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Duplicate Detection ​

Accidentally cataloged the same item twice? Duplicate detection scans your collections for items that look like the same thing, groups them together, and lets you clean up the extras.

Note: This is different from the Duplicate bulk action described in Items, which intentionally creates a copy of an item. Duplicate detection is the opposite — it finds accidental copies so you can remove them.

Running a Duplicate Scan ​

  1. Open a collection
  2. Click Duplicates in the collection toolbar
  3. In the Find Duplicates dialog, choose a scope:
    • This collection — Scan only the collection you have open
    • All my collections — Scan every collection you own
  4. Click Scan

The scan runs on demand — Magpie doesn't flag duplicates automatically, so nothing changes until you run a scan yourself.

How Matching Works ​

Two items are considered potential duplicates when they share any of these:

  • Same name — Names are compared loosely, ignoring capitalization and punctuation, so "Spider-Man #1" and "spider man 1" match
  • Same barcode — Items with an identical barcode value
  • Same ISBN — Books with an identical ISBN

Matching is deliberately strict beyond that — similar-but-not-identical names are not flagged, to avoid false alarms.

Reviewing the Results ​

Matching items are shown in groups. Each group displays:

  • How many potential duplicates it contains
  • Why the items matched — badges like Same name, Same barcode, or Same ISBN
  • Each item's photo, name, collection, and value, so you can tell them apart

If no duplicates are found, you'll see a No duplicates found confirmation.

Cleaning Up Duplicates ​

For each group, decide which item to keep, then delete the extras:

  1. Click the trash icon next to an item you want to remove
  2. Confirm by clicking Delete

The item is deleted permanently — this cannot be undone, so double-check values, photos, and notes before deleting. Once a group is down to a single item, it disappears from the results.

A Few Things to Know ​

  • The scan only covers collections you own — collections shared with you are not included
  • If you intentionally keep the same item in two collections (for example, after using Move or Duplicate), the All my collections scan will list them as duplicates. That's expected — just leave them alone
  • Duplicate detection is not available on smart collections, since they don't contain their own items

Mobile App ​

Duplicate detection is also available on the mobile app:

  1. Open a collection and tap the Duplicates button in the header
  2. Choose your scope and run the scan
  3. Tap an item to view it, or delete extras directly from the results
  • Items — Adding, editing, and bulk-managing items (including the intentional Duplicate copy action)
  • Collections — Organizing your collections
  • Import & Export — A common source of accidental duplicates is importing the same file twice