DuoBolt

DuoBolt — Free Download. Duplicate files cleanup

DuoBolt is a desktop application for finding duplicate files and similar photos on macOS and Windows. One engine performs exact byte-for-byte comparison using BLAKE3 hashing across folders, codebases, design archives, external drives, and NAS volumes. A second engine groups bursts, edits, re-saves, and screenshots of the same shot into five tightness bands and uses on-device AI Curation to rank each group, naming the measures behind every pick: face sharpness, exposure, eyes open, smile, and resolution. All analysis runs locally. No account is required, nothing is uploaded, and the workflow is review-first: select locations, review results in two columns, then act through Trash, delete, archive, or copy, with every operation tracked in persistent history.

★★★★★
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Download DuoBolt (Official links)
File size: 1.4 MB
The latest version of DuoBolt is: 2.2.4
Operating system: Windows, Mac OS
Languages: English
Developer: Qoncept Apps
Price: $0.00 USD (Freemium product ($35 or $65 or free version))
  • Byte-exact duplicate detection. The duplicate engine reads the full content of every candidate file and compares it byte-for-byte using two-stage BLAKE3 hashing. It does not rely on filenames, metadata, timestamps, or size heuristics to declare a match. If the program reports two files as identical, it has read every byte of both, which eliminates false positives and makes the result defensible in professional archives, codebases, and legal document stores.
  • Similar photo grouping. The second engine analyses image content rather than names or dates. It collects bursts, exports, re-saves, and near-identical frames into groups and sorts those groups across five bands of tightness. The band controls how close two shots must be to land in the same group, so the operator decides whether loose look-alikes are merged or kept apart. Variants stay separated from true copies.
  • AI Curation with explanations. For every similar-photo group, AI Curation marks the best shot and indicates which other files are only copies of it. It builds a relationship model between two images before scoring them and measures only the attributes that apply to that relationship. The Why-this-one panel reports face sharpness, face exposure, resolution, eyes open, and smile against the shot it was compared with. Uncertain groups are routed to a Needs your eye bucket instead of a selection.
  • Two-column review workspace. Results are presented as groups on one side and their files on the other. Filtering works by name, file type, extension, tag, and size range. Paths, sizes, and previews are shown for each entry, so an operator can see that one copy sits in a project folder, another on the Desktop, and a third on an external drive, and can detect cases where a copy is newer but smaller and damaged.
  • Four output operations. Files can be moved to the system Trash or Recycle Bin, moved to an Archive folder, copied to another location, or deleted outright. Only the delete operation is final, and the interface states this. Photos taken from a macOS Photos library are sent to the Photos Recently Deleted album, preserving the library's own recovery path.
  • Persistent scan and operation history. Every scan and every operation is written to history, recording what ran and which files it touched. An operator can restore a file later or audit what was removed in a previous session. This record supports reversibility in environments where changes must be traceable.
  • Protected folders. Any folder can be marked as protected. Files inside it stop being selectable in the results view, and the selection checkbox refuses to activate rather than raising a warning after the fact. This prevents accidental deletion of system directories, active project trees, or archive locations.
  • Scan scope controls. Before a run, the operator defines what the engine reads. Folders can be included or excluded, a minimum size floor can be set, and scans can skip system files, hidden files and folders, library containers, photo libraries, NAS system folders, or user-named exclusions. Extensions can be included or excluded, and the size range spans from 1 KiB to unlimited.
  • Symlink handling. Symbolic links can be followed or collapsed. When collapsed, a link is never counted as a copy of the file it points at, which prevents phantom duplicates in directory trees that use links for build outputs, shared assets, or package managers.
  • APFS clone detection. On macOS, DuoBolt identifies APFS clones, files that share storage blocks on disk. Clones are reported as 0 B recoverable, so the space the program promises to free equals the space the disk actually releases. Without this check, a cleaner can report reclaimed space that the filesystem never returns.
  • RAW and everyday image format support. Similar-photo grouping reads RAW files directly, including Canon CR2 and CR3, Nikon NEF and NRW, Sony ARW, Fujifilm RAF, Olympus ORF, Panasonic RW2, Leica RWL, Pentax PEF, Samsung SRW, Sigma X3F, and Adobe DNG. Everyday formats include JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, BMP, GIF, HEIC, and AVIF. Duplicate detection never decodes a file, so it hashes HEIC bytes identically on Windows and macOS.
  • Photos library scanning on macOS. On a Mac, a scan can target the Photos library itself, including imports and favourites, rather than a folder of exported JPEGs. This makes culling possible on original assets before exports consume additional drive space.
  • Local-only processing. Inference runs in-process. Photo models ship with the application instead of being called from a remote service. The only network calls are license verification and an update check. Telemetry is off at startup, and the macOS runtime contains no telemetry code.
  • Free tier with a per-operation cap. Every download begins with a seven-day Pro trial. After it ends, scans and results remain complete and unlimited, and a single cleanup operation is capped at 25 files. A one-time licence removes the cap: Standard covers duplicates, Pro adds similar photos and AI Curation. There is no subscription.
  • Parallel scan architecture. The engine uses per-root parallelism and BLAKE3 worker hashing to keep multiple CPU cores occupied, and streaming chunked reads overlap disk and NAS I/O with hashing. Chunked scan stages overlap hashing and comparison so processors do not idle while waiting on storage. The interface runs on the same Rust engine that performs hashing.

DuoBolt was created in 2024 and is developed by an independent software team that builds tools for local data management on desktop systems. The program is written in Rust, a language chosen for memory safety and predictable performance under heavy parallel I/O, and it uses a native interface layer that runs on the same engine as the scanning core. Version 1.x established byte-exact duplicate detection with BLAKE3 and the two-column review model. Version 2.0 added similar-photo grouping, AI Curation, and on-device inference, and version 2.1 extended scanning to the macOS Photos library. Version 2.2 introduced protected folders and expanded history.

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