PhotoDedupe - macOS Help Documentation

Overview

PhotoDedupe is an AI-powered photo deduplication tool that helps you find and remove similar or duplicate photos from your Apple Photos library. It uses advanced similarity detection to identify photos that look alike and provides intelligent recommendations for which ones to keep or delete.

Workflow

1. Initial Scanning

When you launch PhotoDedupe, you'll see the home screen with two scanning options:

• Scan All Photos - Analyzes your entire Photos library
• Quick Test (100 Photos) - Tests the app with a limited number of photos (useful for first-time users)

Analysis of all photos in large libraries can take 10+ minutes. The first time analysis will take longer but the results will be cached for future use and shared between all of your devices. Subsequent analyses will be much faster.

2. Reviewing Groups

After scanning completes, you'll see a grid view displaying all groups of similar photos. You can adjust the similarity threshold to customize how similar you want photos in each group. The default 90% threshold will usually group photos of the same scene with a low chance of including completely different scenes.

Group Status:

• Groups without a green checkmark need review
• Groups with a green checkmark have been processed and accepted
• By default accepted groups are hidden although that behavior can be changed using the Show Accepted checkbox in the main toolbar.

3. Detailed Review

Click any group (or press Return when selected) to open the detail view.

The detail view shows:

• Left Sidebar - List of all photos in the group with detailed information
• Right Preview - Large preview of the currently selected photo
• Quality Scoring - Each photo is ranked by resolution, file size, and favorite status

Making Decisions:

• Photos are automatically suggested for Keep (best quality) or Trash (others)
• Toggle any photo between Keep/Trash using the Keep/Trash buttons or pressing Space
• Photos marked "Trash" will show a red badge

4. Accepting Changes

Once you're satisfied with your selections in a group:

1. Click Accept Selections (or press Return)
2. Trashed photos are moved to the app's internal trash
3. The group is marked as accepted (green checkmark appears)
4. You return to the grid view

Note: Photos are not permanently deleted until you empty the trash.

5. Managing Trash

The trash count appears in the toolbar when photos are marked for deletion.

To manage trash:

1. Click the Trash button (shows count) in the toolbar
2. Review all trashed photos organized by group
3. Options:
   • Restore Individual Photos - Click the restore icon on any photo
   • Restore All - Click "Restore All Photos" to undo all trash decisions
   • Empty Trash - Permanently delete all trashed photos

When emptying trash:

• A confirmation dialog appears
• Photos are permanently deleted from your Photos library
• Deleted photos move to Photos' "Recently Deleted" album (30-day recovery period)

Toolbar Options

Similarity Threshold Button

Icon: Slider icon with percentage (e.g., "90%")

Purpose: Controls how similar photos must be to be grouped together

How to use:

1. Click the button to open the threshold slider
2. Adjust the slider between 70% and 100%
3. Release the slider to apply the new threshold

Effects:

• Lower threshold (70-85%): More groups, includes photos that are somewhat similar
• Higher threshold (95-100%): Fewer groups, only nearly identical photos
• Default threshold (90%): Fewer groups usually of the same scene even though there might be some differences in the scene
• The display shows estimated trash/keep sizes based on current threshold

When to adjust:

• If you see too many false positives (unrelated photos grouped together), increase the threshold
• If you want to catch more subtle duplicates, decrease the threshold

Min Group Size Button

Icon: Photo stack icon with number (e.g., "2+")

Purpose: Filters groups by minimum number of photos so you can focus only on very similar groups (although sometimes if there is a big enough change you will find a very similar photo by itself in a group of 1 that you may want to keep or trash)

How to use:

1. Click the button to open the size slider
2. Adjust between 1 and 10 photos

Show Accepted Toggle

Icon: Checkmark circle (filled when enabled)

Purpose: Toggle visibility of groups you've already processed

States:

• Enabled: Shows all groups (including accepted ones with green checkmarks)
• Disabled: Hides accepted groups, showing only groups that need review

Use case: Hide accepted groups to focus on remaining work

Trash Counter

Icon: Trash can with number (e.g., "45")

Purpose: Shows how many photos are currently in trash

Interaction:

• Click to open the Trash Management sheet
• Only visible when trash contains photos

Keyboard Navigation

PhotoDedupe is designed for efficient keyboard-driven workflows, allowing you to review and process hundreds of photos quickly.

Grid View Navigation

Arrow Keys:

• ← Left Arrow - Move to previous group
• → Right Arrow - Move to next group
• ↑ Up Arrow - Move up one row
• ↓ Down Arrow - Move down one row

Quick Actions:

• Space - Toggle group acceptance with default recommendations
  • If group not accepted: Accepts suggestions (keeps best, trashes others)
  • If group already accepted: Reverts acceptance
• Delete - Trash all photos in the selected group and mark as accepted
• Return - Open the selected group for detailed review

Detail View Navigation

Navigation:

• ↑ Up Arrow - Navigate to previous photo in the group
• ↓ Down Arrow - Navigate to next photo in the group

Actions:

• Space - Toggle current photo between Keep and Trash
  • If in Trash state → moves to Keep
  • If in Keep state → moves to Trash
• Return/Enter - Accept selections and return to grid view
• Escape - Cancel and return to grid view without accepting

Preview Updates:

• The large preview on the right updates as you navigate with arrow keys
• Current photo is highlighted with a colored border in the left sidebar

Tips for Efficient Workflows

Speed Processing Workflow

For quickly processing a large library:

1. Grid View Quick Review:

• Use arrow keys to navigate through groups
• Press Space to accept suggested decisions (great for standalone photo acceptance)
• Press Delete for groups where you want to trash everything
• Press Return only for groups that need detailed review

2. Detail View Power Usage:

• Use ↓/↑ arrows to navigate photos
• Use Space to quickly toggle decisions
• Press Return to accept and move to next group
• Press Escape to skip groups without changes

3. Batch Processing:

• Process groups from newest to oldest (default sort)
• Use "Show Accepted" toggle to hide completed work
• Adjust similarity threshold to focus on clear duplicates first
• Increase min group size to tackle large clusters first

Other Options

• Quick Test first: Test with 100 photos to verify settings before full scan
• Adjust threshold: Start with default (90%) and adjust based on results

Troubleshooting

No Duplicates Found

If scan completes with no groups:

1. Lower the similarity threshold (try 80-85%)
2. Ensure you have actual duplicate or similar photos
3. Check if min group size is set too high

Groups Contain Unrelated Photos

If false positives appear:

1. Increase similarity threshold (try 95-98%)
2. Photos with similar colors/compositions may be grouped
3. Review and manually adjust decisions in detail view

Keyboard Navigation Not Working

If keys aren't responding:

1. Click on the window to ensure it has focus
2. In grid view, click a group to establish initial focus
3. In detail view, focus is automatic on macOS

Technical Notes

System Requirements

• macOS 14.0 or later
• Physical Mac with Apple Silicon or A12+ chip
• Neural Engine required for AI processing
• Photos library access permission

Privacy & Permissions

• Requires "Full Access" to Photos library
• Processing happens entirely on-device
• No data is sent to non-Apple servers

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