How to Merge and Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone [iOS 16]

We've all got duplicate photos on our photo library, these photos take up an ample amount of space. If you want to declutter your photo library, here's a guide on how you can easily merge duplicate photos on iOS 16.

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iOS 16 is no longer far from a public release, it is expected to release alongside the iPhone 14 series next month. The forthcoming iPhone software is jam-packed with new features. And duplicate picture detection is one of the best utility features on iOS 16. The new utility tool lets users easily merge or remove duplicate photos.

Weโ€™ve all got duplicate photos in our photo library. Whether, you saved the same picture twice on WhatsApp or iMessage, or, you love taking a lot of pictures and forgot to remove similar ones, or, mistakenly take a screenshot twice. Whatever the case, the new Photos app tool lets you easily declutter the photo library in a few taps.

Apple names the new utility tool, โ€œduplicate detectionโ€, as the name suggests, the tool will use machine learning tech to find similar images on the photo library and show them in the Duplicates album. The feature will help you save an ample amount of space on your iPhone. In this guide, I have covered everything on how to merge and delete duplicate photos on iPhone.

Up until now, there are two ways to find duplicate pictures, one is with the help of third-party apps, and the second one is by using the Shortcuts app. Both methods arenโ€™t as easy as the native solution.

Letโ€™s dive right into the steps.

How to Merge Duplicate Photos on iOS 16

The duplicate detection feature is limited to iOS 16 and the newer versions. If your iPhone is running on iOS 16 then your device will automatically aggregate all duplicate photos in the photo library.

The new utility tool will merge duplicates into a single photo by saving the highest quality photo. Hereโ€™s how you can find the Duplicates album in the Photos app on iPhone.

  1. First things first, make sure youโ€™re running on the latest iOS 16 beta or stable version if available.
  2. On your iPhone running on iOS 16, open the Photos app.
  3. Select the Albums tab from the bottom bar.
  4. On the albums screen, swipe down to the bottom.
  5. Under Utilities section, youโ€™ll see a new option, Duplicates.
    How to Merge and Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone iOS 16
  6. Tap on Duplicates.
  7. Review Duplicate photos and videos, and tap on the Merge option.
    How to Merge and Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone iOS 16
  8. If you want to merge all photos, then you can tap the Select option at the top right corner.
  9. Then, Select All on the top left corner, once selected, tap the Merge option at the bottom center.
    How to Merge and Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone iOS 16
  10. Once done, tap on Merge selected items or Merge 2 items.
    How to Merge and Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone iOS 16
  11. Thatโ€™s it.

Merging duplicate photos and videos will save the high-resolution version on your device. The removed pictures remain available for 30 days in recently deleted albums, so you can easily recover any photo if needed or removed mistakenly. If youโ€™ve got a storage issue on your iPhone, then you can manually go to the Recently Deleted albums in utilities and then remove all images.

Note: Once you select pictures, you can adjust location, date, and time, with a single tap. Apart from that, thereโ€™s an option to create another duplicate, copy selected photos, slide show the photos in the Duplicate album and you can also hide the picture if you want. All you can do by tap the three dots icon at the bottom right corner.

How to Merge and Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone iOS 16

The new feature works well in my testing, thereโ€™s no need to sideload third-party apps, you can also skip the shortcuts method now. All you need to do is, install the latest version of iOS 16 on your iPhone then let the work be done by the Duplicate detection feature on the Photos app.

One of the coolest things about the new feature is, that it also shows the size of the image on the preview of the image, which you can check at the time of merging.

Apart from merging the photos, you can also delete the images if they are no longer usable. You can select all photos, then tap on the delete icon at the bottom right corner.

So, this is the easiest way by which you can easily merge and delete duplicate photos on your iPhone.

If you still have a query on how to merge duplicate photos on iOS 16, then leave a comment in the comment box. Also, share this article with your friends.

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AUTHOR.

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Haneet Singh

Haneet is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of YTECHB. He has a huge passion for tinkering with latest smartphones, wearables, smart home devices, smart TVs, and more. As an avid Apple Ecosystem user, he loves customizing his iPhone and iPad to suit his needs. For tips, you can connect Haneet at haneetsingh@outlook.com In 2019, Haneet and the YTECHB team exclusively shared the wallpapers of iPhone 11 right before the launch event. In 2020, Haneet alongside his team members shared exclusive renders and official photos of two Samsung Galaxy smartphones - the Galaxy M11, and Galaxy M21. Later, the YTECHB team leaks information about Motorola's feature phones and Razr 3. In the last few months, our team shared Galaxy S24 Ultra leaks and more. You may come across with our work getting mentioned in The Times of India, India Today, Hindustan Times, NDTV, TechRadar, Digital Trends, Yahoo News, GSMArena, Android Authority, Android Central, Android Headlines, SamMobile, XDA, 9to5Google, and many other publications. He works across news, updates, features, guides, and more. If YTECHB writes about it, you can expect him to be involved in some way.

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