Best Ways to Scan Large Duplicate Files On Cloud Easily

Do you store your files on the cloud? Do you regularly back up your data online and share your pictures and videos with friends and family?

Scan OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and Box Cloud for large duplicate files. Free up large amount of storage space!

If you do, soon you’ll realize that you’re running out of storage and you need to pay for the service. If subscribing to the premium service doesn’t appeal to your mind, we’ve better alternatives. In this guide, we’ll discuss various ways to delete large duplicate files on the cloud and reclaim your lost storage. Read on.

What are Duplicates? How do I get them?

Duplicate files are identical versions of your existing files. Duplicates are a major problem faced by almost all users who store their files online. As your cloud service platform syncs files across different devices, it sometimes results in duplication.

There may be different instances of the same files on your PC and smartphone. Your cloud service stores both the copies online, resulting in duplication. There are two ways to deal with the problem of duplication. We’ll discuss both of them one by one.

Method 1: Manually Search & Delete Large Duplicate Files

The first option is to manually search for duplicate files. If you’ve a relatively smaller set of data, you can check it for duplicates. But if your data is large in size, we recommend that you skip this method and follow the automated method discussed in the latter part of this article.

Google Drive

1. Log in to your Google Drive and select the My Drive option in the side panel.

2. Google Drive will show up all the top-most folders in your drive. Move down to Step 3 to scan all these top-most folders for duplicates.

3. If you’re looking to scan a specific sub-folder in your account, double-click to open it.

4. Google Drive’s search feature allows you to search for specific file types. For example: If you’re looking to search for duplicate compressed archive files, enter type:archive into the Search box. Similarly, you can use the following search parameters to find files by their kind.

• Folders: type:folder
• Documents: type:document
• Spreadsheets: type:spreadsheet
• Presentations: type:presentation
• PDF Documents: type:pdf
• Image files: type:image.
• Audio files: type:audio
• Video files: type:video
• Google Form: type:form
• Drawings: type:drawing
• Shortcuts: type:shortcut
• Sites: type:site

5. Press Enter and Google will display you a list of all matching files.

6. Now, click the Name column head. Google Drive will sort your files by their names. As the files are sorted in ascending order, it’s easy to identify duplicates. Most duplicates will have postfixes such as _Copy(1), _Copy(2).

Microsoft OneDrive

1. Login to your Microsoft OneDrive account.

2. Head on to My Files section.

3. To search a specific folder for duplicates, double-click that folder.

4. Click on the Sort icon on your toolbar.

5. Select Name.

6. Click the Sort icon again, and select Ascending.

7. OneDrive will display your files in ascending order. It is now easier to identify the duplicates that have similar patterns. For example: _Copy(1), _Copy(2), etc.

Dropbox
1. Login to your Dropbox account and go to All Files.

2. Double-click to open a specific folder that you like to search for duplicates.

3. Click on the Name column-head and select the Ascending option.

4. Look for similar patterns in your file names to identify the duplicates. For example: _Copy(1), _Copy(2), etc.

Automatically Search Duplicates

Why search for duplicates manually when you could automate the entire procedure?

With the right tools, you can re-organize your cloud account within minutes and reclaim your lost storage. Cloud Duplicate Finder is an algorithm-based online duplicate finder that does this job with lightning speed. You can find, review and delete hundreds of duplicate files with just a few clicks.

Benefits:

Here are some major benefits that Cloud Duplicate Finder offers:

Fully Automated: Cloud Duplicate Finder uses specialized algorithms to find your duplicate files. The process is fully automated. As a user, you don’t need to compare any files yourself.

Official APIs: CDF uses an industry-standard way to access your data. CDF has integrated official APIs from the cloud service providers. It assures that your data is completely safe. No one besides you can unauthorized read your data. It is the most privacy-friendly way.

Browser-based Application: Worried about downloading new files? Fear not, CDF is a fully browser-based cloud duplicate finder. There is no need to download or install anything. All you need is a PC or Mac with Internet connectivity.

Multi-Cloud Support: Cloud Duplicate Finder makes it incredibly easy and fun to scan duplicateCompletely Secure: CDF does not force users to delete their duplicates. As a user, if you’re worried about deleting duplicates, you can choose the “Move to folder” option. CDF will safely move your duplicates to another folder of your choice.

Auto Selection Patterns: Not only does CDF automate the entire scan process, but also gives you the ability to auto-select duplicate files in bulk. This means that you can automatically mark hundreds of duplicate files in bulk with a single mouse click.

Steps:

Now that you’re familiar with the tool, let’s go back to the actual procedure:s on different cloud platforms. No matter whether you use Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box or Amazon S3, CDF is there to protect you from duplication.

Step 1: Registration

Visit the Cloud Duplicate Finder website.

Sign up for a new account and verify your email address.

After verifying your email address, log in to your account.

Step 2: Integrate a cloud account

The CDF window displays different cloud platforms- OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, S3 and Box. Choose a cloud platform you want to search for duplicates.

Click on the Add New Drive button.

Your cloud platform will ask you to log-in, if you already haven’t. Once you securely enter your login credentials, you’ll be asked to confirm File Access Permissions. Click on Yes.

Step 3: Choose folders to scan

After approving the file access permissions, all the folders in your cloud account will appear in the sidebar on the left.

You’ve two options- Choose the topmost folders to scan your entire cloud account for duplicates. The second option is to expand top-most folders and select sub-folders of your choice.

Step 4: Choose file types to scan

Choose the All Files scan option. If you need to scan individual file types, select the Custom Files option and mark file types of your preference.

Click on Scan and it’ll begin the duplicate search.

Step 5: Review duplicate results

After successfully scanning your files, CDF will display a list of all duplicates. You’ll notice that your files are grouped with a common hash. Hashes are the fixed-length short texts produced using the cryptographic algorithms representing the entire content of the file.

The only thing that you need to do now is, click on the Select Duplicates button and choose an auto-selection pattern of your choice (for example: Newest files in each group, Oldest files in each group).

Finally, click on Select Action and specify whether to delete or move your duplicate copies.