immich/docs/docs/features/duplicates-utility.md
Phlogi 8c6adf7157
feat(server): resolve duplicates (#25316)
* feat(web): Synchronize information from deduplicated images

* Added new settings menu to the the deduplication tab.
* The toggable options in the settings are synchronization of: albums, favorites, ratings, description, visibility and location.
* When synchronizing the albums, the resolved images will be added to all albums of the duplicates.
* When synchronizing the favorite status, the resolved images will be marked as favorite, if at least one selectable image is marked as favorite.
* When synchronizing the ratings, the highest rating from the selectable images will be applied to the resolved image.
* When synchronizing the description, all descriptions from the selectable images will be merged into one description for the resolved image.
* When synchronizing the visibility, the most restrictive visibility setting from the selectable images will be applied to the resolved image.
* When synchronizing the location, if exactly one unique location exists among the selectable images, this location will be applied to the resolved image.
* There is no additional UI for these settings to keep the visual clutter minimal. The settings are applied automatically based on the user's preferences.

* Replace addAssetToAlbums with copyAsset

* fix linter

* feat(web): add duplicate sync fields and fix typo

* feat(web): add tag sync and enhance duplicate resolution

This update introduces tag synchronization for duplicate resolution,
ensuring all unique tag IDs from duplicates are applied to kept assets.
The visibility sync logic is updated to use a simplified ordering, as the hidden status items will never show up in a duplicate set.
Album synchronization now merges albums directly via addAssetsToAlbums; as the approach with copyAsset API endpoint was ineffiecient.
Description, rating, and location sync logic is improved for correctness.
and deduplication. i18n strings were added / updated.

* feat(server): move duplicate resolution to backend with sync and stacking

Moves duplicate metadata synchronization from frontend to backend, enabling robust
batch operations and proper validation. This is an improved refactor of PR #13851.

New endpoints:
- POST /duplicates/resolve - batch resolve with configurable metadata sync
- POST /duplicates/stack - create stacks from duplicate groups
- GET /duplicates - now includes suggestedKeepAssetIds based on file size and EXIF

Key changes:
- Move sync logic (albums, tags, favorites, ratings, descriptions, location, visibility) to server
- Add server-side metadata merge policies with proper conflict resolution
- Replace client-side resolution logic with new backend endpoints
- Add comprehensive E2E tests (70+ test cases) and unit tests
- Update OpenAPI specs and TypeScript SDK

No breaking changes - only additions to existing API.

* feat(preferences): enable all duplicate sync settings by default

* chore: clean up

* chore: clean up

* refactor: rename & clean up

* fix: preference upgrade

* chore: linting

* refactor(e2e): use updateAssets API for setAssetDuplicateId

* fix: visibility sync logic in duplicate resolution

* fix(duplicate): write description to exifUpdate

Previously the duplicate resolution populated assetUpdate.description even
though description belongs to exif info.

* fix(duplicate): remove redundant updateLockedColumns wrapper

updateAllExif already computes lockedProperties via distinctLocked
using Object.keys(options). The wrapper added a lockedProperties key
to the options object, causing the spurious string 'lockedProperties'
to be stored in the lockedProperties array.

* fix(duplicate): write merged tags to asset_exif to survive metadata re-extraction

During duplicate resolution, replaceAssetTags correctly wrote merged tag
IDs to the tag_asset table, but never updated asset_exif.tags or locked
the tags property. The subsequent SidecarWrite → AssetExtractMetadata
chain calls applyTagList, which destructively replaces tag_asset rows
with whatever is in asset_exif.tags — still the original per-asset tags,
not the merged set.

Write merged tag values to asset_exif.tags via updateAllExif (which also
locks the property via distinctLocked), and queue SidecarWrite when tags
change so they persist to the sidecar file.

* docs(duplicates): clarify location and tag sync behavior

* refactor(duplicate): remove sync settings, always sync all metadata on resolve

Remove DuplicateSyncSettingsDto and the per-field sync toggles
(albums, favorites, rating, description, visibility, location, tags).
Duplicate resolution now unconditionally syncs all metadata from
trashed assets to kept assets.

- Remove DuplicateSyncSettingsDto and settings field from DuplicateResolveDto
- Update DuplicateService to always run all sync logic without conditionals
- Delete DuplicateSettingsModal.svelte and settings gear button from UI
- Remove DuplicateSettings type and duplicateSettings persisted store
- Update unit and e2e tests to remove settings from resolve requests

* docs: update duplicates utility to reflect automatic metadata sync

* docs(web): replace duplicates info modal with link to documentation

* chore: clean up

* fix: add missing type cast to jsonAgg in duplicate repository getAll

* fix: skip persisting rating=0 in duplicate merge to avoid unnecessary sidecar write

---------

Co-authored-by: Toni <51962051+EinToni@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Jason Rasmussen <jason@rasm.me>
Co-authored-by: Jason Rasmussen <jrasm91@gmail.com>
2026-03-26 18:33:55 +00:00

2.5 KiB

Duplicates Utility

Immich comes with a duplicates utility to help you detect assets that look visually similar. The duplicate detection feature relies on machine learning and is enabled by default. For more information about when the duplicate detection job runs, see Jobs and Workers. Once an asset has been processed and added to a duplicate group, it becomes available to review in the "Review duplicates" utility, which can be found here.

Reviewing duplicates

The review duplicates page allows the user to individually select which assets should be kept and which ones should be trashed. When more than one asset is kept, there is an option to automatically put the kept assets into a stack.

Automatic preselection

When using "Deduplicate All" or viewing suggestions, Immich automatically preselects which assets to keep based on:

  1. Image size in bytes — larger files are preferred as they typically have higher quality.
  2. Count of EXIF data — assets with more metadata are preferred.

Synchronizing metadata

When resolving duplicates, metadata from trashed assets is automatically synchronized to the kept assets. The following metadata is synchronized:

Name Description
Album The kept assets will be added to every album that the other assets in the group belong to.
Favorite If any of the assets in the group have been added to favorites, every kept asset will also be added to favorites.
Rating If one or more assets in the duplicate group have a rating, the highest rating is selected and synchronized to the kept assets.
Description Descriptions from each asset are combined together and synchronized to all the kept assets.
Visibility The most restrictive visibility is applied to the kept assets.
Location Latitude and longitude are copied if all assets with geolocation data in the group share the same coordinates.
Tag Tags from all assets in the group are merged and applied to every kept asset.