Find Duplicate Files with Tidy Up

Murphy has built up a ton of duplicate files over the years.  All kinds of stuff, some files with the same file name, some with different file names.  Many of the files are half-baked backups thrown onto external drives in haste.  Some are just the result of poor housekeeping.

I’ve used various tools to get the mess under control.  Later we’ll be looking at a tool called CD Finder that despite its name can be very helpful in cataloging an unruly collection of disks and drives.  We’ll be looking at the diff command too - which is already on your Mac.  But first let’s take a look at Tidy Up, an extremely helpful tool for finding duplicate files and deleting them.

Tidy Up can look beyond the filename to determine if files are duplicates or not.  In the screencast Murphy uses Tidy Up to look at file content and size.  There are many other criteria sets the application can use to evaluate files.

Tidy Up can also dig into iPhoto and iTunes databases in search of duplicates.  Mail mailboxes too.  Information about deleted files is then synced back to the applications.  We’ll look at these features in another screencast.

One feature Murphy really likes:  The ability to keep a single copy from a duplicate grouping.  Tidy Up groups identical files together in its search results.  The application will display all but a single file from each group, allowing you to delete all the extras at once.

Tidy Up can also restore content you’ve deleted to its original location, as long as you haven’t emptied the trash.

You can use Tidy Up to scan multiple drives at once or just a folder that you suspect has duplicates.  It’s probably best to experiment a little before deleting anything - to ensure you’re getting the results you expect.

Smarter Smart Folders

When you set criteria using the Finder GUI for Smart Folders each condition is set as an “and”, meaning all the criteria must be met by a file to be returned in the results.  There’s no obvious way to change this in the GUI, but it’s there.   Sometimes you want to return files that meet “any” condition of a given criteria set.  For example, you might want to see files that end in .dng OR .jpg.

When you add a new criteria to a Smart Folder, hold the option key before clicking the plus sign and you’ll get a drop-down for Any or All.  Select ANY when you want to create a less restrictive query.  Select ALL to form a restrictive Smart Folder.  You can drag the rows up and down to change their order.

I didn’t see this in the help anywhere and wonder how anyone was supposed to know about it.  I guess I’m not alone, it was mentioned in MacRumors and credited to Macworld.

I messed around a little with adding an Any and an All at the same time but I’m not sure how OS X is interpreting that logic.  Try it and see for yourself.

Using Special Characters

Your Mac is loaded with special characters you can access from all kinds of applications.  Take a look under the Edit menu and in many cases you’ll see  Special Characters  at the bottom of the list.
Instead of scrolling through all the characters in the list use the search field.
More details at UsingMac, including a hearts example just in time for Valentine’s Day emails and tweets.  They probably won’t work everywhere, like in Wordpress, without a little tweaking.