The Photos app's built-in “Duplicates” only catches near-exact copies inside your library. Screenshots, bursts, cross-format exports, videos and files on external drives slip through. Here's what each tool actually catches.
| Capability | Photos app | Gemini 2 | Dup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact duplicates | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Similar / near-duplicate photos | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cross-format (HEIC ↔ JPG, RAW ↔ JPG) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Duplicate videos across codec / resolution | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Screenshots & burst shots | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Every photo of one person | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Folders & external / cloud drives | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 100% on-device, nothing uploaded | ✅ | partial | ✅ |
The Photos app is great at what it does — exact duplicates inside your library, for free. Dup is for everything it can't see: similar shots, screenshots and bursts, cross-format and duplicate videos, and files outside the Photos library — all processed 100% on your Mac.
Free on the Mac App Store
Clean up to 250 MB of duplicates without a Pro license. Try Dup before you decide.