Differences for Duplicate Cleaner 5 users
If you have used Duplicate Cleaner 5, most of Duplicate Cleaner 6 will be familiar - the scan criteria, folder settings, Selection Assistant and file removal options all work in much the same way. But some things have moved, and a few work differently. This page lists the main changes.
Duplicate Cleaner 6 also runs on macOS and Linux, as well as Windows.
Scans have their own tabs
Section titled “Scans have their own tabs”In Duplicate Cleaner 5 there was one scan at a time, and the whole program was a single row of tabs: Home, Scan criteria, Scan location, Scanning, Duplicate files, Remaining files, Duplicate folders, File removal, Tools and Settings.
In Duplicate Cleaner 6 you can have up to 10 scans open at once, each with its own settings and results, and you can run several at the same time. See The main window.
- The navigation bar on the left lists Home, each open scan, Tools, Settings and Log.
- Each scan has its own tabs: What to find (was Scan criteria), Where to look (was Scan location), Start scan (was Scanning), and the results tabs.
- New scan on the Home tab used to clear the current scan. Now Create new scan on the Home page opens another scan alongside your existing ones, and can copy the settings of one of them (Settings from: Based on).
Scan modes
Section titled “Scan modes”The scan mode is chosen when you create a scan, and stays with it. Regular mode has been split up:
| Duplicate Cleaner 5 | Duplicate Cleaner 6 |
|---|---|
| Regular mode - Same content | Same content |
| Regular mode - Ignore content | Attributes Only |
| Regular mode - Similar content | Binary mode - Similar content |
| Image, Audio and Video modes | Image, Audio and Video modes |
New modes:
- Text mode - compares the text in documents, e-books and text files.
- Binary mode also finds truncated copies, files that match apart from a header or trailer, and files that match in a byte range.
Video mode no longer has the Match thumbnails option - use Match by similar video frames.
Metadata
Section titled “Metadata”The metadata (tags) section works differently. Instead of adding fields one at a time, every field for the mode is listed - tick the ones you want. Each field then has:
- A Matching setting: Don’t match (was Display only), Exact match, Exact match (including missing) (was Exact match - including blanks) or Similar.
- A new File filter setting, to include, exclude or protect files by the field’s value - for example only scan photos from one camera, or protect high bit rate music.
See Metadata.
More duplicate options
Section titled “More duplicate options”- File name matching is now one choice under Match file name: Same file name, Similar file name (with a tolerance), Same file extension only, or the new File name match using mask, which matches on just part of the name.
- The Text matching options section has gone. Each option now has its own Is case sensitive setting, and the similar file name tolerance is set next to it.
Subfolder filter
Section titled “Subfolder filter”In Duplicate Cleaner 5, folder names could be left out of a scan by ticking apply exclusions to folder names too, under the file filters - the file filter’s Excluded masks were then also used on folder names.
In Duplicate Cleaner 6 file masks and folder masks are kept apart. Folders are filtered by the Subfolder filter in the Advanced folder search options on the Where to look tab. It has its own Included and Excluded masks, so you can also limit a scan to subfolders with certain names.
Filter presets
Section titled “Filter presets”In Duplicate Cleaner 5 a preset was a name with Included and Excluded mask strings, such as
*.jpg;*.png;*.gif.
In Duplicate Cleaner 6 a preset is built from file types - a type brings all its aliases with it, and a category (such as Images) brings every type in it - with masks for anything else. When a new file type is added to Duplicate Cleaner, presets using its category pick it up automatically. Presets are edited on the Filter presets settings tab.
There is also a new File types settings tab, where you can switch off types, and add extensions (aliases) for a type.
Ignore list
Section titled “Ignore list”- Editing - The list is edited inside Duplicate Cleaner, on the Ignore list settings tab, rather than in a text editor.
- Patterns - Duplicate Cleaner 5 only matched full paths. Now you can also use a bare name that
matches anywhere (
Thumbs.db,node_modules\), wildcards (*.tmp,cache*\), and#comments. - Per scan - Skip files/folders in Ignore list is now a setting of each scan, under Advanced folder search options, rather than a single setting for the program.
- Logging - Writing skipped files and folders to the log is now optional, with Write skipped folders to log and Write skipped files to log.
Your Duplicate Cleaner 5 list isn’t brought across automatically, but its lines work unchanged -
copy the contents of Duplicate Cleaner 5’s ignorelist.txt into the new list.
No File removal tab
Section titled “No File removal tab”Duplicate Cleaner 5 had a separate File removal tab, with sub-tabs for the duplicate and remaining files lists. In Duplicate Cleaner 6, the removal tools are side panels opened from the toolbar on the left of the Duplicate files and Remaining files tabs, so you can see the list while you work: Delete files, Move or copy files, Rename files, Link files and Export. Each panel works on the marked files in the list it was opened from.
Also changed:
- The Via Windows shell and Skip problem files options have gone.
- New sidecar files option, to delete or move companion files (such as subtitles or lyrics) along with the files they belong to.
- Rename files can add any column to the name, as well as
/gand/h. - Link files is available on Windows only.
Saving and loading scans
Section titled “Saving and loading scans”Duplicate Cleaner 5 had saved “states”, loaded and saved from the Home tab, and an option to show the results of the last scan on start.
In Duplicate Cleaner 6 every open scan is kept, with its results and marks, until you close it.
To keep a scan outside the program, export it to a .dcscan file with Export scan… or
Export settings only…, and bring it back with Import scan on the Home page. See
Saving, exporting and importing scans.
Duplicate Cleaner 5 saved states can’t be imported. CSV files exported from Duplicate Cleaner 6 use Duplicate Cleaner 5’s format.
Other things that have moved
Section titled “Other things that have moved”| Duplicate Cleaner 5 | Duplicate Cleaner 6 |
|---|---|
| Find duplicate folders on the Scanning tab | Advanced folder search options on the Where to look tab |
| Prevent Windows from sleeping and Open the results tab when finished on the Scanning tab | General settings |
| Group Drives option on the Folders to search list | Always grouped by drive |
| Show all files in filtered groups | Expand filter to show whole group in the Filters |
| Find in list Match whole column | Exact match, Contains, Starts with, Ends with or Does not contain, and regular expressions - see Find in list |
| Themes, custom themes and zoom | System, Light or Dark theme, and an accent colour - see Theme |
| Drives tool | The Drives by usage chart on the Start scan tab |
Data in AppData\Roaming\DigitalVolcano\DuplicateCleaner, movable with database.ini |
A fixed folder - see Where Duplicate Cleaner keeps its data |
Not available yet
Section titled “Not available yet”These Duplicate Cleaner 5 features are not in Duplicate Cleaner 6 yet:
- Wizards
- CSV import
- Command line parameters
- Scanning inside archive/zip files
- Pausing a scan
- Scanning portable (MTP) devices such as phones
- Deleting directly from the list with the Delete key
- Several keyboard shortcuts, including F1 (Help), F4 (Image preview), F10 (Settings) and the Shift/Ctrl+Delete shortcuts for dropping files from the list - see Keyboard shortcuts.