Mac Photos Duplicates Not Showing

Why duplicate photos aren’t showing on Mac?

The duplicates feature doesn’t appear in your Photos app for several reasons. Your Library is too large, causing delays in the detection process. The scanning process may be incomplete. The Photos app could be affected by software bugs. Your Mac could be running on low system resources, or Photos could’ve skipped syncing due to minor differences in resolution or metadata.

How duplicate detection works in the macOS Photos app?

macOS automatically detects duplicates in the Photos app and houses them in the left sidebar. This simplifies finding and managing duplicate images, which can help you manage your MacBook’s storage.

Be aware that this only works if the Photos library is the System Photo Library. Referenced libraries (images stored outside the system library) may not be analyzed for Duplicates. Now that you know where photos are stored on a Mac, you can check to see if the Duplicates folder appears. But remember that the photo duplicates function is only available in macOS Ventura and later releases (for example, Sequoia and Sonoma). It is not available in macOS Monterey and earlier versions.

A note from our experts: 

 

Finding duplicate photos shouldn’t be a complex or time-consuming task. With MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder, you can locate and remove unwanted duplicates within minutes—without jumping through hoops. The tool automatically detects and lists photo duplicates, so you don’t have to figure out how to find duplicate files on Mac yourself. All you have to do is confirm the files you want to delete and get rid of them with the click of a button. Notarized by Apple, MacKeeper leaves you assured that your data is safe using this secure and malware-free tool.

 

Follow these steps to manage duplicate photos with MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder:

1. Download and install MacKeeper on your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air device.
2. Select Duplicates Finder from the sidebar (you’ll find it in the Cleaning section) and hit the Start Scan button.
3. When the scan is finished, ensure you select Duplicates and press Remove Selected.

MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder does more than delete photos from a MacBook. It also helps you get rid of similar photos and screenshots to free up more disk space and get rid of unwanted files.

How to make duplicate photos show up on a MacBook?

You can reinstate the duplicate photos function on your computer. If you want to see duplicate photos on your Mac again, restart your Mac device and reopen the Photos app. Update macOS and the Photos app. Add duplicate photos to the Photos app to activate this feature. Restart the photoanalysisd background process. Disable and enable Spotlight access for Photos. Use third-party tools to scan for duplicates.

1. Restart your Mac and the Photos app

Sometimes the duplicate scanning process doesn’t start until the app or device is restarted. For this reason, our first solution is often to restart our devices and reopen the Photos app, as this is the simplest and quickest fix.

Restarting your Mac is a straightforward process. Follow our hints below to get started:

1. Exit the Photos app and shut down your computer. Make sure you don’t select the option to reopen apps at startup.
2. Power up your Mac and avoid opening any apps.
3. Keep your Mac awake for hours or overnight to give the Photos app enough time to identify duplicates.

2. Update macOS and Photos App

Mac improved the duplicate detection function in the latest versions of macOS Ventura and Sonoma, so we often check for system updates to keep it running smoothly.

You can check for macOS updates by following these steps:

1. Click on the Apple logo > System Settings > General > Software Update.
2. Your Mac will search for new updates. If it finds any updates, click the Update Now button to implement them.

3. Add duplicate photos to the Photos app to activate this feature

We recommend testing the duplicate photos function to see if it’s up and running again. The idea is to confirm that whatever you’ve tried so far has worked, instead of waiting until you need the function in the future. This is a simple process—simply add duplicates and check if they appear on the left of your Photos app.

4. Restart the photoanalysisd background process

Mac’s photoanalysisd process scans and analyzes images in the Photos app for people, scenes, and objects, and performs other background tasks. When inactive, Photos won’t finish analyzing for duplicates. In such cases, we typically close the photoanalysisd background process to restart it, though analysis can take time.

Here’s how to use Activity Monitor to manually restart the photoanalysisd process:

1. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
2. Find the photoanalysisd process on the list, select it, and click the X icon > Force Quit.

An explanation from the MacKeeper team: We’d like to note here that photoanalysisd runs machine-learning analyses for People/Scenes/Objects. So, if you recently upgraded macOS or imported many images, photoanalysisd may take a while and use substantial CPU in the process.

5. Disable and enable Spotlight access for Photos

If you still don’t see the Duplicates folder in your Photos, chances are that your Mac hasn’t indexed your photo library using Spotlight. When this happens, we simply reset indexing by removing and re-adding the Photos Library folder in Spotlight privacy settings.

Follow this approach to do the same:

1. Go to the Apple menu > System Settings > Spotlight.
2. Find Spotlight Privacy in the lower-right corner.
3. Click the add (+) button.

6. Use third-party tools to scan for duplicates

If you’ve exhausted your options and are still stuck, try using reputable third-party apps. Third-party uninstallers automate the process of finding duplicate photos, helping you manage them in just a few clicks, including deleting duplicate photos on a Mac.

Take MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder, for example. It’s a fast, safe, and effective solution for locating and managing duplicate photos and similar files, like screenshots, removing the hassle of doing it manually.

What to do when duplicates aren’t showing in Mac Photos?

It’s not the end of the world when the Duplicates folder disappears from your Mac’s Photos app. Use the fixes we’ve listed in our handy guide to make the folder reappear. You can either restart your Mac device and reopen the Photos app, find and implement macOS and Photos updates, or add duplicate photos to the Photos app to activate the duplicates function.

Other options include restarting the photoanalysisd background process by closing it in Activity Monitor, disabling and enabling Spotlight access for Photos, and using trusted third-party tools to scan for duplicates.

To that end, we recommend MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder for identifying and managing photo duplicates within minutes. MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder saves you time by safely deleting duplicate photos without compromising other files and photos. Try it and see the results for yourself.