Which copy Storage Studio keeps

For every set of duplicate files on your Mac, Storage Studio recommends the copy you're most likely to want: the one in a working folder rather than in Downloads or on the Desktop, and among those the one you used most recently. You can always choose a different copy before anything is removed.

How the recommendation is made

The rules are applied in order, and the first one that tells the copies apart decides:

%% caption: How Storage Studio picks the copy to recommend in a set on your Mac
flowchart TD
  A[A set of identical files] --> B{Are some copies outside Downloads and Desktop?}
  B -->|Yes| C[Prefer the copies in your working folders]
  B -->|No, all in the same kind of place| D[Consider every copy]
  C --> E[Pick the copy used, created or modified most recently]
  D --> E
  E --> F{Still a tie?}
  F -->|Yes| G[Pick the copy with the shorter location]
  F -->|No| H[Recommended copy]
  G --> H

1. Working folder first. Downloads and the Desktop tend to collect stray copies, so a copy somewhere else is preferred.
2. Most recent activity. Among the remaining copies, the one with the latest date wins — whichever is newest of when it was last used, created or modified.
3. Shorter location. If the copies are still tied, the one whose location is shortest wins, so the choice is always the same each time.

The set explains its choice in plain words, in a line that starts Recommended: keep, for example "it's in your working folder (the others are in Downloads/Desktop)" or "it's the copy you used most recently". The chosen copy carries a recommended badge.

Choosing a different copy

Each copy in a set has a round selector. The recommended copy is selected to begin with; click the selector beside another copy (Keep this copy instead) to keep that one. Click a file's name to open it, or its folder to show it in Finder, if you want to compare before you decide.

Move N to Recycle Vault then removes every copy except the one you selected. At least one copy is always kept, and the copy you're keeping is checked to be present and readable first — if it can't be confirmed, nothing is removed.

When you don't pick

• Clean all — keep the best of each keeps the recommended copy in every set.
• When Smart Care offers to clean duplicates, it also keeps the recommended copy, and it leaves out any set where a copy changed in the last 7 days.

Cloud accounts work a little differently

In a cloud account there's no "last used" date to go on, so the suggested copy is the one nearest the top of the account — the fewest folders deep. There's no selector there; to keep a different copy, remove the copies you don't want one at a time. See Duplicates in your cloud accounts.

See also: Finding and removing duplicates · The Recycle Vault · Restoring something from the Recycle Vault