Duplicates in your cloud accounts

The Duplicates window also finds exact copies inside each of your connected cloud accounts. It does this by reading the file fingerprints the provider already keeps for every file, so nothing is downloaded just to compare it. You can remove the extra copies from the same window.

Each account appears as its own row under Cloud & remote in the sidebar, labelled with its provider. Open the window from the More menu → Duplicates….

How a cloud scan works

%% caption: How a cloud account is checked for duplicates without downloading anything
flowchart TD
  A[Scan now on one account] --> B[Read the account's file list with each file's size and fingerprint]
  B --> C{Does the provider keep fingerprints?}
  C -->|No| D[Nothing is compared - the window explains why]
  C -->|Yes| E[Group files with the same size and fingerprint]
  E --> F[Sets appear as they are found]
  F --> G{You remove extras?}
  G -->|Yes| H[The copy being kept is checked again in the account]
  H --> I{Still there?}
  I -->|Yes| J[The other copies are removed one at a time]
  I -->|No| K[Nothing is removed - scan again]

• Two files count as copies only when they have the same size and the same fingerprint, inside the same account. Copies spread across two different accounts aren't matched.
• Results appear as they're found. A big account can take a while, so sets show up progressively and the list says Still scanning — more may appear.
• Very large accounts are covered up to a sensible limit, and the window says when you're looking at a partial view.
• Google Docs, Sheets and Slides aren't ordinary files and have no fingerprint, so they're skipped rather than guessed at.
• If a provider doesn't publish fingerprints at all, the window says so — Storage Studio won't download your files to compare them.

As on your Mac, only files of 1 MB or more are compared unless you turn on Include small files. On a cloud account that means reading the full listing, which takes longer.

Each account is independent

Every account has its own Scan now / Stop, its own progress and its own results. Starting a scan on one account never holds up another, and switching between accounts while they work is fine. If something goes wrong in one account, only that account's work stops.

Which copy is suggested

In a cloud account the suggested copy carries a Keep chip. It's the copy nearest the top of the account — the fewest folders deep — because extra copies tend to collect deeper down, in export and download folders. There's no selector to pick a different one; instead, remove the copies you don't want one at a time with the trash button (Remove just this copy). See Which copy Storage Studio keeps.

Removing copies

• Keep best, remove N — removes the other copies in one set.
• Remove just this copy — removes one copy.
• Clean all N sets — keeps the suggested copy in every set in that account.

Before anything is removed, the copy you're keeping is checked again in the account itself. If it has gone since the scan, you'll see "The copy we were going to keep is no longer there" and nothing is removed.

Where the removed copies go depends on the provider, and the confirmation tells you which applies:

For a provider without a Trash you must type Delete and click Delete permanently before anything happens. Cloud removals don't go to the Recycle Vault — that's for files removed from your Mac.

Opening a copy

Click a copy's name to open it on the provider's website where that's possible — Google Drive, Box and Dropbox copies can open this way, and Google Drive and Dropbox folders too. Other providers have no web address to open; hovering explains why, and the Copy the cloud path button copies its location instead.

Background checks

Each account has an Auto-scan switch, on by default. Some kinds of account — such as S3-compatible storage and Google Photos — are only ever scanned when you click Scan now. See Background duplicate scans.

See also: Finding and removing duplicates · Cloud accounts · Testing, editing and removing an account