Getting started
Back up your files first!
Section titled “Back up your files first!”As with any hard drive clean-up project it is always best to have a recent backup - preferably on a different drive or in the cloud.
Create a scan
Section titled “Create a scan”Everything in Duplicate Cleaner 6 happens inside a scan. Each scan has its own settings, its own results and its own entry in the navigation bar on the left, so you can keep several scans open at once - for instance one for your photos and one for your music.
Create a scan from the Home page:
- Choose a scan mode. The mode decides how files are compared:
- Same content finds files with exactly the same content, regardless of name or date. This is the best place to start.
- Attributes Only ignores the content and matches by name, size, dates and so on.
- Image mode, Audio mode and Video mode find similar pictures, music and videos, or match them by their tags.
- Text mode finds documents and e-books with similar text.
- Binary mode has specialist matching for partial and near-identical files.
- Give the scan a name, or leave the suggested one.
- Click Create new scan.
What to find
Section titled “What to find”The new scan opens on its What to find tab, where you set the criteria for the chosen mode, any more duplicate options (same file name, same size, and so on), and search filters to narrow down which files are scanned.
Note that if you select too many criteria, such as same modified AND created date, Duplicate Cleaner may not find any matches. If in doubt, try a first scan in Same content mode with no extra options.
Where to look?
Section titled “Where to look?”Tell Duplicate Cleaner where to scan on the Where to look tab. You can use one or more folders or drives as a starting point.
As a quick side note it’s best not to scan and remove files from the drive containing your operating system and programs, as removing these can break your system. Duplicate Cleaner is designed for your own documents and data, not for cleaning system files.
Starting the scan
Section titled “Starting the scan”Go to the Start scan tab, check the summary of your settings, and click Start scan. A scan may take minutes or hours depending how big the drives are and how many files you are searching for. Network speed may also be a factor for remote drives.
You can work in other scans, or start another one, while a scan runs.
After the scan
Section titled “After the scan”The Duplicate files list is shown when the scan finishes. This is the list of all the duplicate files found. They are arranged in numbered groups - each file in a group is a duplicate of the others according to the criteria you set at the start.
Marking (ticking) a file means that you intend to remove that file later on. Note that this list contains ALL copies of each file, so you should leave at least one file unmarked in each group when removing files.
The Selection Assistant can help mark files automatically - for instance “All but one file in each group”, preferring to keep the newest copy.
When you are happy with your marks, use the file removal panels to delete, move, copy, rename or link the marked files. Always be careful though, and be sure you have a backup before starting!
Saving
Section titled “Saving”Duplicate Cleaner automatically saves all your open scans - settings, results and marks - when it closes, and opens them again next time. You can also save a scan at any time, and export it to a file to keep or to share. See Saving, exporting and importing scans.