How to Delete Every Photo of Someone on Mac — Without Scrolling Through Thousands
Sometimes you need to remove someone from your media library. A breakup. A falling out. Or just years of photos of someone you'd rather not see every time you open your gallery.
The problem? If you've been taking photos for years, that person could be in hundreds of photos and videos — scattered across dozens of folders, iCloud albums, and random screenshots. Scrolling through thousands of photos to find every single one isn't realistic.
The manual approach (and why it doesn't work)
Apple Photos has a "People" album that groups faces, but it's limited. You can't bulk-delete all photos and videos of a person from there — you can only "unfavorite" them or remove the name. The photos stay in your library.
Your options are essentially:
- Scroll through your entire library and delete photos one by one
- Search by date ranges and hope you catch everything
- Give up and accept that those photos are staying
None of these are great. What you actually want is: find every photo and video containing this person's face, show them to me, and let me delete them all at once.
How Dup's face detection works
Dup has a "Remove Someone" mode that does exactly this. Here's the step-by-step process:
Step 1: Scan for faces
Open Dup and switch to "Remove Someone" mode. Drop in the folder you want to scan — your Photos Library, iCloud Drive, a specific folder, or even an external hard drive. Dup scans every image and video, detecting faces automatically.
Step 2: Pick the person
After scanning, Dup shows you every person it detected, grouped by face. Each person shows a representative photo and a count of how many files they appear in. Click the person you want to remove.
Step 3: Review and delete
Dup shows you every photo and video containing that person's face. Review the matches to make sure they're correct, then delete them all in one click. Files go to Trash by default, so you can recover them if you change your mind.
100% private. All face detection runs locally on your Mac using Apple's built-in Vision framework. Your photos and videos are never uploaded to any server. No account required, no internet connection needed.
What makes this different from Apple Photos?
| Feature | Apple Photos | Dup |
|---|---|---|
| Groups faces by person | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk delete all photos & videos of a person | No | Yes |
| Works outside Photos Library | No | Yes |
| Scans external drives | No | Yes |
| On-device processing | Yes | Yes |
The key difference: Apple Photos identifies faces but doesn't let you act on that information at scale. Dup is built specifically for the "find all → review → delete" workflow.
Tips for best results
- Scan large folders — the more photos you scan, the more matches you'll find. Don't just scan one album at a time.
- Check the results — face detection is very accurate, but it's worth a quick scroll through the matches before deleting.
- Use Trash mode — files go to Trash by default. You can always recover them within 30 days if you deleted something by mistake.
- Scan iCloud Drive — if your photos sync across devices, scan the iCloud Drive folder to catch everything.
Getting started
Dup is a free download for Mac. The Remove Someone feature is included with Dup Pro ($29.99/year or $39.99 lifetime). You can scan and see all detected faces for free — Pro is required to delete.
Download Dup from the Mac App Store or get it from getdup.app.
Find the duplicates your current tools miss
Dup finds similar photos and videos, not just exact copies. Free on the Mac App Store.