear here...

...specify the placement of the search result, preferably on a non-system drive, but preferably in the (color) photo album folder itself...

...go to the view with pairs of images...

Everything is simple and logical - highlight differences or not, adjust the degree of similarity, mark unnecessary photos and click (Actions)...

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 is quite easy to understand it. 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.

Good day.

Statistics are an inexorable thing - many users have, sometimes, 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 all 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 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).

Let's say you have some 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 version in better quality. 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 :)

Large amounts of built-in memory on smartphones have spoiled us greatly in terms of mobile photography. We no longer try to take a good shot at once, but instead take a series of photos to then choose the best among them. The problem is that after processing and publishing a photo on Instagram, unsuccessful takes most often remain on the smartphone, cluttering the gallery and taking up too much memory. Over time, a disaster occurs in the Photos application - the number of pictures becomes so large that the thought of reviewing all the images and deleting the unnecessary ones is terrifying. For example, I now have 28,602 photos and I can’t even imagine how much time it takes to review them all, compare similar ones, choose the best ones, and delete everything unnecessarily.

Several years ago, MacPaw studio offered Mac users the Gemini application, which scans the drive and helps find duplicate files, and now it has offered the same feature for the photo gallery of mobile devices. Gemini is free to download on the App Store, but you will have to pay for continued use. The developers give you three days to try (this is enough to sort through a relatively small media library), and then you will have to sign up for a subscription with either a monthly or annual payment.

Gemini scans all photos stored locally in the Photos app on the iPhone, but can also work with the cloud library in iCloud if you need to clean up photos synced across all devices. In my case, it took about 15 minutes to analyze all the photos; during this time, the iPhone X got unusually hot at the back, near the camera. Obviously, the application is very resource-intensive, which means that on devices of previous generations, the process of searching for duplicates may take longer. As a result of scanning, Gemini produces two “folders”. One will contain photographs of text, screenshots, blurry photographs and other images that most often do not represent long-term value to us. Found files can be viewed and quickly deleted either some of them or all at once. If some images cannot be deleted either now or during future scans, they can be added to the exclusion list.

The second folder after scanning contains “stacks” of duplicate photos. This is the most interesting thing. The developers came up with some kind of clever algorithm that allows you to automatically select the best photo from a series. For example, if these are people, then priority is given to clear photographs with a smile and open eyes. Street photographs and landscapes are selected based on other criteria. Theoretically, the user should trust the operation of the application and clear the iPhone library of similar and duplicate photos automatically, but after using it I got the feeling that such a step could be reckless. For example, in one of the folders with “identical” photographs, I found views of Istanbul and the Galata Tower taken with the main camera and a selfie against the background of the city with the front camera. In this situation, all groups of images are still worth viewing, otherwise there is a risk of losing some important and memorable photographs.

In general, you won’t be able to clean your media library in a couple of minutes, but Gemini still saves time on putting your photos in order. First, for some groups, all it takes is a quick glance to agree on which image Gemini's algorithms have deemed the best, and all the others can be quickly deleted. Secondly, in the application interface it is easier and more convenient to review grouped similar photos if you want to reassign the best one from the series and move the rest to the trash.

Gemini’s algorithms cannot be called ideal and you can hardly rely on automatic cleaning, but the application still allows you to significantly save time and effort on putting your media library in order. In general, at least for the duration of the three-day trial period