Go Finder, File, New Smart Folder and make sure This Mac is selected.This is where Smart Folders can help you out. The issue is that they can live anywhere on your device, not just in one folder. So using Terminal can be effective in finding duplicate files on a Mac.
Safest mac duplicate file finder how to#
You can now manually delete the files.Īlso Read: How to Optimize your iPhone for Games and Videos Smart Folders
Now you’ll be able to see the md5 hash and be better able to identify which files are duplicates of each other. Open Finder, Downloads (Or the folder you chose).size 20 \! -type d -exec cksum ’ | sort | tee duplicates.txt – Press Enter. So to scan Downloads you would type cd ~/Downloads. Use the cd command to navigate to the folder you want to scan.Go Finder, Applications, Utilities, Terminal.Presuming you’re familiar with Terminal, here’s what to do next! A wrong move could cause serious issues with you using Mac and you don’t want that. Terminal is a powerful tool that should only be used with caution. There are a number of ways to find duplicate files so let’s look at these in more depth. Given all the other things that can eat into this valuable resource, it becomes a very good practice to clear out duplicates to avoid performance issues with your Mac. The problem is as these files duplicate, especially large files, storage space begins to run out. The simple fact is duplicate files happen due to the nature of computing. Importing photos that were already in iCloud could be one reason, perhaps you couldn’t find a downloaded document so downloaded it again. File duplication can happen for a variety of reasons.