Check if a downloaded file is a duplicate

Applications
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1

I don’t know how many others have this problem, but oftentimes I need a specific file that I already have on my computer, but I still redownload it anyway because I either don’t remember that I downloaded it, or I do remember but I can’t find where it is.

Checking if a file is already on my system by using a checksum or something could save space and help with organization. Even just searching for a duplicate in the trash could significantly help.
Ideally the checksum could be scanned before the file is downloaded, which would also save time and reduce data usage, but I don’t think that’s possible.

I’d imagine this would be quite difficult to implement, so I understand if you choose not to, but I believe this could significantly improve the end-user experience.

2

Hi, there isn’t really a feasible way to do this, especially not from nautilus’ side. Browsers download and store files independently, nautilus could at most find duplicates and suggest cleaning those up.

3

There are already filesystems that does deduplication: Deduplication — BTRFS documentation.

4

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