Find duplicate photos without gambling with your catalog.
Advanced Duplicate Finder scans Lightroom Classic metadata to identify probable duplicate and near-duplicate images, suggest keepers, and create review-ready logs before you change anything.
Start free with full scans up to 50 photos. Upgrade once for $14.99 to unlock unlimited scans.
Built for photographers who want control, not surprises.
This plugin does not compare pixels and it does not delete anything. It uses configurable metadata rules so you can decide what counts as a duplicate in your workflow.
Safe by design
No deleting, moving, renaming, or removing from the catalog. The plugin helps you identify what deserves review, then leaves the final cleanup decision to you.
Works with real catalog mess
Useful when you have RAW files, exported TIFFs, PSD edits, PNGs, JPEG copies, renamed files, and old folders that no longer follow one clean naming pattern.
Clear duplicate reasoning
Each result is based on visible rules such as capture time, filename, dimensions, file size, GPS, camera data, ratings, labels, and file type.
Dry Run first
Run the scan, read the results, and adjust the settings before Lightroom is marked in any way. This is especially useful before larger folder or catalog scans.
Human-readable reports
Every scan produces CSV files that open in spreadsheet apps, showing scanned photos, duplicate groups, suggested keepers, skipped items, and scan totals.
Review inside Lightroom
When you are ready, the plugin can add review keywords, mark duplicate candidates, and build organized collections so you can inspect each group visually.
A practical duplicate review workflow.
Start narrow, inspect the logs, then scale up. The plugin is designed for review and cleanup planning, not blind automation.
- ✓Select a small test set, folder, collection, current source, or the entire catalog.
- ✓Choose Conservative, Balanced, or Aggressive matching, then adjust the criteria manually.
- ✓Use Required anchor fields like capture time, filename, dimensions, file size, full path, or GPS to avoid weak false matches.
- ✓Run Dry Run or Report Only and inspect the image log, audit log, and summary report.
- ✓When the results are trustworthy, apply optional keywords, rejected status, and review collections inside Lightroom.
Good fit for
- ✓Photographers cleaning years of Lightroom imports.
- ✓Catalogs containing RAW, TIFF, PSD, PNG, and JPEG variants.
- ✓People who want logs and review collections before deleting anything manually.
- ✓Users who need transparent keeper rules instead of a black-box duplicate finder.
Not meant for
- !Pixel-perfect image similarity detection.
- !Automatic file deletion or destructive cleanup.
- !Finding visually similar photos with unrelated metadata.
- !Replacing your final human review before removing files from disk.
What it helps you decide.
The plugin is designed to answer practical cleanup questions: which photos look like duplicate candidates, which one should probably be kept, and why that suggestion was made.
Probable duplicates
Find photos that share meaningful Lightroom metadata, such as capture time, filename patterns, dimensions, file size, GPS location, camera, lens, rating, label, folder, or file type.
Export and edit variants
Useful for spotting relationships between originals and rendered files, such as RAW plus TIFF, PSD, PNG, or JPEG versions that may have different extensions or slightly changed names.
Suggested keepers
Keeper suggestions can prefer RAW, lossless rendered files, higher ratings, larger resolution, edited photos, non-rejected photos, and larger file size.
Scan scope control
Scan only selected photos, the current collection, the current folder, the current Lightroom source, or the entire catalog when you are ready for a broader pass.
Adjustable strictness
Start with Conservative, Balanced, or Aggressive. Then tune how strict the scan should be for time differences, GPS distance, file size differences, and numeric metadata.
Review-ready output
After each scan, you get a summary showing photos scanned, duplicate groups found, potential duplicates, keepers suggested, unique photos, skipped photos, and errors.
Matching controls
- ✓Use Conservative, Balanced, or Aggressive presets as a starting point.
- ✓Set each criterion to Required, Strong, Medium, Weak, Ignore, or disabled.
- ✓Control capture time variance in seconds.
- ✓Control GPS distance tolerance in meters.
- ✓Control file size tolerance by percentage and numeric metadata tolerance by value.
Keeper priorities
- ✓Prefer RAW over rendered formats.
- ✓Prefer TIFF, PNG, PSD, and PSB over JPEG when configured as lossless rendered formats.
- ✓Prefer higher rating, larger resolution, edited photos, non-rejected photos, and larger file size.
- ✓Optionally prefer color-labeled photos, newer imports, older capture dates, or newer capture dates.
Start free. Upgrade once when you need larger scans.
The free plan is enough to test the full workflow on a small set of photos. Premium removes the scan limit with a one-time $14.99 perpetual license.
Free
For testing the plugin on a small selection before trusting it with bigger folders or collections.
- ✓ Full duplicate scan workflow for up to 50 photos
- ✓ Selected Photos, folder, collection, and source-based scan setup
- ✓ Conservative, Balanced, and Aggressive matching presets
- ✓ Dry Run and report-first workflow
- ✓ CSV image log, audit log, and summary report
- ✓ Keeper suggestions for duplicate groups
- ✓ Safe testing with no file deletion, moving, or renaming
- ✓ Larger unlicensed scans still produce reports, but Lightroom marking is disabled
Premium
For serious Lightroom catalog cleanup across larger folders, collections, current sources, or the entire catalog.
- ✓ Perpetual license, not a subscription
- ✓ No scan limit after activation
- ✓ Larger folder, collection, current source, and full catalog scans
- ✓ Dry Run, Report Only, and Apply Marking modes
- ✓ Optional duplicate and keeper keywords
- ✓ Optional rejected marking for duplicate candidates
- ✓ Optional collection sets and one collection per duplicate group
- ✓ Cleanup helpers for previous ADF keywords and review collections
- ✓ Same transparent reports and keeper reasoning as the free plan
Questions before you install?
Here are the objections most Lightroom users should resolve before trusting any duplicate workflow.
Does the plugin delete duplicate files?
No. It never deletes files, moves files, renames files, or removes photos from the Lightroom catalog. Cleanup remains your decision.
Does it compare pixels?
No. It compares Lightroom metadata such as capture time, filename, dimensions, file size, camera model, GPS, ratings, labels, and optional advanced metadata fields.
What happens in Dry Run mode?
The plugin scans and writes reports only. It does not apply keywords, rejected flags, or collections in Lightroom.
What does the paid license unlock?
The Free plan processes up to 50 photos fully. Premium is a $14.99 one-time payment that removes the scan limit and enables the full large-catalog cleanup workflow.
Can I review the decisions?
Yes. The audit log explains criteria matches, confidence scores, keeper reasoning, skipped photos, errors, and metadata diagnostics.
Where does it run in Lightroom?
After installation, run it from File > Plug-in Extras > Find Duplicate Images...
Test it on 50 photos before trusting it with 50,000.
Start with a small selection, run a dry scan, inspect the logs, then decide whether the paid workflow belongs in your catalog cleanup process.