More duplicate options

These are additional scan criteria relating to file and folder attributes. They can be used with all scan modes - files then have to match on these as well as on the mode’s own criteria. In Attributes Only mode they are the only criteria, so you need to tick at least one.

Match file name

Tick Match file name to match files by their names, then choose how:

Same file name - Files with the same file name are grouped as duplicates.
Similar file name - Files with similar names are grouped. The Tolerance (1 to 10) is the number of characters that may differ between two names - lower is stricter.
File name match using mask - Match on part of the name only, using a mask. See File name masks below.
Same file extension only - Files with the same file extension (for example .txt or .jpg) are grouped, whatever their names.

These options change how names are compared:

Include file extension - The extension is part of the name being matched, so Report.doc and Report.pdf don’t match. Unticked, the extension is ignored and they do.
Ignore “Copy” part of filename - The part of a file name added when a file is copied is ignored. For example, all of these match File.txt:
```
File - Copy.txt
File - Copy (1).txt
File - Copy (2).txt
File (1).txt
File (2).txt
```
Note this currently only works with the English “Copy” suffix.
Is case sensitive - Upper and lower case letters must match exactly.

File name masks

A mask says which part of a file name must be the same, and which part may differ. Files are grouped when the parts captured by the mask are the same.

Symbol	Matches	Captured?
`%`	one character	yes
`%+`	one or more characters	yes
`#`	one digit	yes
`#+`	one or more digits	yes
`?`	one character	no - ignored
`*`	any number of characters	no - ignored

Any other character must appear exactly, and the whole name must match the mask.

Examples:

Mask	Files	Grouped by
`*_%+`	`20240101_holiday`, `20250612_holiday`	`holiday`
`%+ (*)`	`Report (1)`, `Report (2)`	`Report`
`*#+`	`IMG_0042`, `DSC_0042`	`0042`
`holiday`	any name containing “holiday”	all grouped together

Advanced users can enter a regular expression instead, between slashes - for example /^(.+)_v\d+$/. It can match anywhere in the name, and the text of its capture groups is what must be the same.

Masks you have used before are kept in the drop-down list. Duplicate Cleaner checks the mask before scanning, and will warn you if it is not valid or is so broad that it would group most files together.

Same file size

Matched files have to have the same size, in bytes.

A matching Tolerance can also be set, in B, kB or MB, or as a percentage difference.

Note: This option is not shown in Same content mode, as files with the same content are always the same size.

Same file created date/time

Files must have the same created date and time. Tick Match date only to ignore the time.

You can also set a matching Tolerance in days, hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds.

Same file modified date/time

Files must have the same modified date and time. Tick Match date only to ignore the time.

You can also set a matching Tolerance in days, hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds.

Same drive

Duplicate groups have to be on the same drive or device.

Same folder name

Groups duplicates by the name of the folder they are in. There are several options:

Match full folder name - Matches files by their full path, excluding the drive letter or network share name. To match the drive as well, also tick Same drive.
Match depth from top - Matches folder names down to a given depth from the top of the path, excluding the drive.

For example, with a depth of 2 the folders C:\Mine\Stuff\Docs\Sub\ and D:\Backup\Docs\Sub\ will be matched. With a depth of 3 they would not match.
Match from search root - The part of the folder name that was added as a folder to search is ignored when matching.

For example, if C:\Documents is the folder to search and C:\Documents\Mine\ is being checked, only \Mine\ is compared when checking the folder name against another.

Tick Is case sensitive if the case of the folder names must match too.

Ignore duplicate groups within the same folder

This option EXCLUDES groups from the results where ALL the duplicates in the group are in the same folder. This is useful where you want to find duplicates which are in different folders.

Note: A group containing some duplicates from the same folder is still shown if it has at least one match in a different folder.