To get rid of duplicates you will have to go over all photos stored on your Mac manually. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to detecting unwanted photos in your library. How to Remove Duplicate Photos in iPhoto Yourself This means, that there are either of the 2 main routes to take - the tedious manual handpicking of similar or identical pics, or heading down the third-party apps lane that enables automated cleanup. The closest you get is an occasional reminder to prevent you from importing an identical copy to your library. Neither Apple’s newly updated Photos app, nor its predecessor iPhoto, have the functionality that allows for a automated cleanup of identical files. To address the elephant in the room right away, there is no easy way of dealing with picture duplicates on your own. Want to claim that free space back? Let’s see what options do you have. Before you know it, with the iCloud sync on, your Photos library is full of duplicates that eat up precious storage space. In addition, there is next to no cost of taking and storing pics, which leads to multiple shots of pretty much the same scenery, setting or person with very little difference. With cameras getting smaller, smarter, and snappier, photography became accessible to the masses. Unlike years before, everyone’s a photographer now in one way or another.