[3 Ways] How to Delete Duplicate Photos on iCloud

How can you delete duplicate photos on iCloud to optimize limited storage on iCloud? You can find answers in this guide.

By @Demi Last Updated September 11, 2024

 

How to delete duplicate photos from iCloud

Is there a way to delete duplicate photos from iCloud? Through the process of migrating all photos of my laptop to iCloud, I now have thousands of duplicates. Is there a way of automating removal rather than the stupid and time-consuming task of deleting one by one?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

- Question from Apple Community

iCloud is a nice and popular solution to backup your iPhone. But duplicate and similar photos in iCloud waste the limited space in iCloud. How do you delete duplicate photos on iCloud? Here comes this guide provides you with three ways about how to delete duplicate photos on iCloud.

Why is iCloud duplicating your photos?

• The enabled iCloud Photo Library. Things usually happen when you take photos with friends or family. You may take more than one photo in seconds so that you can pick the most satisfying one. However, because you’ve enabled iCloud Photo Library, all photos are automatically uploaded to iCloud in the background so that your iCloud is full of duplicate and similar photos.

• Upload the same photos to iCloud more than once. Chances are that after you manually upload a photo via iCloud client on computer, iCloud will automatically upload it again on iPhone without any detection.

Now, it’s time to remove duplicate photos from iCloud. There are three ways for you to view iCloud backup photos and delete duplicate photos from iCloud. Look through them one after another and choose one to help you out.

Method 1. Manually remove duplicate photos from iCloud on iPhone

If you have enabled iCloud Photos on iPhone, all photos in the Recents album should have been uploaded to iCloud, so you can delete duplicate photos from iCloud on iPhone. It’s also a good way to delete duplicate photos on iPhone that haven’t been uploaded to iCloud.

Step 1. Go to the Photos app > Select Albums at the bottom > Choose Recents.

Step 2. In the Recents, browse and choose the duplicated photos you’d like to delete > Click the trashcan icon to delete them.

Step 3. When a prompt says “This photo will be deleted from iCloud Photos on all your devices”, tap Delete Photo.

Note: The deleted photos will be saved to the Recently Deleted folder. To completely delete them, go to the Photos app > Albums > Locate and choose Recently Deleted to delete them all.

Method 2. Manually find and delete duplicate photos on iCloud.com

To delete iCloud duplicate photos more directly, you can go to the site of iCloud to find and delete them. The following steps are about how to delete duplicate pictures on iCloud by visiting iCloud site.

Step 1. Go to a web browser and open the site of iCloud > Sign in with your account and password.

Step 2. Click the Photos icon > Browse and choose certain photos you’d like to delete > Click the trashcan icon in the upper-right icon to delete.

Method 3. Shortcut: How to delete duplicate photos on iCloud with FoneTool

You may find it’s kind of time-consuming to delete duplicate photos on iCloud with either method above. It’s suggested to try the new function - Photo Deduplication in FoneTool to automatically scan and filter out duplicate and similar photos and delete them without effort.

To delete duplicate photos on iCloud, download iCloud photos to computer via iCloud for Windows first. Then, delete duplicate photos with FoneTool.

Step 1. Download iCloud photos to computer • Download and install iCloud for Windows on your computer > Sign in with your account and password.

• Go to File Explorer on your computer > Click iCloud Photos in the navigation pane.

• Click Downloads in the right pane to download iCloud photos to your computer.

Step 2. Delete duplicate photos on iCloud with FoneTool • Free download and install FoneTool on your computer by clicking the icon below.

Download Freeware Win 11/10/8.1/8/7
Secure Download

• Launch FoneTool > Click Toolbox on the left side > Photo Deduplication.

• Click Scan Computer > Locate and choose the folder that saves your iCloud photos > Click Start Scanning.

• All duplicate and similar photos will be listed in groups in the left pane > Choose them one after another to delete them > Tap Delete to delete duplicates from the folder.

Conclusion

That’s all for how to delete duplicate photos on iCloud. You can manually delete photos on iPhone or via iCloud.com. To save your time and make things simpler, FoneTool can be a better choice for you to filter and delete duplicate photos automatically.

iCloud storage is full? The Selective Backup function in FoneTool provides you with an incremental backup solution to keep your iPhone data safer.

For any queries, suggestions, and feedback, please feel free to contact us or leave your comments below.