Deduplication advice - software suggestions - requested

Software
1

What are the best options to deduplicate files/photos? Is there a rock solid recommendation for both files and photos?

As I’ve been rationalizing my spend on cloud storage, what I’ve come to realize is that I have instances where the exact file sits in many folders. Ideally, I’d like to simplify the folder structure, while removing duplicate files and empty folders to reduce clutter.

I’m also hoping that a file dedup can analyze beyond file name (there are lots of 'FINAL - FINAL3 type of docs) and do a solid comparison of the contents to suggest deletion.

2

For files, I really like Siracusa’s Hyperspace [corrected earlier error]

5 Likes
3

Apple Photos has a Dedupe feature built in now

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4

His app is called Hyperspace?! :blush:

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5

Easy mistake: Hypercritical is his website (and modus operandi :wink:):

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6

Yes, that’s doing a decent job on that front

7

Thanks! Got it cranking away right now!

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8

Sorry, yes; the company is Hypercritical and the app Hyperspace.

I was a little hyped when I posted, I guess.

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9

I’m interested to hear what savings and settings people are using with Hyperspace?

  • My first scan with defaults was 5.04 GB
  • Second scan with packages and library added 0.44 GB

Needless to say that wasn’t enough savings to have me pay to unlock.

10

I have a base model MacBook Air M1; so only a 256 GB SSD. You’d think this app would be useful to me, but:

Potential Savings 214,4 MB

Needless to say I did not unlock either.

11

Oh, this is an app I bumped into recently that has saved me much more disk space:

(I do not notice any speed difference caused by the compression on that base model M1)

1 Like
12

Here are my Hyperspace results!

Default scan:

  • 5.04 GB

With “Search Packages” enabled:

  • 5.48 GB

With “All Files” and “Library” enabled in addition:

  • 16.94 GB

THAT was enough to get me to do a one-time payment.

@rob I agree—huge savings! I use applesauce (and before that afsctool) to compress a bunch of stuff, mostly my /Applications folder and have it running on a daemon. I also do spring cleaning where I apply it to high-churn subfolders in my home folder. I have it hooked up to a ContexetMenu Action so I can right click any file or folder and transparently compress it. It does make a migration to a new Mac take longer though because of all the decompression/compression that is required.

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13

Oh, wow, I did not know this was possible…

So I might reclaim more space!

1 Like