How to Remove Duplicate Files from Google Drive Easily | 2024

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• Why Remove Duplicate Files from Google Drive?
• How to Remove Duplicate Files from Google Drive
• Bonus Tip: How to Manage Google Drive Files Easily
• In the End

Why Remove Duplicate Files from Google Drive?

Duplicate files are files that contain identical content and have the same file name/format. If you come across a duplicate in Google Drive, it means you have two or more identical items. These duplicates can be caused by many reasons, such as accidental file uploads, syncing errors, or multiple collaborators unknowingly uploading the same file.

It can be frustrating and inconvenience, since they consume storage space and hinder productivity, leading to Google Drive storage limits. In this article, we will show you how to delete duplicate files on Google Drive. If you happen to need this, continue to read.

How to Remove Duplicate Files from Google Drive

So, can Google Drive find duplicate files and delete them? Unfortunately, it cannot be automatically detected. However, you can follow the steps below to manually find out the duplicates and delete them easily.

Step 1: Head to your Google Drive on the web.

Step 2: Press List View on the right upper corner.

Step 3: Now, hold on the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click on any redundant replicas, identified by starting with "Copy of..." or having the same name with a number in brackets.

Step 4: Select them one by one and tap the Move to trash button. Then, they will be the Trash. To delete them permanently, you need to head to Trash and Empty trash to delete them forever. 

Bonus Tip: How to Manage Google Drive Files Easily

If you want to manage and organize Google Drive files so that you don’t need to remove duplicate files from Google Drive manually. To ease your work, it is recommended to utilize a professional cloud storage management service – MultCloud. 

MultCloud is a powerful cloud file management solution designed to streamline the organization and access of files across multiple cloud storage services. Its fundamental feature lies in its ability to integrate multiple cloud storage providers into one centralized interface, allowing users to manage their files conveniently from a single location.

So, you can add as many cloud services/accounts as you like based on your requirements. With the help of MultCloud, you are allowed to upload folders to Google Photos, download documents from Dropbox, share a file on Google Drive, etc. Any features you can perform on the cloud drive official web can be performed via MultCloud.

Let’s delve into detailed steps to manage files on Google Drive via MultCloud.

Step 1: MultCloud is free to get started. You can register an account for free via your email. Alternatively, signing in with Google/Facebook/Apple ID is available.

Step 2: Navigate to Add Cloud on the left taskbar. Then tap the icon of Google Drive to add your account by following the on-screen tips. After that, permit MultCloud by hitting the Allow button.

Step 3: Now, it’s time to go to Google Drive. Now, you can edit files on the cloud, such as downloading, uploading, sharing, etc. 

Apart from managing files in Google Drive, you will find it convenient to organize Google Drive files with other cloud drives too. For example, when it is troublesome and time-consuming to delete replicas on your Google Drive, you can simply migrate important files to another cloud/account. Then you can delete them to free up Google Drive space.

Anyway, transferring files from Google Drive to another cloud/account helps you increase Google Drive storage free. Meanwhile, by using MultCloud, you can enjoy many conveniences when migrating files between cloud drives.

In the End

In a nutshell, when you find two or more replicas of the same file on Google Drive, you need to delete them for more storage space. You can simply finish it by removing replicas that are starting by “copy of …”. Meanwhile, to get more free storage space, you can transfer files from Google Drive to another cloud/account via MultCloud, and them delete them on Google Drive.