tidyup review

The ability to create cleaner workflows is one reason people shift from Windows and Linux to macOS. For a considerable part, macOS does provide powerful utilities too. For instance, you can use Spotlight Search to search across your Mac and everything is kept in sync.

Still, you’re left with the tedious task of manually eliminating duplicate files and sorting through cluttered folders. It’s a time-consuming chore that can easily take away the joy of using macOS. That’s why the idea of Tidy Up 6 makes sense. This Mac app promises to make it easier to remove duplicates and organize your Mac.

In this Tidy Up 6 review, we shall explore the different aspects of this duplicate remover utility for Mac. Our primary objective is to understand whether Tidy Up 6 helps us save time, which we may otherwise spend on manually removing duplicate files.

What is Tidy Up 6?

Tidy Up 6 is a powerful duplicate remover tool designed for macOS. Since there is no dedicated built-in option to find and remove duplicate files, you need this third-party Mac app to make things work. Compared to manually finding and removing duplicate files, Tidy Up 6 is an easier option, indeed. You only need a few clicks to get the job done.

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As you can guess from its name, Tidy Up 6 is the sixth iteration of the utility. Every new version, developers take the best efforts to improve the overall performance and features. So, because we have used the older versions of this tool from Hyperbolic Software, we could appreciate the change in what it packs.

Who needs Tidy Up 6?

According to the developers, Tidy Up 6 is a must-have tool for all Pro users. However, we think it is a broader definition. Therefore, we have listed a couple of groups of people who need Tidy Up 6 on their Mac.

  • Students

If you are a student, you are more likely to download multiple copies of the same document. And the size of duplicate files can be problematic after you have spent a few years in the academia. Therefore, it is crucial to find out duplicate files on your Mac and get rid of them.

  • Photographers

Photographers are probably the most prominent group to benefit from what Tidy Up 6 has to offer. If you’re a professional photographer, you will likely have multiple copies of photographs and similar photographs. To prevent storage space exhaustion and organize your library, you need a duplicate file remover.

In addition, professionals who deal with documents/images would also appreciate the help of Tidy Up 6. You should also keep in mind that duplicate files cause storage space shortage. Therefore, if you want to free up internal storage space on your Mac, you might consider getting Tidy Up 6 on your Mac.

How to get started with Tidy Up 6?

Something we loved about Tidy Up 6 is that it does not require a deeper system-level access to help you find and remove duplicate files. Instead, you can set up the duplicate file finder app without much effort. After you have downloaded the setup file from the official website of Tidy Up 6, the process does not take more than a few minutes. But, as you can guess, Tidy Up 6 requires access to the folders from where you want to remove duplicate files.

setup

Getting started with Tidy Up 6 is exceptionally easier, especially if you use the Simple mode. Once you select the types of files you would like to find, the Tidy Up 6 app will do its job while you sit back and relax. You can also find quick ways to remove duplicate files, even when you have multiple duplicates of a single file. Long story short, even if you lack prior experience with duplicate file removers, you can easily get started with Tidy Up 6.

What are the core features of Tidy Up 6?

Now, we shall talk about the core features in the package.

  • Simple and Advanced Modes

We found it impressive that Tidy Up 6 is optimized for beginners and professionals alike.

simplemode

For instance, if you simply want to find duplicate photos or music files on your Mac, you can use the simple mode of Tidy Up 6. In this mode, your entire hard disk will be scanned for duplicates. Thereafter, you can use the easy interface to retain the copy of your choice and delete the duplicate files. We recommend this mode if you want to free up storage space on your Mac.

On the other hand, the Advanced mode in Tidy Up 6 is designed for professionals who need maximum level of control over the duplicate finding process. For instance, if you are a professional photographer, you might want to find all the duplicate photos you may have copied on the same day. You also get some advanced customization options. For instance, while searching for duplicate images on your Mac, you can even define pixel-to-pixel match.

Together, we find that the dual modes of Tidy Up 6 are value-adding, indeed.

  • Better Integration with macOS

Another effective thing about Tidy Up 6 is that it can scan the content inside built-in macOS apps. The app is capable of searching within the Photos, Mail, and Contacts app. Similarly, if you use Lightroom, the library can also be scanned for potential duplicates. Because Tidy Up 6 is built to run natively on Apple silicon chips, you do not have to worry about performance constraints, either.

  • Intuitive Sorting Options

Once you have completed scanning a specific folder or the entire hard disk, Tidy Up 6 will show an Overview page for the results. This page contains information about the total files scanned and duplicates found within the system. You can also sort between the available options from different viewing options. For instance, it is easy to change the icon size according to what you want to compare.

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So, if you would like to compare two photos very closely, you can do it by going to the icon view. Instead, if you like to have a broader overview of what is taking up your space, you can stick to the list view. Regardless of the option you pick, Tidy Up 6 will show enough information about each file. This way, you can make sure that you do not accidentally delete anything important.

result

We also loved how Tidy Up 6 shows a summary of the search even before you go deep. So, if you find that a search has not accumulated results, you can skip it. So, in addition to helping you save time that you might otherwise spend on removing duplicate files, Tidy Up 6 does something extra as well.

How effective is the user experience?

If we have to rate the User Interface of Tidy Up 6 out of five, we will stick to a 3.5-star rating. There are two reasons for this judgement.

  • Even though the User Interface does not disrupt the User Experience, the design could use a modern makeover. Currently, the UI elements look utterly rudimentary, which is not desirable.
  • Regardless of the UI design, the duplicate file finder engine on Tidy Up 6 stays impressive. So, the UI and its lack of modern elements come as a hindrance to getting the best out of the app.
  • We also believe that the UI experience would escalate to a new level when you introduce a bit more interaction to the elements.

Therefore, the user experience provided by Tidy Up 6 is not a dealbreaker at all. However, for professionals who need maximum performance from the duplicate remover utility, the UI can be a bit of a hindrance. But it can easily be fixed with some experience.

Is there room for improvement?

Like other software we review regularly, Tidy Up 6 also requires improvement in some areas. As it happens, most of it has to deal with how Tidy Up 6 is designed.

As we said, the design of Tidy Up 6 is not as modern as you would expect it to be. Therefore, even when the duplicate finder engine is efficient, there are some hiccups. For instance, we believe the developers can do a better job at arranging the selection criteria while finding duplicates on their Mac. It seems to be the case in simple mode, where you would like to get things done quickly.

We also noticed that Tidy Up 6 does not pay much attention to differentiate user files and system files. For instance, if you scan the entire hard disk for duplicate music files, it will show many audio files required by the macOS system. Of course, there is an option to exclude system files from the scanning list by default, to search inside them, you must choose intentionally to do it and that option is not available in the source simple mode, but only when the gear button is clicked (which turn the sources in the advanced mode).

Apart from that, Tidy Up 6 does a decent job, especially compared to the previous versions.

Tidy Up 6 vs. built-in options in macOS

As you may know, the Photos app on macOS has a built-in feature to detect duplicate photos. However, the process works at a pixel-to-pixel level. More importantly, you cannot expect many customization options in this method.

Similarly, you have an option to create Smart Folders using Finder and use these folders to filter out duplicate files on your Mac. Once again, the problem is that you will have to spend a lot of time on this aspect. You are also likely to come across false positives if you do not have any control over the detection criteria. So, these two options do not really cut it when you want to get rid of as many duplicates as possible as quickly.

Instead, you require a set of third-party professional tools like Tidy Up 6 that offer better control.

Pricing

Tidy Up 6 is available for a one-time purchase worth $34.99, but there are ways to save money by bundling it with other products from Hyperbolic Software.

The developers also offer a free trial, during which you can test all the features of the utility. Altogether, we believe Tidy Up 6 comes with a reasonable price tag.

FAQs

Does Apple have a duplicate file remover?

Apple does not offer a built-in duplicate file remover on macOS or iPadOS. Instead, you can use the duplicate detection feature on Photos or the Smart Folder feature on Finder. However, in our testing, both these ways require a lot of time. On the bright side, you can choose between a variety of options such as Tidy Up 6.

Is Tidy Up safe to use?

Yes, according to our experience, Tidy Up 6 for Mac is 100% safe to use. However, you should make sure that you do not delete anything from the macOS file system.

Final verdict

In the end, we have enough reasons to recommend Tidy Up 6 for all our readers. If you extensively use your Mac for work or studies, this duplicate file remover will be helpful for sure. While there are some areas that need improvement, we believe Tidy Up 6 offers a decent experience altogether.

* Readers like you help support TheSweetBits. When you buy something through the links in this article, we may get a small commission at no extra charge to you.
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