Unable to merge duplicates on my iPhone

Which system version is running on your MacBook?

You need macOS 13 Ventura or macOS 14 Sonoma to remove duplicates.

Even then it may take a while, until the first duplicates will be shown. The Duplicates album will only appear after Photos has detected some duplicates or similar photos.

See: Remove duplicate photos in Photos on Mac - Apple Support (IN)

Hello Taha04,

Thanks for posting in Apple Support Communities. You should be able to merge your photos using this guidance from Merge duplicate photos and videos on iPhone - Apple Support.

1. Tap Albums, then tap Duplicates below Utilities.

Duplicate photos and videos appear next to each other.

2. Tap Merge to combine the duplicates, then tap Merge [number] Items.

Merging combines the highest quality version and all of the relevant data across the duplicates, and keeps that one in your library. The remaining duplicates are moved to the Recently Deleted album.

All the best.

Congratulations for using "Catch 22" correctly!

Before Ventura (and even after, a bit) people have used the 3rd party app PowerPhotos ($30) to handle duplicates. This is a trusted app that does lots of good things and that's been around for decades (really.) It is used by lots of experienced Photos users. I keep it open all the time that I'm using Photos.

Just curious-- where do you see the "light gray" text? Under the thumbnails? What does it say on either of the duplicates?

Also, be careful about duplicates-- most duplicate finders will show "similars" as well as exact copies, so you may need to look closely. In PowerPhotos you can see some metadata for the each picture. PowerPhotos also seems a bit more discriminating than Photos.

Thank you! This is a "catch 22". My wife needs to update to Ventura but cannot do so because she lacks disc space in part due to too many duplicate or undeleted photo files, my reason for wanting to clean up her files!

I'm not sure--I'd be very cautious! The worst thing that can happen is to use a duplicate finder that doesn't really understand the Photos database! Removing a file from the Photos package, and not properly informing the Photos database, may irreparably damage the Library! It's not like working with files in Finder. That was what the "trusted" part of my description of PowerPhotos was about. PowerPhotos uses Photos' own routines, so the database doesn't get damaged. It's also very possible that it looks like it works, but the damage shows up later. Be careful! Make a backup!

By the way, it looks like full use is $8/month

This works on my iPhone but "duplicates does not appear only desktop or MacBook. How's can i delete or merge many duplicates fro my library?

Thank you!

I found a free app. called "Duplicate File Finder" with good reviews in the Apple store but have not tried it yet.