Member Avatar for stevenros

I am working on Mac Lion and have learned in some tutorials that duplicates files in your system kill too much of free space and that (Lack of free space) could be one of the reasons of Slow performing Mac.

So, I want to know the tips to find duplicate files in Mac Lion and method to delete them.

Thanks in advance....

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A few practical, safe steps to find and remove user duplicates on Mac OS X Lion (avoid system/library folders unless you know exactly what you’re removing).

Start with a backup (Time Machine or a full clone). Narrow the scan to user areas where duplicates actually matter (Downloads, Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Music) and avoid scanning /System, /Library or inside app/library packages — those can contain intentional duplicates that break things if removed.

Run a checksum-based scan (this finds true byte-for-byte duplicates, not just same names). From Terminal, cd into the folder you want to scan and run:

cd /path/to/scan    # e.g. ~/Downloads or ~/Documents
find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 shasum -a 256 | sort | \
awk '{
  hash=$1
  sub(/^[^[:space:]]+[[:space:]]+/, "", $0)
  file=$0
  if (hash in seen) {
    if (!printed[hash]) { print "=== duplicates for: " hash " ==="; print seen[hash]; printed[hash]=1 }
    print file
  } else { seen[hash]=file }
}'

That prints groups of files that share the same SHA‑256 hash. Inspect the groups carefully before removing anything. To be safe, create a quarantine folder first (for example mkdir ~/Duplicate-Quarantine) and move suspected duplicates there rather than deleting them permanently. Keep them for several days while you use the Mac; restore if something misbehaves, then permanently delete.

Notes and cautions: as warned, don’t touch system caches or Library files blindly. For media libraries (iPhoto/iTunes) use the app’s own tools or library-aware cleaners — those libraries are packaged and need special handling. If you prefer a GUI, pick a current, well-reviewed duplicate finder and always verify results against a backup. Props to for suggesting scripting — the pipeline above is a ready-to-run example you can adapt.

Recommended Answers

All 17 Replies

Member Avatar for jingda

It depends on what duplicate files you want to find. Some system files are duplicated and essential in running your mac other can be caused by a software. Disk recovery softwares duplicate files and make them invisible. So when you accidentally delete a file it can recover it using the invisible duplicated copy. What type of files you want to delete? Cache, system files or user files?

Member Avatar for stevenros

The system files may be somehow important for machine but cache and duplicate user files are extremely useless. These must be deleted.

Member Avatar for jingda

Ok. There are free softwares out there you can delete too. Try onyx or maintenance. They are by the same developer, click . I also recommend you to use AppCleaner to uninstall your apps and not just simply trash it. If the softwares you want to remove and built in uninstall program use that one. AppCleaner helps to delete all folders and files related to that app. Hope this information helps:)

Edited by jingda because: n/a
Member Avatar for stevenros

In Appcleaner, i don't find any option for duplicate files. I am still searching for a cleaner for Mac duplicate files

Member Avatar for stevenros

Thanks Jingda,

I will try these applications and will be back very soon

Member Avatar for jingda

Good luck. And you can also go the macupdate.com and search for some softwares that remove duplicate files. The website hold the world largest mac software library.

Member Avatar for dioioib

Softpedia.com is a nice mutiplatform site for software.

You could roll your own Automator action or applescript to look for duplicates as well.
http://automatorworld.com/archives/compare-folders/

Here are some articles on this topic:

Member Avatar for Kizikelova)

Have you heard of a new duplicate finder for Mac OS X called Gemini? It is currently featured in Mac App Store, take a look at it too. Users say in reviews it is extremely beautiful and efficient, thus totally worth its money.:)

Member Avatar for dioioib

Or you can use this for free. I hate the app store.

If you want something that will also remove the duplicates let me know.

find-duplicates_workflow-and-app.zip (318.39 KB)
Member Avatar for dioioib

An update which includes deletion of the files from the second folder you choose.

find-and-delete-duplicates_workflow-and-app.zip (361.79 KB)
Member Avatar for webmediatree

how it works the apple gemini kindly instruct me its features?

Edited by happygeek because: spam removed
Member Avatar for david.clubb.100

I use this free tool to Find Similar Files in windows. Give it a try...it provides impressively good results.

Member Avatar for tompatrick

Get Stellar Smart Finder utility to get rid of duplicate files.

Member Avatar for Rafiqul_4

Hi guys,

Also You can easily resolve your problem with >>>>> DuplicateFilesDeleter

so lets try it.

Thanks

Member Avatar for amber_7

try DuplicateFilesDeleter program

Member Avatar for Torry_1

Good program DuplicateFilesDeleter

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