How to Duplicate a Picture on an iPhone

If you want to make a copy of a picture so that you can edit or change it, then you might be wondering how to make a photo duplicate on your iPhone.

Luckily, this won’t involve any crazy steps or extra apps, as there is a way to do it in the Photos app that you already have.

How to Duplicate a Photo on iPhone

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Select the picture.
  3. Touch the Share button.
  4. Tap Duplicate.

Our guide continues below with additional information about how to duplicate a photo on iPhone, including pictures of these steps.

The iPhone’s Photos app has become more and more robust over the years and has even built up a nice suite of tools that you can use to edit your pictures.

But whether you are actively trying to improve a picture or you are trying to do something funny with it, you might be worried that you will lose the original, unaltered copy of the image.

One way to avoid this is by creating a duplicate copy of the original picture, which you can leave untouched.

Fortunately, this won’t also require you to transfer the picture somewhere else. Instead, you can take advantage of a tool on the iPhone that lets you duplicate pictures right from your Camera Roll.

Learn about a quick way that you can move your pictures from your iPhone to your Windows computer using an app that you already have.

How to Create a Duplicate of a Picture on an iPhone (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 7 Plus in iOS 10.3.3. However, these steps still work on newer iPhone models like the iPhone 13 and in newer iOS versions like iOS 15.

The result of completing this guide will be a second copy of a picture that exists as a completely separate file from the original. You will be able to alter or modify each picture separately without affecting the other version.

These steps will show you how to duplicate a photo on an iPhone.

Step 1: Open the Photos app.

open the photos app

Touch the Photos icon.

Step 2: Select the picture that you wish to duplicate from your Camera Roll.

Choose the picture to duplicate.

Step 3: Touch the Share icon at the bottom-left corner of the screen.

touch the share icon

Open the Sharing menu.

It’s the icon that looks like a square with an arrow pointing upward.

Step 4: Tap the Duplicate button in the bottom row.

how to duplicate a picture on an iphone 7

Select the Duplicate option on the menu.

You should now have a duplicate copy of the picture on your iPhone’s Camera Roll. It should appear at the end of the Camera Roll as the most recent picture on the device. If the picture that you are duplicating was stored in iCloud, it may need a second or two to download first.

Now that you know how to duplicate a photo on iPhone, you can start making copies of your images and editing them without affecting the original copy of the picture.

The pictures and videos on your iPhone can consume a lot of storage space, so you may find that you need to clear some of it either for more pictures and videos or for a new app that you want to try. Find out several ways to free up iPhone storage and see some options that can help you get the storage space you need.

More Information About Duplicating iPhone Photos

You will notice when you expand the Sharing menu for the picture that there are a bunch of other options here. These include things like:

  • Copy Photo
  • Add to Shared Album
  • Duplicate
  • Hide
  • Slideshow
  • AirPlay
  • Use as Wallpaper
  • Copy iCloud Link
  • Adjust Date & Time
  • Adjust Location
  • Create Watch Face
  • Save to Files
  • Assign to Contact
  • Print
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save as Draft
  • Search with Google Lens

As you can see, there is an awful lot that you can do with a picture that you have taken on your camera.

When you duplicate photos on your iPhone, you may find that your photo library is starting to get pretty full. If you delete duplicate photos that you don’t need anymore, but your storage is still full, then you might want to go to the Recently Deleted album in the Photos app and delete duplicate images that you have removed from your Photos library.

If you try to duplicate a Live photo, you will get an additional pop-up window that asks you if you want to duplicate as a Live Photo or duplicate as a still photo.

Frequently Asked Questions About Making Copies of iPhone Pictures

How do I duplicate a photo on my iPhone?

If you want to make an exact duplicate of a photo on your iPhone, then you can go to Photos > select the picture > tap the Sharing icon > then scroll down and choose the Duplicate option.

This places an exact copy of the picture in your Camera Roll, which you can choose to edit or modify without affecting the original copy of the photo.

How do I make a copy of a photo on my iPhone?

If you want to copy a picture so that you can paste it into a note or a Google Docs file, then you can go to Photos > select the picture > touch the Sharing icon > and choose the Copy Photo option.

Once the picture is copied, you can open the location where you wish to paste it, then tap and hold on the screen and choose the Paste option.

How do I delete an iPhone picture?

When you select a picture in the Photos app, you will see several buttons at the bottom of the screen.

One of those buttons looks like a trash can.

If you tap that button, a pop-up window will appear, asking you to confirm that you wish to delete the photo. You can touch the Delete Photo button to confirm.

How do I permanently delete pictures on my iPhone?

When you delete a picture from your iPhone, it isn’t permanently deleted. It will be moved to a Recently Deleted folder, where it will sit for 30 days before being deleted from the device.

This is meant to give you a little extra time to confirm that you actually meant to delete that picture.

If you are certain that you don’t need it, then you can go to Photos > Albums > scroll down and choose Recently Deleted, then tap on the picture and tap the Delete button.

You can then tap Delete Photo to completely remove the picture from your device.

What is the difference between creating a copy of a picture and duplicating a picture on an iPhone?

When you open the sharing menu for the picture, you will notice that there are two similar options.

– Copy Photo
– Duplicate

If you want to put the picture in a Note or a document, then you would use the “Copy Photo” option. This works similarly to copying text and pasting it somewhere else, just for a picture in your Photos app.

When you select the Duplicate option, it will put an exact copy of that picture in your photo album, giving you two identical copies of that image.

Can I merge duplicate photos on my iPhone?

If you start to duplicate or copy photos on your iPhone, then you might wind up with multiple photos that you don’t need.

Having all of these similar photos can make it difficult to navigate through your photos and videos, so it can be useful to remove images you don’t need.

Luckily, you don’t need a third-party app for that, and you can get rid of duplicated copy files on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad Pro.

Open the photos app, choose the Albums tab, then scroll down and find the Utilities section.

Tap Duplicates, then touch the Merge button, followed by the Merge XX Items button.

Once you tap Merge it will combine the copies into one photo, which will be the copy that has the highest quality.

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