Quick start
Outcome: a scan you can read, and a clear decision about what to remove — without changing anything you did not intend to.
Before you begin: know which folder holds the copies you want to keep, and which folder you want to clean up. That single distinction does most of the work; see Dupli and Reference folders.
Nothing in steps 1–5 modifies a file. Only step 6 does, and only when you confirm.
1. Open DupliWalker
Launch DupliWalker — it opens at
app.dupliwalker.com. The workbench loads in your browser; nothing is installed.
The Welcome page lists the same steps you are about to follow. You can reopen it at any time from View → Welcome.
2. Choose the folders to clean
In the Duplicate Explorer on the left, use Select Dupli folder(s) — described in the application as folders to search for removable copies.
Pick the messy side: the downloads folder, the second import of a memory card, the old backup.
3. Choose the folders to keep
Use Select Reference folders — folders with the copies you intend to keep.
Pick the trusted side: your organized library, your archive. Cleanup acts on Dupli folders only, so anything here is what you are protecting.
Working with a single folder and no trusted counterpart? Skip this step. Every result will be Own, and you will choose a keeper per group.
4. Search
Start the search — Search for Duplicates on the toolbar.
Results are grouped as they are found, so you can begin reading before the walk finishes. Each group is a set of files whose content matches.
5. Read a group, then verify a pair
Work through the results:
- A group is one set of matching files. See duplicate groups.
- A whole folder shown as a single row is intentional — see identical folders. View → Show All File Groups expands the flat view if you want to see inside.
- Own means the copies are on one side; Common means the file exists in both your Reference and Dupli folders. Common is the safest thing to remove, because the copy you are keeping is one you nominated in advance.
For anything irreplaceable, open two members side by side and confirm they really are the same before acting. This step is read-only, and it is the one that catches mistakes.
Three views of the same results are available from the toolbar — Duplicate Table, Duplicate Treemap and Duplicate Scatter Plot. They are different presentations of one result set, not different searches.
6. Clean up — the only step that changes anything
Select the redundant copies, then use Delete selected in Dupli, which removes reviewed selections from Dupli folders only.
Read the confirmation before accepting it. The application’s own advice:
Always review the proposed cleanup before confirming changes.
Treat deletion as final. Whether a deleted file can be recovered depends on your platform; see safety model. If you are not ready to decide, stop here — leaving results unactioned costs nothing.
Expected result
Each duplicate group has one copy left, in the location you chose. Your Reference folders are untouched.
If something did not go as expected
- No results, or fewer than expected. The likeliest cause is that the files are not actually identical — see what is a duplicate?.
- A folder appeared as a single row. That is deliberate; see identical folders.
- Unsure about a term. The glossary defines Dupli, Reference, Own, Common and the rest.
Practise safely first
The application ships a Guided Tour with a sample workspace, and states that the guided sample workspace never modifies your real files. It is worth ten minutes before you point DupliWalker at anything you care about.