Microsoft SharePoint is a web-based platform, and is one of the constituent items of Microsoft Office Suite.
It provides seamless coordination between various team members as well as all chain of command sections that ultimately results in optimized efficiency at the workplace. As the name itself implies, SharePoint establishes a common ground where individuals share documents, images, archives and a range of file types across the company’s intranet/private network etc. The main application of SharePoint is installed in a server which users can easily access as far as they’re connected to the network and have sufficient privileges. The primary usage of SharePoint is to provide a common platform where users collaborate with each other while using Microsoft Office applications. However, it’s still possible to use SharePoint for other purposes as well such as when storing documents. One major issue that arises as a direct consequence of this functionality is the duplication of files in due course of time. This article lays out in sufficient detail how SharePoint users can find and weed out duplicate files with ease.
Even though there are various options to choose from, as far as deleting Microsoft SharePoint duplicates goes, but the easiest and easily the most convenient one is by putting a purpose-built solution to good use. Clone Files Checker proves adept at the task.
Delete Microsoft SharePoint Duplicates Easily
Clone Files Checker adheres to Clean Software Association Guidelines
Solutions
Solution 1: Enabling Duplicate Links
By default, SharePoint returns the search result with the best-matched document. However, by configuring the search result via Settings, we can easily get results for near duplicate files rather than identical files corresponding to the search query.
- Type the address of the SharePoint file server in the address bar of your preferred web browser.
- Click the cog icon in the upper right corner in the Search Center and then select Edit page from the menu.
- Now click Edit Web Part.
- In the Settings window, select the checkbox for Show View Duplicates link, then click OK to make the changes permanent.
Selecting the checkbox for Show View Duplicates link - Back in the Search Center, make a search query in the search box. Hover the mouse pointer over the first search result, locate and click View Duplicates of this particular document. This will bring up all the near-duplicate files corresponding to this file.
Solution 2: Removing through Clone Files Checker
This method is a very easy one for users who have any experience with removing duplicate files on the local file system. For this purpose, we suggest using a decent duplicate file finder utility like Clone Files Checker. This software makes good use of intelligent algorithms to weed out duplicates of all kinds like they never existed! Simply sync your SharePoint data through OneDrive to your computer and put the System Scan feature of this software to good use.
- Download and install Clone Files Checker.
- Launch the program and add up the location of the OneDrive folder on your computer to the target area in Clone Files Checker.
- Click Start Search to initiate the scan and wait for a while before the scan comes up with results.
Clone Files Checker duplicate scan results - Now you’ve got to make your call between Fix Wizard (choosing a specified course-of-action) for all duplicates or as the name suggests, Review & Fix. The latter provides more options for applying a unified rule to select duplicates besides also allowing to select duplicates manually.
- Now you’ve got to choose between deleting the duplicates permanently or moving them to a specified folder, lest they might come handy in the future.
- In either case, the changes will be mirrored to OneDrive and subsequently to SharePoint’s end, once the data is synced.
Solution 3: Removing through PowerShell
The only additional extra steps required entail syncing the files stored in SharePoint to the local file system via OneDrive. OneDrive also provides a separate version which facilitates syncing files across multiple devices with the only requirement being just having OneDrive installed in all of them.
- Open up the SharePoint web portal and navigate to the library which you intend to sync with the local file system.
- Click sync | Sync now. This will basically flash a OneDrive for Business prompt on the screen along with the location where the synced files are stored on the local machine. The local path can be changed at this step as well. It’s always appropriate to keep one folder per Library in order to keep it organized.
- Once the synchronization has completed, use the following script in PowerShell to get rid of duplicates. Replace the file location as appropriate.
- Copy and paste the following text into PowerShell to remove all the duplicate files from the local library folder; and thereby from the SharePoint library as well upon synchronization.
Get-ChildItem ” C:\Users\%userprofile%\SharePoint\MyLibraryName” -Recurse -Include *.* | Get-FileHash | group -property hash | where { $_.count -gt 1 } | % { $_.group | select -skip 1 } | del
