Combine Duplicate Photos on Your iPhone Effortlessly

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How to Find Duplicate Photos Eligible for Merging on iPhone

Since the release of iOS 16, Apple has introduced a feature that automatically detects duplicate photos on your iPhone and allows you to merge them. iOS scans your entire photo library and organizes identical photos into a dedicated “Duplicates” album located under Utilities.

To find duplicate photos on your iPhone, follow these steps:

1. Launch the Photos app and scroll down to the ‘Utilities‘ section.

2. Look for the ‘Duplicates‘ album.

   

3. This album automatically groups identical or similar photos.

4. Examine each set of duplicates and decide to either merge or delete them.

Note: This feature has made life much easier for iPhone users, though it does have some limitations. It only identifies exact copies of image files, meaning many photos that look nearly identical won’t be flagged as duplicates and won’t appear in the Duplicates album. If you’re interested in a more detailed explanation of how iOS identifies duplicates, we delve into that topic in “How to Find Similar (But Not Duplicate) Photos on iPhone.”

Additionally, it may take some time to index newly added photos, so duplicates won’t always show up immediately. What can you do about this downside? And what about near-duplicates—can they be merged? We’ll address those questions in the next section.

3 Methods to Merge Duplicate Photos on iPhone

Let’s get started. We will discuss three methods for merging duplicate photos on an iPhone, beginning with the most effective option—using a dedicated app for a more comprehensive cleanup. In our opinion, this is the best choice because, for most iOS users, even if the Duplicates album isn’t empty, merging exact copies rarely frees up significant storage space. The real issue lies with near-duplicates, which take up much more space but aren’t detected by Apple’s built-in tool.

Next, we’ll cover the built-in options, providing step-by-step guides on how to merge duplicates using Apple’s Photos app.

Method 1: Use Third-Party Apps to Merge Duplicate (and Similar) Photos

This option is the easiest and most convenient. Third-party duplicate finders are popular for a reason—they overcome the limitations of Apple’s built-in feature and offer the fastest way to merge duplicates and near-duplicate photos on an iPhone. We tested dozens of popular options available in the App Store, and you can view our findings in our ranking of the best duplicate finder apps for iPhone.

For this article, we will use the app that took the #1 spot—Clever Cleaner: AI Duplicate Cleaner. It earned this position due to its advanced AI detection algorithms, which were incredibly accurate in our tests, and because it’s completely free. Unlike most apps we tested, this one has no trials, no daily limits, and no locked features—a rare find in the App Store.

Here’s how to merge duplicates on an iPhone using Clever Cleaner:

1. Download the App: Type ‘Clever Cleaner’ in the App Store search bar or download it using this link.

2. Open the App and Allow Access: Launch Clever Cleaner and grant permission to scan your photo library.

   

3. Go to the ‘Similars’ Tab: This section contains both exact duplicates and near-identical images.

4. Tap ‘Smart Cleanup’: This option automates everything, it can merge near-duplicate photos in just a few seconds—AI will analyze and select photos for deletion.

5. Review AI Suggestions: The app automatically marks lower-quality or redundant images, so these duplicate or near-duplicate photos can be “merged” (in reality, the app deletes the extras and keeps only the best shot based on clarity, resolution, and other factors).

   

6. Tap ‘Restore’ if Needed: If the app selects images you want to keep, tap ‘Restore‘ to deselect them.

7. Slide to Delete: If everything looks good, confirm the cleanup, and the app will handle the rest.

For those who want a more selective approach, Clever Cleaner offers a semi-automatic way to merge duplicates. The app organizes similar photos into groups under the ‘Similars‘ tab and preselects the best-quality shot. You can tap on a group, review the images, and either accept the selection or manually pick the ones to keep.

If you don’t want to delete anything in a group, tap ‘Skip All‘ to move on. To remove unwanted duplicates, tap ‘Move to Trash‘. Once you finish, tap ‘Empty Trash‘ and confirm the action. The app will then move the selected photos to the ‘Recently Deleted‘ album, where they will stay for up to 30 days. If you don’t want to wait for automatic deletion, you can manually clear everything from ‘Recently Deleted‘ to free up space immediately.

Note. As we mentioned, all features in Clever Cleaner are free to use with no limits. As stated on the official Clever Cleaner: Free cleanup app’s page, early users will “enjoy lifetime access for free” and “will never be asked to pay for upgrades or new features.” That means this app might come in handy for future iPhone cleanups as it adds more tools over time. As to three other tools that are already available they are:

• Screenshots. Delete all old screenshots in one tap.

• Lives. Convert selected Live Photos into still images to save storage—a rare option not found in most other apps.

• Heavies. See all videos sorted from largest to smallest for quick removal, a feature the Photos app surprisingly lacks.

Method 2: Merge All Duplicate Photos Within Photos App

Now, let’s get back to the native features already available. As we said, though they have some limitations, they’re still helpful, and we can’t miss out on them.

So here’s how to merge the same photos on iPhone using Apple’s built-in tool:

1. Locate the Duplicates: As described in previous section of this article navigate to the Duplicates album

2. Merge Duplicates: To merge everything at once, tap ‘Select‘, then ‘Select All‘, and finally ‘Merge‘.

   

3. Confirm Your Action: After tapping the Merge button, confirm the action to complete the process.

   

Note. When you tap Merge, you’ll see a pop-up asking what exactly you want to merge. It offers two options:

• Exact copies – These may have different metadata but are otherwise identical.

• Duplicates with slight differences – These might have different file formats, resolutions, or minor variations but are still duplicates of the same photo (not similar images like we discussed earlier).

Method 3: Merge Apple Photos Duplicates Selectively

If the previous method merges all photos that the Photos app flagged as duplicates, this one provides a more controlled approach. It lets you merge duplicates selectively if, for some reason, you need those extra copies.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Review Each Group of Duplicates: In the Duplicates folder, take the time to review each group of similar photos.

2. Select Photos to Merge: Choose individual photos or groups that you want to merge.

   

3. Merge Selected Photos: After Selecting photos you wish to merge tap on the Merge (n) button on the bottom of the screen where n – represents the number of selected duplicate photos.

Reminder: When you merge duplicate photos on your iPhone, they are not immediately removed from your storage. Instead, they are moved to the Recently Deleted album, where they remain for up to 30 days before being permanently deleted. If you need to free up space right away, you can open the Recently Deleted album, select the merged duplicates, and delete them manually.

Final Words

As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. While merging duplicates is straightforward, it’s certainly better to avoid creating them in the first place, as this will save you time and storage in the long run. In our experience, the most common mistakes that lead to duplicate photos include:

• Importing the same images multiple times from iCloud, a Mac, or external storage.

• Making edits that result in new versions (such as crops, filters, or other modifications) instead of updating the original photo.

• Manually transferring photos using AirDrop or third-party apps, which can create extra copies of the same image.

• Direct downloads from messages, social media, or email, which sometimes save the same image more than once.

• Of course, it’s impossible to avoid every mistake in everyday use. However, there are ways to simplify the process and maintain your iPhone photo library in excellent condition.

• To keep your photos organized and free from duplicates, check out our guide: **How to Organize Photos on iPhone Without Duplicates.** We go beyond just removing duplicates and cover custom albums, smart tags, hidden iPhone features, and tips to keep your library well-organized. Be sure to take a look—it will make future cleanups much easier!