PowerPhotos > Help > Starting a duplicate search

Starting a duplicate search

To begin finding duplicate photos in your Photos libraries, either click the magnifying glass button in the toolbar, or select “Find Duplicates” from the Library menu. This will present you with a view to set up your duplicate finding.

There are two areas you need to set up to begin your duplicate search

What to search The Find Duplicates command can search one or more Photos libraries at once, looking for duplicate photos. To search a library, drag it from the library list on the left into the area labelled “Choose Libraries to Search”. To remove a library, click the X next to its name.

You also have the option to exclude certain photos from being included in the search. Click the “Exclusions…” button, and you will be given the option to skip looking at photos that are either already in the “PowerPhotos keepers” or “PowerPhotos nonkeepers” albums (e.g. if you performed a previous duplicate search already), are marked as hidden, or already have the keyword named “duplicate” assigned to them in Photos. Note that because OS X does not allow PowerPhotos to access hidden photos from the system photo library, hidden photos will never be analyzed when searching the system photo library, regardless of the setting here.

Duplicate search exclusions configuration sheet

How to compare photos PowerPhotos has two methods that you can use to compare photos to each other and determine whether they are duplicates. Refer to the duplicate comparison options chapter for details on how these work.

Once you’ve set up your search, click the blue “Find Duplicates” button in the upper right corner of the window, and PowerPhotos will begin analyzing your libraries for duplicate photos.

<< Find Duplicates overview
Duplicate comparison options >>