Reading your results

A finished scan leaves you on one screen: a folder tree down the left, four tabs of results on the right, and a header describing the scan you just ran. This page says what each part shows and which one to look at.

The header

The title reads Duplicate Scan or Similar Scan. Under it: the scan date, how many files it covered and how much they add up to, how thorough it was, which filter it used, and how the matches were made — exact copy or sampled match.

Sampled match means Trawler compared parts of each file rather than every byte. It is fast and nearly always right, but it is not a guarantee. Verify exact copies on the Duplicates tab re-checks the remaining groups against the full contents; your ticks are kept.

Exporting is in the Session menu in the title bar, not in this header. Export CSV appears there while the Duplicates tab is showing, and writes the duplicate groups to a file you choose. It needs the full version. You can't start one while a scan or an action is running; once it is going, the same menu item cancels it.

To scan something else, open the Session menu → New guided scan….

The folder tree

Folders, largest first. The button above the list toggles between size order and A–Z.

Where a folder has exactly one subfolder that accounts for all of its bytes, Trawler starts the tree at the subfolder rather than the drive letter — so a scan of D:\Photos\2024 opens at 2024, not at D:.

Selecting a folder scopes three of the four tabs to it. Each folder row also carries two controls: a tick ("Discard all files in this folder") and a shield ("Protect this folder from selection"). Right-click adds Exclude this folder from future scans, Stop excluding this folder and Clear folder & subfolders. Ticks and protection are covered in Choosing what to remove.

The four tabs

Tab Shows Scope
Files Every file in the selected folder — Name, Folder, Size That folder only. Subfolders are not included.
Largest files The biggest files, in size order The selected folder and everything under it
Duplicates Groups of files with identical contents The whole scan
Folder sizes Path, Share of space, Selected, Count, Total per subfolder Children of the selected folder

That Files-vs-Largest-files difference is the one worth remembering: Files answers "what is in this folder", Largest files answers "what is eating this folder's space, wherever it sits".

Files sorts by Name or Size — click a column header, click again to reverse it — and switches between a list and a thumbnail grid. Largest files has a fixed order (size, then name, then folder) and is not sortable. Folder sizes sorts on any of its columns.

Duplicates shows one row per group, with the members underneath when you expand it: Path, Created, Modified, Size. Its toolbar carries Verify exact copies, Auto-select, and Show only fully-selected.

Some files have no modification date. Copying and unzipping tools often leave one out, and Windows Explorer shows nothing for those files either. Modified is blank for them, which is why Created sits beside it — for a copy whose modification date was lost, the creation date is the only date there is. Auto-select treats a file with no modification date as the oldest in its group, so Keep newest keeps the copy that still has a real one.

Loading and empty results

Lists load in pages as you scroll — 100 rows at a time on Files, Largest files and Duplicates, 200 on Folder sizes. A thin bar across the top of a list means more rows are on the way.

An empty list tells you which kind of empty it is. No duplicates found / "Every file in this scan is unique." is a result. No scan run yet is not.

On the free version

The Duplicates tab shows the first 10 groups in full detail. The rest are counted but not listed — "N more groups — unlock the full version to view all results". The totals in the header and the reclaimable figure are never capped, so the number you see is the real one.

Related