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How to Remove Duplicate Files From Google Drive
Free up space on your Google Drive by deleting unnecessary files
3 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Key notes
Google Drive iscloud storageservice where you can save documents, images, videos, archives, and other files too. It provides a minimum of 15 GB of storage, and you can upgrade that to one TB.
However, Google Drive doesn’t include any options to search for duplicate files.
Duplicated files can waste quite a bit of yourGoogle Drivestorage space, so this is how you can remove them.
How can I remove duplicate files on Google Drive?
1. Manually remove duplicate files from Google Drive
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Go toGoogle Drive.
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Click on the icon in the upper right corner of the screen to change the view toList View.
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Writecopyin the search bar and pressEnter. All the files that contain the word will appear in the list.
Alternatively, you can press theCtrl + Fkeys on your keyboard and write copy in the text box that appears.
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Select a duplicate file and pressDeleteon your keyboard or right-click on it and selectRemove.
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In order to remove multiple files at once, start by selecting one of them, then hold theCtrlkey and select the others. After, delete them as previously described in step 4.
Although Google Drive does not offer its users a built-in option to remove duplicate files, there is a workaround for this.
Duplicate files are likely to have the wordCopyin front of them, given the fact that they are copies of others. Therefore, you can manually search for all the files that contain this word in their title and delete them.
Do note that, if the duplicate files have a different name, they cannot be found using this method and you might need to try out something else.
2. Remove duplicate files from Google Drive using third-party software
Clone Files Checker is freeware software that enables you to quickly find and delete duplicate files from your system disk andcloud storage.
As such, it’s a utility you can erase duplicate files fromGoogle Drivewith.
Click theDownload Clone Files Checkerbutton on the software’s home page to save its setup wizard and install it. Then you can remove duplicate files inGoogle Driveas follows.
Now you can save hundreds of megabytes ofGoogle Drivestorage. You can also scan for and delete duplicated files from your hard disk with Clone Files Checker much the same.
So Clone Files Checker is a handy utility to add to Windows.
Why is my Google Drive storage full?
It seems like the backup, the e-mails, and other files you stored on your drive exceed the space allocated. You can start deleting files from Google Drive or you can back them up on an external hard drive.
We hope you managed to find and remove duplicate files in your Google Drive. Let us know in the comments below what method you prefer.
More about the topics:Google Drive
Matthew Adams
Windows Hardware Expert
Matthew is a freelancer who has produced a variety of articles on various topics related to technology. His main focus is the Windows OS and all the things surrounding it.
He is passionate about the tech world, always staying up-to-date with the latest and greatest. With an analytical view, he likes problem-solving, focusing on errors and their causes.
In his free time, he likes to read and write about history and tries to always develop new skills.
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Matthew Adams
Windows Hardware Expert
He is passionate about everything surrounding Microsoft’s OS, focusing on troubleshooting guides & tips for everyday problems.
