How to Save Space on Your Phone: Delete the Dupe Photos

Get more tips for managing digital clutter and freeing up storage on your devices

Key takeaways

• Free up smartphone storage by finding and merging duplicate photo collections.
• Follow built-in tools to quickly identify and remove redundant images.
• Save time by merging all duplicate iPhone photos at once.
• Reduce photo library clutter with Samsung Galaxy duplicate cleanup features.

Summary

Duplicate photos can quietly consume valuable smartphone storage, making it harder to manage your photo library and leaving less room for new pictures and videos. Ed Baig explains how duplicate images often appear after syncing devices, importing files or using cloud services and apps.

The segment walks through simple steps for finding and removing duplicate photos on iPhone and Samsung Galaxy devices. Using built-in tools to merge or delete extra copies can help reclaim storage space and keep your photo collection better organized.

The key takeaways and summary were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Full transcript

[0:00:00] Storage space on our smartphones is a precious resource, especially considering

[0:00:04] all the space-hogging photos and videos many of us capture with the devices.

[0:00:09] What you may not realize, though, is that many of the images on your phone

[0:00:13] could be duplicates or even triplicates.

[0:00:15] They land there when we sync up or import data from computers,

[0:00:19] cloud services, sometimes apps.

[0:00:22] If you'’e like me, you might be blown away, in fact, by just

[0:00:25] how many duplicates you have.

[0:00:25] Though I’d wager most of you don’t come near the 16,000 clone

[0:00:31] photos that are on my iPhone.

[0:00:34] Here’s how to find out how many duplicates you have on your own device

[0:00:37] and what to do once you’ve found them.

[0:00:40] If you have an iPhone, launch the Photos app and tap Albums

[0:00:44] at the bottom of the screen.

[0:00:46] Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap Duplicates.

[0:00:50] You’ll see thumbnails of the identical images side by side.

[0:00:54] To remove the dupes, tap the Merge button, and then tap Merge 2 Exact Copies.

[0:01:01] Fortunately, you can merge all your duplicate photos en masse.

[0:01:06] From the Duplicates album, tap Select on the upper right corner of the screen,

[0:01:11] then Select All on the upper left.

[0:01:13] Then tap Merge at the bottom of the screen, and you’re all set.

[0:01:18] If you’re an Android user, deep-sixing dupes varies by device.

[0:01:22] If you have a Samsung Galaxy, start by opening the Gallery app

[0:01:26] where photos on the device live, and tap the three horizontal

[0:01:30] lines in the bottom right corner.

[0:01:32] Next, tap Suggestions, and then tap Delete Duplicate Pictures.

[0:01:37] As with iPhone, you’ll be able to cherry-pick the duplicate photos

[0:01:41] and videos you want to get rid of by tapping the Move to Trash button.

[0:01:46] For more tech tips, visit aarp.org/tech