How to delete duplicate photos on iPhone

Since iOS 16, Photos finds duplicates for you.

1. Open Photos.
2. On iOS 18 or later, scroll down to Utilities and tap Duplicates. On iOS 16 and 17, tap Albums, then Duplicates under Utilities.
3. Tap Merge next to a set, or Select to merge several sets at once.

Merging keeps the highest-quality version, combines details like captions and keywords into it, and moves the other copies to Recently Deleted.

If there's no Duplicates album, Photos either hasn't found any or hasn't finished indexing your library yet. Indexing happens while your iPhone is locked and charging.

The Duplicates album only finds photos that are the same picture: exact copies, or copies that differ only in size, format or small details. It doesn't group:

• several shots of the same moment, where the people moved a little;
• screenshots of the same screen taken at different times;
• duplicate videos;
• blurry or accidental shots you'd delete anyway.

These are often where most of the space is.

1. Open Shiny and allow full access to Photos, so it can compare your whole library.
2. After the scan, tap Duplicate photos. Each group shows the photo Shiny suggests keeping: a favourite, an edited one, the highest resolution or the newest.
3. Compare the photos side by side and change which one to keep if you like.
4. Tap Confirm for each group you're happy with, or Not duplicates if they aren't.
5. Delete everything you confirmed in one go. iOS asks once for the whole batch.

Shiny does the same for similar screenshots, duplicate videos and blurry photos, each in its own list.

Deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, and still use space until they're removed from there. To free the space now, open Photos, go to Utilities › Recently Deleted, unlock it with Face ID or Touch ID, tap Select, then Delete All.

If you use iCloud Photos, deleting a photo on your iPhone deletes it on all your devices and in iCloud.