Find Duplicate Networked Files in Mac

/ Apple, Removing Duplicates, Solutions / By

MacOS makes it pretty easy to store your files on a Network drive. You can easily access these files anytime using a desktop shortcut. However, an increasing number of users are finding it difficult to keep track of their important data due to the problem of duplication. This article will outline the steps to help you map your network drive and eliminate duplicates on the go.

 

Map Your Network Drive

There are two ways by which you can accomplish this task. The most common is the second method, i.e. persistent way.

Method 1: Temporarily Map Your Network Drive

This method will lay out a path that results in a temporary approach. You will get to reset the network drive every time you reboot your Mac. This is the reason this method should not be the preferred one unless you want to temporarily access your Web Drive/ Server for a limited period of time.

  1. Open the Finder application To do so, use the keyboard shortcut Command + N, or simply click on the File menu, and select New Finder Window.
  2. Once the Finder opens up, you will want to connect to the server. Press Command + K to do so.
  3. In the Server Address text box, type the path to your network drive. It could be something like smb://192.168.1.200/shared/MyDocs.
  4. Click Connect and a connection will be established automatically.
  5. Now you will be prompted to enter your login credentials.
  6. Click on OK and a shortcut will be created on the desktop.
  7. Use the shortcut to easily view and access the contents of your network drive.

Note: In subsequent attempts, you won’t have to type the server address. Mac will remember and it will be displayed in the Favorite Servers section in step # 3.

Method 2: Map Network Drive in A Persistent Way

You can create a mapped network drive that automatically remounts and re-connects to the network server each time you reboot your Mac. Your network drive will not be affected even if you encounter Internet drop-downs or restart your MacBook.

  1. Create a new network drive by referring to steps # 1-7 of the previous solution.
  2. Once you have finished creating the network drive, click on the Apple menu, and select System Preferences.
  3. Click Users & Groups.
  4. Now select the Login Items tab.
  5. Click the Add button (plus sign).
  6. Select your network drive, and then click Add.

 

Find Duplicate Files on Your Network Drive

You can now copy all the files from your network drive on to a new folder on your Desktop and then scan them for duplicates.

  1. Create a new folder named My Files on your Mac’s Desktop.
  2. Double click the Network Drive icon.
  3. Copy all the files from your Network Drive to the newly created My Files folder.
  4. Download Clone Files Checker for Mac from its website.
  5. Double-click the downloaded .dmg file.
  6. Drag the Clone Files Checker icon to the Applications folder to launch the installation.
  7. Once the installation is over, launch the program.
  8. Click the Add button in the Include for Scan tab.
  9. Select the My Files folder you created in step # 1. Next, click Open to add it for the duplicate scan.
  10. If you want to ignore certain folders/ subfolders from the scan, just click the Exclude From Scan tab, and add all such directories through the Add button.
  11. You can opt to have the All Files option selected, or if you want to scan for a select file type, click Custom and then select the file type(s) you want to be focused upon in the scan.
  12. You can also opt for limiting the scan by file size. You can set the lower and upper limit and Clone Files Checker will only scan for files that are located within that side range. Use the Ignore files smaller than and/or Ignore files larger than checkboxes, and specify the file size in kB, MB or GB.
  13. Click Start Search to launch the scan.
  14. The scan might take a while to conclude and will come up with a pop up that summarizes the scan results. Click the Review & Fix button.
  15. If you want to check the previews for any image files detected in the scan, click the Show Preview checkbox located midway through the extreme right corner of the CFC interface.
  16. Now you have to select the duplicates for further action. If the number of files involved is in small numbers, you can use the checkbox located just before each file. If the number of duplicates involved is a big one, you can use the easier, and advanced method via the Select Duplicates button.
  17. Choose between retaining the newest, oldest, most modified or least modified file from each duplicate group. There is another advanced option as well that allows you to specify select folder(s) which can be left untouched while deleting the duplicates, or this folder can be selected as the only location which will be cleaned up from duplicates. This option is known as Select by location.

The final step in the duplicate networked files cleanup in Mac is to click the Select Action button. Now you can either go for deleting the duplicates permanently or move them to a folder of your choice. In any case, the mess will be cleared.
Note: If you want to move the duplicate files to a folder, you can specify a folder of your choice by clicking the Clone Files Checker menu and selecting Preferences. The first textbox is where you can easily add up the directory to which duplicate files will be moved. As a default, the duplicates are moved to the Moved Files folder located at Documents/CloneFileChecker.

Raza Ali Kazmi
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Raza Ali Kazmi works as an editor and technology content writer at Sorcim Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. He loves to pen down articles on a wide array of technology related topics and has also been diligently testing software solutions on Windows & Mac platforms. If you have any question about the content, you can message me or the company's support team.