Delete Duplicates in pCloud
pCloud is a virtual drive that connects your computer to pCloud’s servers. It works similarly to a virtual drive. It extends your storage capacity by allowing you to upload your files and store them on the Web.
If you’ve mapped pCloud to your PC, you’ll continue to access your files as if they are stored on your hard disk. Importantly, these files will not take your storage space. Once you edit a file, pCloud automatically syncs it online to reflect the same changes onto other devices.
Sync pCloud to PC and De-dupe all files . Use Clone Files Checker for duplicate deletion!
Syncing files across different devices such as computers, laptops and mobile could sometimes result in duplication of your original data. Human errors such as uploading the same file twice also contribute a lot to this issue. Unfortunately, your cloud service provider does not have any in-house mechanism to filter and warn about duplicates. It’s so easy to end up with a huge load of duplicate files. After many years, the duplicates will eat up a significant part of your storage space and you’ll run into storage space issues. In this article, we’ll discuss why pCloud is so popular and how you can find and delete duplicates in pCloud.
Why is pCloud so Popular?
pCloud is a feature-rich cloud platform that makes it possible to sync, store, manage and share large files. Here are some of the key features that make it one of the popular used cloud platforms.
File Encryption & Security
Privacy has been an issue not only for individuals but also for businesses. We often hear about the Man-in-the-Middle attacks where the attacker gets access to the victim’s data during data transmission. Unfortunately, if you don’t take adequate security measures, your data is at risk. If you don’t use a strong password or two-factor authentication, file encryption and other enhanced security features, someone could gain access to your account and access your information.
Interestingly, pCloud does not provide file encryption security unless you activate it. You’ll be billed $3.99 per month separately to get access to pCloud Crypto. pCloud Crypto is an optional file encryption service that protects your data against cybercriminals and hackers. pCloud mirrors your data on at least 5 different servers and encrypts it with the widely used AES-256 encryption standard.
Compatibility
The user interface is easy, straightforward, and less clunky. pCloud is compatible with Windows PC, MacBook and Linux computers. The biggest one, the Linux users can access their pCloud files using a system tray icon.
You might be a bit disappointed as the desktop app doesn’t have as many features as the Web app. The mobile version is available for both Android and iOS. Once installed, it automatically uploads your photos and videos online.
Sharing & Collaboration
Sharing and collaboration are made easy with pCloud. You can easily share individual files and folders. You can send download links to your friends via email. A download link authorizes the recipient to download your private files. Just like that, you can send upload links too. When someone clicks an upload link, pCloud will ask them to upload their files to be shared with you automatically. You can also share your files on social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
File Preview
With pCloud, you can preview the contents of your files without needing to download them separately. pCloud also lets you download your images in different file formats. Not just that, if you’re a music addict, you can build playlists for your songs and play them straight from the cloud.
Migration
Unlike other cloud service providers, pCloud lets you migrate your files onto other platforms such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
Pricing
pCloud offers a free storage plan that gives you a generous 10 GB of storage. If you like to expand your storage, you can go with the premium plans. The premium plans allow you to add your family members, avail of extra member benefits and expert customer support. The first premium plan starts with 500 GB of storage charged at $4.99 per month. The second premium plan offers you a 2 TB of storage billed at $9.99 monthly. Alternatively, you can choose to pay annually which shall bring down the pricing to $47.88 and $95.88 respectively. There are other cost-effective plans as well. You can make a one-time payment and avail the lifetime subscription. The 500 GB lifetime plan costs only $175 while the 2 TB lifetime plan costs $350.
Manually Finding Duplicate Files on pCloud
Manually finding duplicate files can be tricky. It can take a lot of your time if you’ve got too many files. Also, there is an added risk of deleting the wrong files.
In order to find duplicate files, you’ll need to sort your files in alphabetical order. Once the files are rearranged, review each file name and look for a pattern. Here’s how:
- Login to your pCloud account.
- Click the Sort icon on the upper right corner of the screen.
- Now, select the Ascending option to arrange all the files and folders in ascending order.
- As your files are rearranged, it’s an easy job to find duplicates. Normally you will find incremental numbers at the end of the duplicate file name. For instance: Cat.jpg can be an original file and Cat(2).jpg, Cat(3).jog, Cat(4).jpg, can be its duplicates.
Important: Blindly deleting files can cause unexpected data loss. Before deleting any files, try reviewing their content. It might take some time, but save you from unexpected data losses and trauma.
Automatically find duplicate files on pCloud
The most easier way to find duplicate files is to use specialized software designed to identify and fix duplicate files. Clone Files Checker can be a great help. We’ll use CFC to scan all the contents of your pCloud account and then delete any duplicate files.
How does Clone Files Checker work?
In order to understand the functioning of CFC, we need to understand how the file system on your computer works. Every file stored on your hard disk contains some sort of data, which is stored in the binary format. When you open the file, the binary text is converted into a human-readable format. Your operating system interprets the file contents, converts machine code instructions into human-readable characters.
Clone Files Checker generates a fixed-size string representing the contents of a file. Just like a student summarizes a long piece of a chapter into a few key points, CFC produces a shorter, unique and fixed-length string that represents a file’s content. It is a very complex process that involves comparing each file’s contents, performing complex calculations to generate unique fixed-size strings. The entire process is called file hashing. When two or more files match the same fixed-size string, they are considered duplicate files. But as a rule of thumb, adding or deleting even a single character into the file will change the entire hash value. The new file will no longer be considered a duplicate.
Steps:
Step 1: Download your Files or Connect to pCloud Drive
- Login to your pCloud account.
- Select the files or folders you want to download.
- Click on the More options button on the right side of your files/ folders.
- Click the Download icon.
- pCloud will automatically create a compressed .zip file and store folders you’ve selected to download. You might have to wait until it initiates your .zip file download.
Or, if you’ve mapped a connection to the pCloud Drive, simply open This PC > your pCloud Drive. You don’t have to download any files.
Step 2: Start Duplicate Scan
- Download and install Clone Files Checker.
- Launch the software and click on the Add Folder icon on the left corner of your screen.
- Select the folder that contains your downloaded/ mapped files.
- Click on the Start Search button.
Step 3: Fix the Duplicates
- Once the scan is finished, CFC will prompt you to select one of the options: Quick-Fix and Review & Fix.
- Use Quick-Fix to quickly select a file version you want to retain and then your desired action.
- Use Review & Fix to review all the duplicate files, preview their content, use different file selection mechanisms to mark or unmark files in a group, and then take action.
Raza Ali Kazmi works as an editor and technology content writer at Sorcim Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. He loves to pen down articles on a wide array of technology related topics and has also been diligently testing software solutions on Windows & Mac platforms.