🧩 Python Automation Recipes – 🔍 Duplicate File Finder

📌 Introduction

Duplicate files build up quietly — repeated downloads, copied images, exported documents, backup leftovers. Over time, they waste storage and make folders messy.

This automation recipe shows how to scan folders, detect duplicate files, and either move or log them using Python. It’s a useful pattern for cleanup workflows, backup hygiene, and storage optimisation.

🔎 Explanation

• The script scans a target folder recursively.
• It calculates a SHA-256 hash for each file, which acts like a fingerprint of the file’s contents.
• If two files have the same hash, they are treated as duplicates.
• You can choose to:
  • log duplicates to a text file, or
  • move them into a dedicated duplicates folder.

This approach is reliable because it checks actual file contents, not just filenames.

✅ Key Takeaways

• 🧹 Detect duplicate files based on content, not name.
• 📦 Move duplicates safely or log them for review.
• ⚙️ Great for cleanup, backups, and storage management.