Why Are Duplicate Photos Not Being Deleted?

Understanding limitations when deleting duplicate photos managed by the Photos app.

If Duplicate Detective finds duplicate photos but they do not appear to be deleted after removal, the issue is most likely related to how Apple's Photos app manages its library.

Photos Library Limitations

Apple's Photos app (and the older iPhoto app) stores images inside a managed library package. Due to Apple's sandboxing restrictions, Duplicate Detective cannot directly modify or remove files from within this library.

If you scanned a location that includes the Photos library, the following may apply:

  • Duplicate photos managed by Photos may be moved to the Recently Deleted album within the Photos app rather than your system Trash.
  • You will need to open the Photos app and manually empty the Recently Deleted album to fully reclaim the disk space.

For the best results when looking for duplicate photos:

  1. Export photos first. If you suspect duplicates within your Photos library, export the images to a regular folder on your Mac, then scan that folder with Duplicate Detective.

  2. Scan outside the Photos library. Duplicate Detective works best with photos stored in standard folders (such as your Downloads or Documents folder) rather than inside the Photos library package.

  3. Use Photos' built-in tools. The Photos app has its own duplicate detection feature (available in macOS Ventura and later). For duplicates within your Photos library, this is the most reliable option since it works directly with the library database.

Why Photos Look the Same but Are Not Duplicates

Keep in mind that Duplicate Detective identifies duplicates based on exact file content. Two photos that look identical may have different metadata (such as different dates, locations, or compression settings), which means they will produce different hash values and will not be flagged as duplicates.