How To Find Similar Photos With Different File Formats

Our Windows PC is the default backup device for most of the users. We backup all our images and data on our smartphones, camera and other devices on our Windows PC. While doing this, you never know if you are accumulating duplicate images on your device. It is important to review all the folders and sub-folders time and again to look for duplicate backups.

Manual processes of looking for similar photos in different folders with different file formats is not an easy task. There might be images that we may have edited or saved in different file format to reduce the size or make it compatible with other devices. Here in this article, you are going to explore the manual methods and the best duplicate photo remover app to find and delete duplicate images.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Windows doesn’t have any such utility to find and delete duplicate photos. The manual method is tiresome and time taking as you will need to manually peep into different folders and sub-folders to look for duplicate images. You may need to perform side-by-side comparison in Windows Explorer. Here is how you can do it!

Manual Method: Delete Duplicate Images Using Windows Explorer

This is the traditional old school method to find and delete duplicate photos. If you are a regular user and don’t deal with photos much, this method can help you remove duplicate images from your device.

Step 1. Open Windows Explorer and click on the ‘Pictures’ folder.

Step 2. Open the first sub-folder and right-click on the empty area to click on the ‘View’ option and then select ‘Large Icons’ option.

Step 3.All the images in the folder will show thumbnail preview so that you can easily scroll through and find and delete duplicate images with different file formats.

Step 4. Right-click on the empty space again and click on the ‘View’ option. This time select ‘Details’ option from the list.

Step 5. Randomly keep on sorting images by Name, Date or Size to look for similar images. Once you are done checking current sub-folder, switch on to the next one and follow the same steps. You may need to switch between different folders or sub-folders to find identical images and remove them. You may also need to open dual interface of Windows Explorer and compare folders side-by-side.

Manual Method: Delete Duplicate Images Using Google Photos

By default, we get 15 GB of storage with a Google account. Google has different utilities and one of them is Google Images to upload all your images on a central place. It has a unique search engine to find and stop duplicate images from getting uploaded. Though the mechanism is not so robust to block all kind of duplicates, if there is an exact match, it can identify and stop the image from getting uploaded.

Change EXIF Information

Before uploading all the images on Google Photos, you can change the metadata and EXIF information of the images so that it becomes easy for you to organize them back on your PC. You can use Photos EXIF Editor to add, edit, or remove EXIF, IPTC, XMP metadata from all the photos in just one click.

This tool is good for naming images, renaming image details, organizing photos in different folders and sub-folders, removing geotag or Google location from the image, remove device information from the image, change file formats or other information of one or multiple images in one go.

Step 1.Sign in to your Google Account and click on the ‘Google Apps’ symbol (the 9 dots) on the top right corner and select Google Photos.

Step 2.You can either go to Albums and Create a new Album in Google Photos or directly upload all the photos by clicking on the ‘Upload’ option at the top right.

Step 3.Google Photos mechanism to distinguish and eliminate exact match will not upload multiple entries of similar photos however if the photo is edited, effects applied or there are major changes, it will not be detected.

Step 4.Once uploaded, check all the images if there is an identical photo that you wish to remove. If you are certain that Google Photos just has unique photos, you can download them back in a different folder.

Step 5.Open two instances of Windows Explorer and compare the old and new folders side-by-side.

Step 6.If you are certain that the new folder has all the required photos, you can delete the old one.

Automated Method: Delete duplicate Images Using Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro

There are numerous duplicate photos remover apps that we have compared, tested and reviewed however Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro is the best duplicate photo remover app that you can use in 2021. Duplicate Photos Fixer can scan internal/external hard drives and other storage devices that we connect to the PC to find and delete duplicate images. It lists out all the found duplicates and groups them to preview and delete duplicate photos on your PC.

How to Use Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro

Step 1.Download and Install Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro from the official website.

Step 2.Complete the setup to install the software by following the on-screen instructions.

Step 3.Open the console and drag photos or click on add photos/ add folders button to specify the folders to scan and find duplicate photos.

Step 4.Adjust the comparison method and set the matching levels to ‘High’ to scan for edited photos, photos with slight changes or photos with major changes. Once configured, click on the ‘Scan for Duplicates’ button to begin the scanning process.

Step 5. Once the scan is complete, the software will take you to the preview panel. It will show you group-wise results of found duplicates for you to select which one to delete or keep.

Step 6.Preview and mark the photos that need to be deleted and click on the ‘Delete Marked’ button to delete them permanently from your PC.

Summing Up

Microsoft is working on this mechanism to add a utility that can automatically find and delete duplicate images from the PC. Till that time, you can try manual methods for fewer images to scan or the automatic method if there are a lot of photos on your device. Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro is one of the best duplicate photo remover tools that you can use in 2021 to find and remove duplicate images.