Duplicate files appearing in multiple locations

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Duplicate files appearing in multiple locations

How does Ventura manage duplicate files?

Are they actual copies, and thus increased disk usage, or are they linked so that the increase in disk usage is minimal?

If they are actually duplicated and thus taking up more space, what tools are recommended for finding and consolidating the duplicates?

I have over 300 audiobooks, many over 1 GB as well as over 1 TB of photos, many of which are also duplicates.

If duplicates are actually 1 file with links in multiple places, then disk storage is less of an issue, but clutter may still be an issue. However, if duplicate files actually consume extra space, the removing them could save a lot of disk space and time during backups.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Jul 7, 2023 04:33 AM

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Answer 1

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The Mad Wop Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 8, 2023 10:04 AM in response to leroydouglas

None of the files, when viewed as icons, have the arrow icon on them.

For example: I have two (Audible) files on my system with the exact same name. When I do a Get Info I see that they are identical size but have different locations under the Where metadata. However, one has a Created & Modified date of 12/24/2022 and the other of 3/24/2020 When I look at their last opened date it is 12/24/2022 at 12:24 pm for both files. When I look at the Where from they have the same Audible URL

So my question, is each instance of the files using 573.8 MB on my drive?

When multiplied by 350 such files it makes a big difference if they are duplicates or an alias (they represent ~150GB of data on my system).

The bigger issue is actually the 1.5 TB of photos!

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Answer 2

Jul 8, 2023 09:31 AM in response to The Mad Wop

The Mad Wop wrote:

How does Ventura manage duplicate files?

Are they actual copies, and thus increased disk usage, or are they linked so that the increase in disk usage is minimal?

If they are actually duplicated and thus taking up more space, what tools are recommended for finding and consolidating the duplicates?

I have over 300 audiobooks, many over 1 GB as well as over 1 TB of photos, many of which are also duplicates.

If duplicates are actually 1 file with links in multiple places, then disk storage is less of an issue, but clutter may still be an issue. However, if duplicate files actually consume extra space, the removing them could save a lot of disk space and time during backups.

A duplicate means more than one file.

An alias is just that, an alias that points back to one original...

ex. the arrow indicates an alias

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Duplicate files appearing in multiple locations

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