How to Find and Remove Duplicate Files on Google Drive

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Does your Google Drive storage have not enough storage space? Well, we know that all your emails, photos, and documents are directly synced on the Drive and hence there are high chances of having duplicate files as well. Hence, if you are looking to search and remove the Duplicate files on Google Drive altogether, you can follow the guide mentioned here.

There is no manner in which you can delete all the files from all of the platforms and remove them. But to clear some space out you can start off by deleting the duplicate files or say removing the copy version of these files. It will help you get rid of the majority of the files and then put the space to give use

Without wasting much time now, let us get to the ways to find duplicates on Google Drive and delete them.

How to Find Duplicate Files on Google Drive

Before we can talk about how you can remove the files from Google Drive, we need to first look at the ways you can choose to find them in the first place.

The major reason that your cloud storage has multiple duplicate files is that your account cab has multiple users.

Moreover, if you use multiple smartphones with the same account, there are high chances that similar files can get synced from all of those devices.

Hence, it is necessary that you find those files and then get rid of them for good. Here is how you can do it.

1. Find them Manually

The first method you can try is by simply typing out the name of certain documents you see on your Drive and checking whether it has any duplicate findings. It can surely take a lot of time, but that is the foremost step you can look into.

Scroll through the files and then locate those files through their name such as Document, Document (1), and so on. These are the perfect example of what these duplicate files look like.

Since all of these are done manually, you need to take out the right amount of time in order to make it happen. If this looks like a tedious task for you, here is another method you can try.

Read How to Organize Google Drive?

2. Try the Search Bar

Well, this might sound pretty basic and generic. You might have already used the Google Drive search bar to look for some files. But have you made the best use of all its functions?

Well, the search bar has a proper set of tools where you can filter out all the options for a particular set of files. Here is how it works.

  • Open the Google Drive account on your browser.
  • Now, tap on the search bar.
  • Search for the particular document name.
  • Click on the Filter option beside the search bar.
Remove Duplicate Files on Google Drive

There are multiple options on the screen you can choose to set up to apply the filter.

For example, you can choose the type of document, owner, include words, location, and a lot of similar options that will help you find the duplicate files easier and then remove them.

Read How to Remove Google Drive from Mac

How to Remove Duplicate Files on Google Drive

Now, once you are aware of multiple ways you can find duplicate files on Google Drive, we can learn about how to remove them from your storage.

You get around 15 GB of free space and you can follow the steps mentioned to remove the files.

1. Manually Delete the Files

The first set of steps you can take is manually deleting the files as soon as you can locate them. The only issue comes up in the initial step of locating the files and then putting them in the trash bin one by one. You can do this in two ways basically.

  • Open the Google Drive webpage and log in to your account.
  • Find out the duplicate files on the storage.
  • Make a right-click and choose Remove.
google drive duplicate files problem

Or else you can select multiple files at once and then tap on the Trash icon to get rid of items in bulk. This will only make your work easier.

Read How to Copy a Shared Folder in Google Drive

2. Using the Mobile App

If you are trying to remove the duplicate files from your smartphone, the steps are somewhat similar yet they are very easy to follow. And this is how you can do it on your Android as well as iOS devices.

  • Open your Drive app on your smartphone.
  • Now, select multiple or a single duplicate files.
  • Click on Three dots.
  • Now, choose the option Remove from the list given to you.

All of these steps are valid for your iPads, iPhones, and any of the Android devices you will use. Now, once you delete these files, you might also need to clear the trash as well to get that free space.

Or else according to the policy by Google Drive it will automatically get deleted after the 30 days time period.

Related Google Drive articles:

Conclusion

We have spoken about the multiple ways you can find and remove duplicate files in Google Drive. All of them surely are done manually and do take effort and time.

However, there are multiple tools and apps available on the internet that will help you in this process. You can log in to your account on the platform and follow the steps mentioned in order to remove the files.

If at all these methods are a little too much and might be taking a lot of time, you can let us know in the comment section below and we will get back to you to help you out further in any manner possible.