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Is there a way to automatically delete all but one duplicate file that has same name, size, modified date?

Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:36 pm
by LighteningRat
Mistakes were made, and version control didn't happen, and so now I have many many duplicate files, some are the same exact file, some share the same filename. I've added the search criteria dupe: sizedupe: and the extension and I have multiple versions of the same filename (and duplicates of those versions). Is there a way to selectively delete files that have same name/size/modified date, maybe based on the topmost folder they reside in? I'm sure there's some kind of logic here, but I can't seem to find a way to sort these results and delete files while keeping a single copy of each without manually going through the list and selecting them. I have over 1500 files and that will take way too long to go through manually. Thanks for any help

Re: Is there a way to automatically delete all but one duplicate file that has same name, size, modified date?

Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2023 8:35 pm
by therube
Sounds like you're using Everything 1.4.
IMO, you might be better served by Everything 1.5 Alpha.

you can do something like
dupe:name;size

you can limit (filter) what you're checking for dups against, so if you only wanted to look for pictures, & pictures in c:\arewedupdyet\, then
dupe:name;size;sha1 pic: c:\arewedupdyet\


you can add a Property such as sha1: & dupe with that too
dupe:name;size;sha1 pic: c:\arewedupdyet\



Actually selection - once you've found & verified dup's shouldn't be an issue, I wouldn't think.

Re: Is there a way to automatically delete all but one duplicate file that has same name, size, modified date?

Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2023 10:53 pm
by void

Re: Is there a way to automatically delete all but one duplicate file that has same name, size, modified date?

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2023 1:41 pm
by LighteningRat
Thanks for the help. I'm having difficulty figuring out how to delete these so there is just 1 copy remaining, e.g. there are 2-4 copies for files so I would want to delete 1-3 files for each duplicate set. Is there any way to do this or will I have to just go through the list manually?

Re: Is there a way to automatically delete all but one duplicate file that has same name, size, modified date?

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2023 5:50 pm
by therube
There is no way to select "groups", except to manually choose what you want (to delete).

Though... depending on your data, how it's laid out... you might be able to sort or filter results such that the particular items you're wanting to delete become more apparent.


While Everything is great at finding dups, depending on your needs... an actual duplicate finding program might work out better, or could be used in conjunction with Everything.

AllDup is very good. (And you can tell it to "select all but 1 duplicate in a set of dups".)

Re: Is there a way to automatically delete all but one duplicate file that has same name, size, modified date?

Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2023 6:04 pm
by LighteningRat
Yeah, I have 10,000+ duplicate files to deal with so I'll look into that program. Thanks!