How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone

Short answer: iOS has this built in. Open Photos → Albums → scroll to Utilities → Duplicates. Tap Merge on any set, or Select → Merge All. Merging keeps the highest quality version and the combined metadata, and moves the rest to Recently Deleted, where they stay recoverable for 30 days.

If the Duplicates album is missing, two things to check: it needs iOS 16 or later, and it only appears after the phone has finished analysing your library. That analysis runs when the device is locked and charging, so on a big library it can take a day or two after upgrading.

What the built-in album will not do

Apple's Duplicates album is deliberately conservative — it groups photos it is confident are the same photo. That leaves the larger part of most libraries untouched:

• Near-duplicates. The eleven frames of the same sunset, or a burst where you only ever wanted one. These are not duplicates by Apple's definition, and they are usually the biggest count in a camera roll.
• Blurry and out-of-focus shots. Never grouped, because they are not copies of anything.
• Screenshots. Often the single largest pile, and almost never worth keeping once the thing they recorded is done.
• Videos. Usually where the actual gigabytes are. A single 4K clip can outweigh a thousand photos, so a library can look tidy and still be full.

Doing the rest by hand

You can, and for a small library it is the right call. Photos → Albums → Media Types → Screenshots gives you the screenshot pile directly, and Videos sorted by size is the fastest way to find what is really using the space. Select, delete, then empty Recently Deleted — space is not returned until you do.

The reason people stop is volume. Reviewing four thousand photos in a grid, with no record of where you were, is the kind of task that gets abandoned halfway.

Where an app helps

A cleanup app is worth it when the job is too big to hold in your head — it groups what is similar, remembers what you have already decided, and turns the work into one decision at a time.

Photodrift is ours. It finds exact duplicates, near-duplicates, blurry shots, screenshot groups and videos, and you swipe or tap through them one group at a time. Everything is analysed on the device with Apple's Vision framework — no account, no uploads, and it works in airplane mode. Deletions go to Recently Deleted like any other, so the 30-day undo is the same one you already have.

Exact duplicates are free, with no limit. If that is all you need, you do not have to pay us — and if the built-in album already handled it, you do not need us at all.

Before you delete anything

• Check iCloud Photos. If it is on, deleting on one device deletes everywhere. That is usually what you want, but it is worth knowing.
• Recently Deleted still holds the space. For 30 days, deleted photos count against storage. Empty it if you need the space now.
• Shared albums are separate. Photos in Shared Albums do not count against your storage and are not part of any of this.

Written by the developer of Photodrift. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell me and I will fix it.