As we use our Mac , and in the same way that happens with a PC (that works with Windows), it is normal to start having many files, folders, backup copies and previous installations, which end up being stored on the hard disk, taking up a lot of space.
Even when we have a hard disk with a fairly large storage capacity, the existence of a huge number of duplicate files can end up being a problem not only for the storage capacity itself, but for the proper functioning of the device, especially when they are very heavy or large files.
Not surprisingly, it is usually a fairly common problem to find duplicate files on Mac . And the causes can actually be tremendously varied. For example, it is possible that, by mistake, we have saved the same file in two different folders, or that we have downloaded the same file several times.
On the other hand, another common cause has to do with problems related to the synchronization of our photos and videos, which forced us to stop the process before the synchronization finished.
Obviously, there are several advantages that eliminating duplicate files on Mac offers us . The main one has to do with freeing up space on our hard drive. But we also reach another important advantage: not only will our device go faster, but we will also obtain a much more methodical organization, ideal for knowing exactly where the different files are.
How to find duplicate files on Mac
Although at first detecting duplicate files in macOS may seem like an arduous and complete task, by using smart folders we will discover that it is not that complicated, and we will recover storage space quickly.
To do this, click on File and click on the New Smart Folder option, which will be displayed in the drop-down menu that will appear. Now a new window will open. We click on the ” + ” icon, located next to the Save option.
In the drop-down menu we select the option “Type”, and select the type of file that we want to search (for example, images). We scroll through the different files to see the files we want to delete; yes, if we want to go a little faster, we can order by name .
It is advisable to make sure that these files are duplicated by opening them for comparison. Now, simply right-click on the duplicate files to delete, and hit the Move to Trash button .
However, if you choose to go to the Downloads folder, you should know that macOS identifies duplicate files by including after the file name a parenthesis with a number (which will be related to the number of times that file is hosted in it. binder). For example, if the file ‘hello.pdf’ is repeated once, the next duplicate file will have the name ‘hello (1) .pdf’.
