How to Remove Duplicate Google docs from Google Drive

Google Drive has been further augmenting the “Google” standard for a while now. It offers a free storage capacity of 15GB to anyone, provided they have a Gmail account. Users can store all their official as well as personal documents in the cloud. And the need not worry about file security as every single file is encrypted! Google Drive is available for use with computers/ laptops as well as smartphones. Hence, a complete package for people to make good use of.

If you run out of space over time, you can get even more space after paying a premium for it. However, that is not our topic today. We will be talking about efficient space utilization on your Google Drive account by looking for and removing any duplicate files.

Carrying out this task manually will surely be a hell lot tiring as well as can never be deemed 100% accurate unless you have very less data on your Google Drive account. Let’s take a look at solutions we deem best to remove the duplicate content in your Google Drive. These methods may gift you some more free space in your drive for further use. So, check it out.

Remove Duplicate Docs using Google Drive application

Google Drive’s desktop application delivers great ease of performing various tasks related to cloud computing. Using the app, you can easily find out the dupes and remove them to free up invaluable disk space. To do this, follow the steps given below.

  1. Visit Google Drive download page to download the desktop application. If you would like to do it from your own google drive, click the Cogwheel on the top-right of the screen and then choose Download Drive
  2. Now you will be directed to the download page. Select the Mac and PC option by hovering the cursor over the Download Drive button. (Sometimes the page automatically detects your platform and delivers some specific options only to make the task more simple).
    Google-Drive-Landing-Page
  3. It will prompt you to accept the Terms of Service. Click on Accept and Install and it will start downloading the application.
  4. Once the download is complete, install the application and it will automatically create a desktop icon for Google Drive.
  5. Now the application will automatically start syncing the Google Drive data to your computer. The total time for this process will depend on your Internet connection’s speed as well as the amount of data to be synced. Be patient and let the process complete.
  6. Once the synchronization is over, launch Google Drive from the desktop shortcut. And you will notice all of your files (from the cloud) inside a folder.
  7. Before we proceed ahead to look for dupes, take a look at the different file extensions on Google Drive:
    (a) Google Doc: .gdoc
    (b) Google Sheets: .gsheet
    (c) Google Forms: .gform
    (d) Google Slides: .gslides
    (e) Google Drawings: .gdraw
  8. We will proceed with .gdoc (as an example). Alternatively, you can choose to proceed with any of the filetypes by tweaking the upcoming steps.
  9. Type .gdoc in the search box on top-right corner of the screen. The search results will show up as you can see in the following image.
    Finding-Duplicate-GDoc-Files
  10. Click the View tab on the top bar and now click on Group by.
  11. Choose Name from the drop-down menu. This will rearrange all the contents according to their filenames. Now you can easily spot all the duplicates as well as the original files.
  12. Delete all the duplicate documents you discover to free up space.

Note: To find another type of files, just search the extension of the file.

 

Remove Duplicate Google Docs using Clone Files Checker

To make matters easier and simpler, we’d suggest you use a software program for digging out dupes and removing them. Clone Files Checker is one such software that can help you deal with all kinds of duplicate files with ease. To do this

  1. Download and install Clone Files Checker.
  2. Now right-click on the Google Drive desktop icon and select Scan with CloneFilesChecker.
  3. The Clone Files Checker window will pop up.
  4. Select All Files from Search Options.
  5. Click on Start Scan to launch the duplicate finding process.
  6. You can use either Quick Fix or Review & Fix for taking appropriate action once the scan is over.
  7. Select the appropriate option to conclude the duplicate scan and removal process.

 

Conclusion

Never again carry those unwanted files by sacrificing the space in your Google Drive. Just follow the above-mentioned methods and recover loads of disk space. We do suggest Clone Files Checker because it makes the task simpler and more credible.

Vikas is a technology enthusiast who loves writing articles on computers and technology. He writes on various topics related to software, software reviews, troubleshooting and tips & tricks to make people's digital lives better.