Not just another duplicate finder

Find the copies.
Compare them.
Keep the right one.

Trawler finds files that resemble each other — images, documents, audio and video — not only the ones that match byte for byte. Put any two side by side, see exactly what differs, and decide what stays.

Coming to the Microsoft Store Free to scan and preview See how it works The full guide, 26 pages
  • Your data stays localNothing is ever sent to us
  • Nothing goes unaskedYou tick it, or it stays
  • Built for big drivesMillions of files
Trawler comparing two near-identical images side by side. One is a 444 MB TIF, the other a 2.1 MB JPG, both 5184 by 3456 from the same camera on the same date. View full size ↗
The same image twice — 444 MB of TIF beside 2.1 MB of JPG.

More than duplicates. Better decisions.

Exact copies are the easy part. Trawler also groups the files that merely resemble each other, then gives you the tools to tell them apart.

Similar images

Visually alike images, even after a resize, a crop or a re-encode. Compare side by side or overlaid, and keep the best one.

How image matching works →

Similar documents

Compared on their words, not their bytes — so two drafts group together across formats. With a line-by-line diff of any pair.

How document matching works →

Similar audio

Two ways: an acoustic fingerprint of the sound itself, or the tags — loose enough to survive typos and “(Remastered)”.

How audio matching works →

Similar video

The same clip at two resolutions or in two containers, matched on its frames rather than its bytes.

How video matching works →
How it works

Three steps to keep what matters

No rules to write and nothing to configure. Point it at a drive, then work through what it found.

  1. 1

    Find

    Point Trawler at your drives and it groups what belongs together. These seven files are one photograph — bracketed exposures, a tone-mapped edit, a TIFF and a JPEG. Not one byte-identical pair among them.

    The Images tab showing group 21: seven versions of the same stone tower at different exposures, scored 100%, 84%, 66%, 80% and 72%, with one marked Keeper.
  2. 2

    Decide

    Put two side by side and the differences are the point: resolution, megapixels, file size, format, camera and date, read out of the files themselves. You keep one because you looked, not because of its name.

    The compare view: a tone-mapped JPEG beside the raw CR2 it came from, with a panel comparing resolution, megapixels, file size, type, date and camera.
  3. 3

    Process

    Then choose what happens, once, to everything you marked. Archiving to a single ZIP is the default because it is the one you can walk back; permanent deletion is there, named plainly, and never picked for you.

    Step 1 of 4 of Process duplicates: five actions, with Archive to ZIP selected and badged Default, recoverable, and Delete permanently marked not recoverable.
File types

Works across the files you care about

Four matchers, each reading the format properly rather than guessing from the name.

And every other file on the drive: exact copies, folder sizes and largest-file reports work on anything at all.

Also included

Exact duplicates, and the tools to act on them

Byte-identical copies fall out of the same scan — found by content rather than by name, so report.docx and report (1).docx land in one group. What happens to them is yours to decide.

  • Merge instead of removing Replace exact copies with links to a single file. The space comes back and every path still works.
  • See where the space went Folder sizes at every level and your largest files ranked — duplicated or not.
  • Narrow it to exactly what you mean By extension, size, date or Windows file attribute — plus folders you never want looked at.
  • Pick the keepers by rule Keep the newest, the oldest, the shortest path, or whatever sits on a drive or folder you name.
  • Stop and come back to it Save the whole session and reopen it later. A big drive does not have to be done in one sitting.
  • Take the list with you Export what was found to CSV before you change anything.
Before you delete anything

Safe to change your mind

The point of comparing files properly is that you decide on purpose. The point of everything below is that deciding wrong is not the end of it.

  • Protected folders Mark a folder off-limits and nothing the app decides for itself will ever tick a file inside it.
  • Archiving is the default Not deleting. The originals are packed into a single compressed archive, and that is what the button does unless you change it.
  • Restore from that archive Open it back up inside Trawler and put the files where they came from.
  • Undo a folder of moves A move leaves a record of what went where, so the whole lot can be sent back in one go.

Not everything can be undone, and Trawler does not pretend otherwise. Archiving and moving are reversible from inside the app. Recycling hands the file to Windows, so the Recycle Bin is your undo. Deleting is permanent — which is exactly why it is never the default.

See what Trawler finds in your files.

Free to scan and preview your results. Nothing is removed unless you say so.

Coming to the Microsoft Store Free to scan and preview Your first scan End to end, in four steps

A one-time purchase, not a subscription. Scanning, matching and comparing are free. The full version unlocks the actions that change files — and once bought it never expires. What the full version unlocks