Mark Duplicates for Processing

Now that you have a report of duplicate files, you can use our innovative SmartMark technology to mark the ones you want to move, delete, or archive. Automatically mark files by size, position, search path, and much more.

Mark by position is the fastest way to clear a report: mark all but the first (or all but the last) file in every duplicate group in one stroke. Because position follows the report's current sort order, sorting the results first turns this into a precision instrument - sort by date modified, for example, and "mark all but the first" keeps the oldest copy of everything.

Mark by age targets the oldest or newest file in each group, judged by modified, created, or accessed date, or marks everything older than an hour, day, week, month, or year. Mark by size picks out the largest or smallest copy in each group, or every duplicate at or above a 1 KB, 1 MB, 10 MB, 100 MB, 500 MB, or 1 GB threshold. Mark by name or path length finds the longest or shortest file name - or full path - in each group, which is the quickest way to weed out copies buried deep in nested folders.

Media collections get purpose-built treatment. Mark by music tag selects the shortest or lowest bit rate copy of each song, so the best-quality recording survives, while mark by image metadata selects the oldest or newest date taken, or the lowest resolution photo in each group. Both work from the same metadata used by the comparison options.

SmartMark also allows you to mark duplicate files by path using wildcard or regular expression pattern matching - or to mark every duplicate that falls outside your designated master search path, the fastest route to preserving one authoritative copy of your data while cleaning up everything else.

Marking operations are cumulative, so you can layer several SmartMark passes to describe exactly the set of files you want - and clear every marker instantly if you change your mind. Safety is built in: switch on Ensure One Unmarked File per Duplicate Group and no SmartMark operation will ever mark an entire group, while protected files and protected search paths are always left alone. Afterwards, a Smart Marking Notice reports exactly how many files were marked and how many were skipped, and keyboard shortcuts let you jump between marked files and fully marked or entirely unmarked groups to review your work before you move, delete, or archive anything.