Duplicates can be the bane of any photo collection, we all want to be rid of them, but trying to figure out how to remove them can be very confusing. There are a lot of concerns and questions that can bog us down before we even get started.
- Which duplicate removal application should I use?
- Will it work on a Mac? Will it work on Windows?
- Is it easy to use or do I need to learn a lot before I can start using it?
We get asked about removing duplicates all the time. Many of our Certified Pros have been using professional duplicate removal software for many years, but we realized it might be too difficult for most casual users to learn. With the help from our professional photographer and photo organizer, Peter Bennett, we went on a search for a duplicate removal program that would do a good job but not be hard to learn; we want users to be up and running as quickly as they could.
Peter waded through a number of de-duping programs to find the right one. Some were very simple to use, but did a poor job of finding dupes. Others required a lot of manual checking of results, which can be an enormous amount of work. Others had terrible customer support or were not user friendly.
Peter found Cisdem Duplicate Finder after a lot of trial and error and he thinks it fits the right criteria better than the others he tried. It did a good job of finding and removing dupes, worked on both Windows and Mac, and you could be up and de-duping fairly quickly. It also removes duplicate music files and other documents as well.