Shotnest · Library
Keep deletion decisions separate from text similarity
Shotnest marks screenshots as duplicates only when size, image fingerprint and 70 percent word overlap agree, and iOS asks before anything is deleted.
Three checks before two screenshots count as duplicates
The Duplicates list in Shotnest's Clean up screen is not built from text alone. Two screenshots must have the same width and height, their 64-bit image fingerprints may differ in at most 8 bits, and their letter-only words must overlap by at least 70 percent. When either text is shorter than 20 characters, a finer 256-bit fingerprint replaces the word check. In each set the newest screenshot is marked to stay.
Only extras whose finer fingerprint is very close to the kept copy are preselected. Favourites and screenshots in a folder are never preselected, and the older-than-6-months list skips them as well.
To keep the check fast, the 64-bit fingerprint is cut into nine bands and only screenshots of the same size that share at least one band exactly are compared. Two fingerprints within 8 bits of each other always share a band, so this shortcut cannot hide a real duplicate.
Review a duplicate set
- Open Clean up and look at each set: the copy marked to stay is the newest one.
- Check the dates and any numbers in the extras; clock times and digits are ignored by the word check.
- Untick anything you want to keep, or add it to a folder first.
- Tap Delete and confirm in the iOS dialog. Deleted screenshots stay in Photos › Recently Deleted for 30 days.
What text overlap alone would get wrong
- blue red blue and red blue have a token overlap of 1 in the comparison tool even though the texts differ in order and repetition.
- Two boarding passes for different flights can share almost every word; their digits are not part of the app's word check, which is why the image fingerprint also has to match.
- The comparison tool on this page sees pasted text only and has no access to pixels or to a photo library.
You make the final call
Shotnest prepares the list and iOS performs the deletion only after your confirmation. A high text overlap is a reason to look at two images side by side, never a reason to delete one unseen.