5 Ways to Search Files in Mac and Delete Duplicates

When users take the pain to organize data on their Mac, they are actually investing to optimize their output. A properly maintained and curated file directory means less time lost on tracing a particular file no matter how big the total number of files is. Sounds all cool.

But did you know that a well-organized file hierarchy means completely (barring the very odd exception) doing away with the odds of data duplication at all! When you’re about to mistakenly save a duplicate copy, you will notice the original one and swiftly get rid of the duplicate. This is a huge benefit and saves you from all the consequences of saving duplicate (or even more) copies of those ultra-detailed and heavy photos, videos, documents and so on.

A poorly organized file directory also means you get across the line sooner than your colleagues or classmates when it comes to completing your assigned tasks on time, and of course, you stand to earn a good amount of plaudits as well as goodwill.

On the flip side, little or poorly organized file directory means increased chances of duplicate data on your MacBook’s SSD. Since not many users have the time and energy to neatly organize their data, duplicates are an unfortunate reality. When you can easily save that file off the Internet in no time, why should you search every nook and cranny of the SDD looking up a particular file? This will drive you away from looking for a particular file for good, but it will also mean the duplicates will continue to pile up (and gobble up storage space).

 

The Solutions

There are a total of 4 manual solutions, followed by the last automated one. So let’s dive into the methods on searching files and removing the duplicate data from your macOS.

Search by File Name

The first manual method we’re about to describe is comparing files by their filename. This method is quite easy, and simple to launch. On the other hand, this method has big limitations and totally relies on the filename and the user’s judgment to determine if a file is a duplicate or not.

However, this method can be put to good use if you’re sure the suspect duplicates share the exact same file name.

1. Click the Finder icon on the Dock to open it up.
2. Look for the Search field on the top-right of the screen, click it.
   
   
   
3. Now manually type in the filename and wait for the results to be populated.
4. Select This Mac just under the View option so the search brings up results from the entire Mac.
5. You have to compare files by their names to determine if they are duplicates indeed. Once you’ve judged 2 (or even more) files to be duplicated, a neat way to have a more informed decision is to compare their file size as well.
6. Finally, select the duplicates from the search results and send them over to the Trash.

 

Search by File Type

If you don’t know the exact name of the file that contains duplicates, you can search for specific files of a certain filetype. This way you will get a list of all the files of that kind on your Mac, and you can go through them to get rid of duplicates. Examining each and every single file is surely a very hectic task, but you can do so if the target data isn’t very large.

1. Select the Search field in the Finder, located on the top-right.
2. Now you have to simply type in the search string, and you will get the search results. For example, you will type kind:mp3 if you want to get a list of all the MP3 files on your MacBook.
   Note: This is a very neat hack to search for a specific category of files. Some more good examples of this scenario are kind:apps, kind:folders, kind:email, kind:music, kind:bookmark and so on.
3. Click the This Mac button. Now the search will bring up a list of all the files stored on your Mac.
   

   
   

4. You can now easily identify any duplicates and get rid of them.

 

Search by Metadata

Metadata helps give more meaningful shape to your data. Be it an audio file or a photo, adding up handy bits of information (ideally in the right fields rather than the filename) can make life a lot easier for you.

1. Open up the Finder and head to the Search area.
2. Here are just a handful of examples to show you how this search feature can be of good use:
   • kind:music by: “U2” will return all music in your Mac which contains U2 in the Artist field.
   • author:nancy will look up all items written by Nancy.
   • kind:video created: 9/25/19 will search for videos created only on the date specified.
   • modified:<=9/25/19 will look for all kinds of items modified on and before the date mentioned.
3. You can make good use of this feature to intelligently look for just the files you want to clean up your Mac from.

 

Search with AND, OR, and NOT

This is an advanced form of search and can be very easily used without any difficulty. You can use the AND, OR, and NOT values to search for specific items within an otherwise larger pool of search results.

1. Launch the Finder and click the Search area.
2. Here are some examples for your ease:
   • author:amy OR author:amie will bring up items authored by Amy as well as Amie if you aren’t sure about the exact name of the author.
   • trip -italy will bring up all items that contain the word Trip, but not Italy. This will help search for trip photos and videos from any country you might have visited except Italy.
   • kind:email date: 1/1/19-9/25/19 NOT date: 5/21/19 searches for all email messages from 1/1/19 through 9/25/19, but leaves out any emails received on 5/21/19.

 

The Automated Solution

There is a more sophisticated, swift, and accurate method that can easily help you get rid of duplicate files on your MacBook. We’re living in the 21st century, so why do it manually when you can make good use of Information Technology to do the same.

So let’s use Clone Files Checker. This software is built for the kill, it scans and deletes duplicate files of all types under the sun. This software is very powerful, yet it won’t drain your Mac. It is super-fast, and highly accurate in its working. It contains separate filetype tabs for displaying duplicate scan results, All Files, Documents, Images, Music, Videos, and Archives.

Keep reading as we’re not done yet. Clone Files Checker provides a couple of optional features to make the scan even more customized to your needs. You can modify the scan by opting to scan for a single/ several file types. This helps search for, let’s say duplicate documents while leaving out all the tons of images from the scan. The benefit this feature brings is a lesser number of scan results for the user to examine, and CFC finishes the scan very quickly because it only has to scan through documents only.

Another optional feature is to tweak the scan by file size range. You are provided with 2 options to set a lower/ higher size limit for the results. You can use these options to set a lower/ upper/ file size range for CFC to consider while looking for duplicates. A few good examples in this case will be to ignore files smaller than 256 MB, ignore files larger than 64 GB, and ignore files that are smaller than 512 MB and larger than 128 GB.

There is still more to come about CFC. It provides you with options to either simply delete the duplicate Mac files, or you can even backup them to a folder of your choice. This is a very unique feature that proves very handy in certain situations. CFC scans the SDD, as well as USB drives, and external HDD devices with the same level of expertise.

Finally, CFC also includes a very helpful Cloud Scan mode to help you scan for any duplicate files on your OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box accounts. It does this by directing you to the trademark Cloud Duplicate Finder web service. This is a cloud duplicate data deletion service which operates in a very secure environment by following the best industry practices to scan and clean up duplicates from your cloud data. When you register for the Mac version of Clone Files Checker, you will receive an email providing you a membership key for Clone Files Checker as well as a separate key for Cloud Duplicate Finder.

 

Now let’s get quickly go through the Clone Files Checker for MacBook installation and scan process in a pointwise manner.

1. Download the Clone Files Checker setup file from its website and extract it to your Macbook Applications.
2. Launch the program and click the Add button under the Include for Scan tab to add all location(s) you want to scan. You can also select the Exclude from Scan tab to add up any location(s) you want to be left out of the scan, if they are situated within the folder you earlier selected for the scan.
3. Next, you can optionally adjust the file types by clicking Custom and then selecting the file types you want to be scanned. You can even set a file size limit.
   
   
   
4. Click Start Search to launch the scan.
5. The scan will be over pretty soon. Once you’re shown the summarized scan results, click the REVIEW & FIX button underneath it.
   

   
   

6. The duplicates will be laid out in the CFC user interface now. You can select the Show Preview checkbox and select a file to check out its preview without having to open up the image from the Finder.
   

   
   

7. Now click the Select Duplicates button to choose which kind of files you want to retain from each duplicate group.
8. Finally, click Select Action and select between permanently deleting the files or moving them to a folder of your choice.

 

The automated solution definitely enjoys a huge edge over the manual method, as it performs all the hard work while still leaving you with the ultimate decision of what to do with the duplicates. Another plus point is the accuracy factor. While you might try your best to be extra vigilant for examining the duplicates (and extra imaginative with the ways used to detect duplicates) in the manual method, a minor lapse of concentration or being overworked can lead you to a big mistake. But Clone Files Checker will clean up duplicates with a perfect degree of accuracy, while you can happily sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee.