Some sheets went through the scanner twice, so pages repeat in my file. How do I find and remove the duplicates?

How the repeats get there

It usually happens one of two ways. A sheet jams in the feeder and you feed it again, after the scanner already captured part or all of it. Or you scan in batches, lose track of where you stopped, and start the next batch with the last sheet of the previous one. In the first case the two copies sit side by side; in the second the repeat opens the new section.

Finding the repeats quickly

• Start with the count: if you know you scanned 12 sheets and the file has 14 pages, you are looking for exactly two extras.
• Look at the joins between batches first, since that is where repeats most often happen.
• Compare neighbouring pages by a feature that stands out, such as a heading, an invoice number or a stamp in a corner. That is faster than reading the whole text.
• A partial capture looks cut off or skewed in its thumbnail. Delete that one and keep the complete copy, even if the complete one came second.

The deletion itself

1. Open Delete PDF pages and choose the file.
2. Click the copy you want to drop from each repeated pair, and it gets a red frame.
3. Read the summary and make sure the numbers are the ones you meant.
4. Press 'Delete pages and download new file'.

If the count does not match

If fewer pages remain than you had sheets, you may have removed a page that looked similar but was not a repeat, such as two invoices to the same customer on the same template. Go back to the original, which has not changed, and compare small details like the date and the amount. If more remain, there is a repeat you have not spotted yet.

While searching you may find the problem is not only repeats but pages that came out of order after the jammed sheet was fed again. Remove the repeats first, then fix the order with Reorder PDF pages. Done in that order, you are working with fewer, clearer page numbers.