HEIF or HEIC image files were first introduced by Apple and now they have been gaining popularity day by day. For the Apple Mac users it is easy to work with HEIF files, but the Windows users cannot view them without installing software like XnView MP. This is why Windows 11 users might end up having tons of HEIF image files as it can be easy to copy them multiple times without actually being able to view them.
Whatever the reason may have been for having a large number of HEIF/HEIC image files on your Windows 11 PC, there is a very easy way to find them using an open-source tool called AntiDupl. It has been recently updated (March 2023) to support the new HEIF/HEIC image file format.
Here is how you can find duplicate HEIF/HEIC image files on Windows 11 PC:
- Download AntiDupl binary file from https://ermig1979.github.io/AntiDupl/ and extract it any folder of your choice. It is a self extracting archive, so you do not even need any decompression tool.
- Launch AntiDupl and click on the gear like icon in its toolbar. This will open the program options.
- In the options window, select the Search tab. Then uncheck all file types except HEIF and JPEG. Click on the OK button to save the settings. You have to select JPEG as you cannot select HEIF alone.
- Back in the AntiDupl main window, click on the “Open folder” icon in the toolbar. Its icon has “open” written on it. You can add all the folders that you want to scan for duplicate HEIF files.
- As soon as you select the folders to be searched, it will start going through them up for any duplicate HEIF or JPEG files.
- In the results, you can select one of the files found in a duplicate group and delete the rest. But you should make a backup before removing these files permanently.