How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone
Short answer
Open Photos, go to Collections › Utilities › Duplicates, and tap Merge on each set, or tap Select, then Select All, then Merge. Photos keeps the highest quality version with the relevant data and moves the rest to Recently Deleted. The album only catches copies, not similar shots taken seconds apart.
Use the Duplicates album
The Duplicates album has been built into Photos since iOS 16. Detection runs automatically in the background, so on a big library it can take a while to appear. If you have no duplicates, the album doesn't show at all.
- Open Photos and tap Collections. On iOS 18, scroll down instead.
- Under Utilities, tap Duplicates.
- Tap Merge next to a set, then confirm. To do many at once, tap Select, choose the sets or tap Select All, then tap Merge.
Merge combines the highest image quality and relevant data into one photo. The other copies move to Recently Deleted.
Merging doesn't free space right away. The extra copies sit in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Empty it when you want the space back.
What the Duplicates album misses
Apple's album finds copies of the same photo: a saved image you downloaded twice, or the same shot imported from two places. It doesn't group photos that are similar but not identical, like the eight shots you took of the same sunset a second apart, or a burst of your dog. Those usually take far more space than true copies.
For similar shots, the manual route is scrolling your library by date and picking a keeper from each run of near-identical photos. That works, but on a library of thousands it takes hours.
Doing it with SlashPhotos
SlashPhotos splits this into two groups. Exact duplicates are byte-for-byte copies, and one of each is kept. Similar shots are photos taken seconds apart; SlashPhotos suggests a keeper, and you confirm it yourself, because only you know which one you want. Nothing in Similar shots is pre-selected.
Questions
Why don't I see a Duplicates album on my iPhone?
Either your iPhone has found no duplicates, or it hasn't finished checking. Detection runs in the background after you update and can take some time on a large library. It needs iOS 16 or later.
Does merging duplicates delete them from iCloud?
With iCloud Photos on, yes. Changes sync to all your devices, and the extra copies go to Recently Deleted everywhere.
Which copy does Merge keep?
Apple says Merge combines the highest image quality and the relevant data into one photo, and moves the other copies to Recently Deleted.