How to Find and Delete Duplicate Files on Mac Effortlessly

When facing the issue of Mac’s poor performance, many users seek ways to free up some hard drive space since it is one of the key conditions for the computer’s speed and productivity. Often, the problem is related to multiple duplicates that appear on the machine over time. Repeated files are like a thorn in the eye: you feel it, but sometimes you don’t know where exactly it is hiding. If you check, say, iMac’s 256 GB SSD, you will discover it has more than sixty million files. You definitely are not the one who created many of them. So the question is how a user can detect unnecessary files (like ones that appeared as a result of spontaneous duplication) and what are the ways to remove them from Mac.

There are tons of aggressively marketed expensive apps that claim to be able to resolve the issue in a click. But don’t let anyone dupe you into spending a lot of money and learn how to discover and remove duplicates without extra effort and investments. No matter whether you wish to detect intentional or accidental duplicates, there are several effective methods to deal with them. Three basic ways usually come to mind:

Hand-pick the duplicates with Finder (a time-consuming procedure); Terminal command search; Free or paid duplicate finder software.

Many Macintosh users prefer applications that possess a special built-in clone finding feature capable of detecting duplicate multimedia files (music & video). The algorithm scans libraries only with corresponding types of data. As far as such multimedia files are the ‘heaviest,’ it is logical that many people start the process of cleaning with these items. If you need to catch double images or songs only, such apps may be of great help.

If you don’t want to spend a cent on the detecting software but need a broader functionality, try a free tool like Dr. Duplicator. Apple computer owners can benefit from using this finder utility in case they require an open-source/cross-platform program for detecting copies. The application allows previewing the selected files before deciding whether you want to toss them away.

Speaking about similar or same files stored on the external hard drive, you should understand that it is almost impossible to detect and remove them manually. A good solution is to get something like Dr. Duplicator. Regardless the file name, the software can find the duplicates thanks to its outstanding scanning algorithms that work flawlessly on all versions of Mac OS X, including Sierra.