Google Drive is undoubtedly one of the most famous & reliable cloud storage solutions available to save important photos, videos, archives, documents & other multimedia files. It provides a significant amount of space for around 15 GB for free, and you can further upgrade it to 1 TB by spending a few bucks. However, most of the time, our storage space gets packed with numerous duplicates & similar copies of the same files. This useless cloned data is responsible for wasting quite a bit of your Google Drive Storage, so it’s best to remove them as quickly as possible to free up space & avoid surpassing the storage limit of your account.
How To Remove Duplicate Photos, Videos & Other Files In Google Drive Manually?
To learn how to delete duplicate files on Google Drive manually, here’s what you need to do?
STEP 1- Open your Google Drive account & hit the List View option, located on the top-right corner.
STEP 2- Once all the files are listed, you need to long-press the Control key & select the replica files that start with ‘Copy of. . .’ (with same numbers, characters or name.)
STEP 3- Now right-click and choose the option that says: Remove to delete all the clone copies.
Remember: This method to find and delete duplicates can be difficult if the names of the files have been changed. Plus, you need to follow all the steps for each folder you have created on your Google Drive. Hence, the entire process of deduplicating Google Drive can become time-consuming when done manually!
Since the Cloud Storage Service doesn’t offer a dedicated option to find and delete duplicates, we are listing some of the quickest ways to manage your storage, so that you don’t face any issues when your Google Drive account starts running out of space.
Declutter Your Google Drive With Duplicate File Finder, Cleaner for Drive
It’s a handy Google Chrome extension that helps users to directly scan directories and clear any type of duplicate files stored on your Google Drive. You can further select which files you would like to trash and keep them on your cloud.
STEP 1- After adding this Google add-on on your browser. You need to give Cleaner for Drive access to your Google Drive account with a long code so that you can begin the process.
STEP 2- You need to click on Scan the entire drive option to begin duplicate scanning. Once Cleaner for Drive has pulled up a list of clone copies. You can click on Check All option to ensure all the duplicate photos, videos, documents & other files are marked carefully.
STEP 3- Just click on the Trash All button to get rid of all the duplicate files stored on your Google Drive.
Remember: There are certain limitations when it comes to processing the number of files that Cleaner for Drive can manage. So, we recommend moving all your folders & files into one Folder then use this duplicate cleaning Chrome extension to work smoothly.
Alternative Way To Keep Your Google Drive Duplicate Free
There are plenty of web-based third-party tools like Cloud Duplicate Finder that can help you find and remove duplicates from Google Drive and other platforms automatically and quickly. Just follow step by step process to efficiently let this web-based duplicate cleaner manage your Google Drive storage space.
STEP 1- Head towards Cloud Duplicate Finder & create a free account.
STEP 2- Once you are logged in, select Google Drive from the left panel and click on the Add New Drive option. Sign in to your Google account and hit the ‘Allow’ button to complete the process.
STEP 3- Now, select one or multiple Google Drive folders you wish to scan for duplicate photos, videos, music files, documents, etc.
STEP 4- Once the scanning gets completed, a list of all the exact & similar looking files would be displayed.
STEP 5- It’s time to mark the duplicates you want to delete from your Google Drive. You can either do that manually or click on the Select Duplicates button. From the Select Action button, you need to choose the option Permanent Delete.
This way, you can quickly eliminate duplicate images, documents, videos, music files, and other data without any hassles.
Make Your Windows 10 PC Free From Duplicates & Similar Files
While you can always use add-ons like Google Drive Cleaner or web-based solutions like Cloud Duplicate Finder to ensure your Google Drive Storage is free from unwanted duplicates. There are certain programs as well that works brilliantly to make your Windows 10 PC free from identical & similar-looking files. So, once you have a duplicate-free PC, you can ensure no useless clone copies are uploaded to your Google Drive.
STEP 1- You need to install Google Drive for Desktop to allow your PC sync to your Google Drive account so that you clean duplicate files on your system & no copies are created on Drive.
STEP 2- Sign in with your Google account.
STEP 3- Now choose the folders from your computer you would like to keep a backup of. Click the Next button to proceed further.
STEP 4- Now you can sync files from ‘My Drive’ to a folder on this computer. Click on the ‘Got It’ button to move further.
STEP 5- Hit the Start button to begin the process. You can check the progress from the Taskbar where you can see the Google Drive icon synchronizing items.
STEP 6- Once the process is complete. You can see the folder of Google Drive created on your desktop.
STEP 7- Now you need to install Duplicate Files Fixer to start the cleaning process.
Duplicate Files Fixer, a robust clone finder & cleaner that helps users detect and delete useless exact and similar copies of images, videos, music files, documents, etc. It features an easy to use interface with clearly labeled buttons for seamless navigation. Its smart scanning engine ensures accurate identification of duplicates in a single scan. The duplicate cleaner is highly compatible with almost all Windows versions and lets you deduplicate your internal & external devices.
STEP 8- Launch Duplicate Files Fixer on your PC & click on the Add Folder option.
STEP 9 – Select the Google Drive folder, once added, hit the Scan for Duplicates button.
STEP 10- Once the scanning process is complete. You can either select the detected duplicate files manually or click on the Auto-Mark option to choose duplicates automatically.
Click on the Delete Marked button to successfully get rid of the duplicates. Now you can relax, as once your computer is duplicate-free, your data will be synced to your Google Drive.
This way, you can quickly eliminate duplicate images, documents, videos, music files, and other data without any hassles.