Duplicate File Finder

I tried using this application and it does not allow me to check off all the duplicates at once and the one's I do check off,

do not get deleted. I do not see anything mentioned about this on a search. Your thoughts please.

What are the duplicates?

If they are system files then the duplicates may be needed, and the system may not let them be deleted.

In particular the operating system may need copies of the same .dll file in more than one location.

Try ticking 'System files' in 'Files to ignore' before searching for duplicates.

OK, I ticked the system files and they were ignored but I had so many duplicates that it was too many to count.

I deleted some and i could estimate that it would take more then 5 hours or more to tick them all. That is not acceptable.

The application does not allow me to tick all except one in each group. Some of these groups have over 12 duplicates.

Again just what are these files?

Are they all documents, images, videos, music files, etc.?

These are really the only type of files you should be removing duplicates of.

Duplicates of other types of files may be needed by the OS or by a particular application, removing them could break your OS or that particular application.

Be very careful when deleting duplicate files.

CC can find duplicate files, but it can't tell you if they are safe to remove or not - you have to decide that for yourself.

Just because CC finds a duplicate does not mean that you should remove it.

You need to put some input into the process to make sure that you do indeed want to delete the files.

You could end up deleting files that are wanted/needed if you just delete every duplicate found without you carefully checking just what you are deleting.

It's your choice what to delete, and your choice only.

If <u>you chose</u> to delete a file then you can't blame CC if something (or even your whole computer) stops working because you shouldn't have deleted it.

You can select multiple files using the right click, have you read the documentation?

https://www.ccleaner.com/docs/ccleaner/using-ccleaner/finding-duplicate-files/working-with-the-results-list

Thanks, I will study the documentation.

After studying the documentation, I decided it's too much of a risk to use. I will wait for a software that separates what is needed from those that can be safely deleted.

Do you know if this software is available. Ccleaner duplicate file finder comes up short in this area.

I think that you may have a misguided idea of just what a duplicate finder is and what it can do.

No software is going to 'know' what you want to keep and what you don't, only you can decide that.

The main function of any duplicate finder is to find things that you have saved twice, or more, on your computer.

Examples would be:

  • You work on a document and save it in different folders.
  • You copy something by mistake.
  • You download the photos from your phone, and then do it again later saving them to a different location.
  • You download video/music from a website, forget and then download it again.

They are not meant to examine the operating system files or any applications/programmes you have downloaded.

(Although they can do that for more advanced users and technicians).

Just limit yourself to duplicate Documents, Photos/images, Music, and Videos, leave everything else alone (or do a lot more research on what it actually is).

But even with Documents, Photos/images, Music, and Videos only you can say which one of a duplicate pair you want to keep, nobody else can read your mind especially not a piece of software.

Thanks,

I'll take another look to see if I can determine if I have duplicates of documents, music etc. But I believe it may take too long to find them if they exist.

It's actually straightforward and customizable allowing someone to Include their own paths and filetypes, and also Exclude paths and filetypes. Scans in a flash on an SSD!