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How to Delete Similar Photos on iPhone (Not Just Exact Duplicates)

/ 4 min read
iphone photos how-to

You take six shots of the same moment to get one good one. Everyone does. The problem is the other five never leave, and a year later your photo library is 60% near-identical frames eating storage you are paying iCloud for.

The obvious fix - the Duplicates album in Photos - will not solve this, and it helps to understand why before you spend an afternoon in it.

Why Apple’s Duplicates Album Misses Most of It

Open Photos → Albums → Utilities → Duplicates and iOS shows you photos it considers copies of each other. It is genuinely useful for what it does: exact copies and visually identical shots, like the same image saved twice or re-downloaded from WhatsApp.

What it routinely leaves behind:

  • Retakes. Six consecutive shots of the same scene, each a fraction different - different blink, slight reframe. To you they are “the same photo.” To the Duplicates album they are six unique photos.
  • Burst frames that were saved as individual photos
  • Edited versions living next to their originals
  • The same scene from slightly different angles

This is by design, not a bug. Apple set the bar at “actually the same image” to make the Merge button safe to press blindly. The cost is that the messiest category in every real photo library - similar-but-not-identical shots - stays untouched.

If your goal is reclaiming serious space, the duplicates are a rounding error. The similars are the problem.

Option 1: Manual Cleanup (Free, Slow)

The hands-on route:

  1. Open Photos and view your library by month
  2. Look for clusters of near-identical shots
  3. Tap Select, mark the rejects, delete
  4. Repeat for every month you have owned an iPhone
  5. Empty Recently Deleted (Albums → Utilities) to actually get the space back

This works, and for a small library it is honestly fine. For a 15,000-photo library it is a multi-weekend project, and the deciding gets exhausting fast: which of these six near-identical shots is the keeper? After the hundredth cluster, you stop caring and quit.

Option 2: An AI Similar-Photo Cleaner

This is the category Snapsift is in. Instead of matching files, it looks at the photos the way you would:

  • Groups similar shots, not just exact copies - retakes, bursts, same-scene clusters
  • Picks the best of each group by sharpness, faces, and composition, so you are confirming rather than deciding
  • Surfaces the junk categories: blurry shots, accidental pocket photos, old screenshots
  • Everything runs on-device; your photos never leave the phone

The workflow flips from “find the bad ones” to “approve the suggestions.” A library that would take weekends to clean manually takes an evening, because the tedious part - comparing six near-identical frames - is exactly what the AI does well.

For a wider comparison of cleaning apps, see the best duplicate photo cleaners for iPhone.

What to Clean First (Highest Yield)

Not all clutter is equal. In a typical library, ranked by reclaimed space per minute of effort:

  1. Videos you will never watch - largest files by far; even a handful matters
  2. Burst and retake clusters - the volume category, where similar-photo grouping shines
  3. Screenshots - small individually, but they accumulate by the thousand; mass-deleting screenshots is its own quick win
  4. Blurry and accidental shots - satisfying to purge, moderate space
  5. Exact duplicates - smallest category; the Duplicates album already handles it

Don’t Forget Recently Deleted

Whatever method you use: deleted photos sit in Recently Deleted for up to 30 days, still counting against your storage. After a big cleanup, go to Albums → Utilities → Recently Deleted → Select → Delete All. That is the moment the space actually comes back.

FAQ

Can the iPhone delete similar photos by itself? No. iOS only finds exact and near-exact duplicates in the Duplicates album. Similar shots - retakes, bursts, same scene - need either manual review or a third-party cleaner.

What’s the best way to delete similar photos for free? Manual monthly review costs nothing but time. Snapsift’s free tier lets you try AI grouping on your library before paying anything.

Will deleting similar photos affect iCloud? Yes, in the good way. With iCloud Photos, deletions sync everywhere, so cleaned space counts against your iCloud quota too. (It also means deletions are permanent across devices once Recently Deleted is emptied - keep the ones you love.)

How much space can I actually get back? Depends on your shooting habits. Heavy retakers commonly find 20-40% of their library is similar-shot clusters and junk categories. The app shows you the tally before you delete anything.