Found a cropped or resized copy? How to find the original image on your computer

Start with the cases that need no extra software

• You edited it in Photos on a Mac. "When you change a photo or video, Photos keeps the original so that you can always undo your changes." Select it and choose Image > Revert to Original (Apple's guide).
• You edited and saved it in Preview. Preview keeps earlier versions of a file: File > Revert To lets you go back to a previous save (Apple's guide).
• The picture came from the web. TinEye and Google Lens search the public web for larger copies. Both need your image uploaded, and neither looks at your disk.

Everything below is for the harder case: the original is a separate file somewhere in your folders, and you only have a copy that was resized, cropped, recoloured or screenshotted along the way.

Why the original is hard to find

Nothing that a normal file search uses survives the trip. The file name changed (IMG_4821.jpg became hero-final-v3.png), the size and dimensions changed, and screenshots, exports and messaging apps often strip the metadata. What's left is the picture itself, so the search has to compare pictures.

Free method 1: resized or recompressed copies

Put the copy you have into a folder next to the places the original might be, and run dupeGuru in Picture mode or Czkawka's Similar Images. Czkawka's README describes its matches as images that "are not exactly the same (different resolution, watermarks)". dupeGuru goes a step further for this job: unless you mark a reference folder, "the biggest files will take the reference position" in each group (dupeGuru's documentation). The file listed first is usually the original.

On Windows you can also narrow candidates by size without extra software: in File Explorer's Details view, add the Dimensions column and sort by it (Microsoft Q&A).

The limit: both tools compare the image as a whole. A slight resize or recompression barely changes that comparison; a tight crop or a strong colour grade usually changes it enough that the pair is missed.

Free method 2: match on the date the photo was taken

Photos from a camera or phone carry an EXIF capture date (DateTimeOriginal). Many edits and exports keep it, even after a crop or colour change; screenshots and most messaging apps don't. dupeGuru's EXIF Timestamp scan pairs files that share that date. Its own documentation warns that "modified pictures often keep the same EXIF timestamp", which is a nuisance when you're removing duplicates and exactly what you want here (scan types).

To check whether your copy still has the date: on a Mac, open it in Preview and look in Tools > Show Inspector; on Windows, right-click the file and open Properties > Details. If there is no capture date, skip to the next section.

Crops, colour edits and screenshots with no metadata

This is the case a client's screenshot or a re-export usually lands in. Whole-image fingerprints don't survive a heavy crop and the date is gone, so the only thing left to compare is what the picture shows. That takes content-based search: a neural network describes each image, and the search compares those descriptions.

Excire Foto ($249 one-time, Mac and Windows) has a Find Similar Photos function inside a full photo catalogue, and Peakto (Mac only, subscription or $270 one-time) can search with a reference image across Photos, Lightroom and folders. We tested ImgSeek on exactly this problem; the results are below.

Two things the table doesn't show. A crop that is mostly background has little of the original's subject left to match, so expect those to rank lower or be missed. And for a different photograph of the same object, rather than an edited copy of the same file, ImgSeek finds it but doesn't always put it first: in the same test, a second shot of a pair of headphones ranked second, behind a web export of the query photo itself, and a close-up of them ranked fifth.

Which method for which copy

When ImgSeek is the wrong tool

• You edited the picture in Photos or Preview — revert it there. Nothing to search for.
• It's a resized or recompressed copy — dupeGuru or Czkawka are free and do this well.
• The copy still has its capture date — dupeGuru's EXIF mode is free and finds it even after a crop.
• Your originals are camera RAW or iPhone HEIC files — ImgSeek doesn't read either, so it can only find a JPEG exported from them.
• Your originals are design files with no exported image next to them — see the note above.
• The original is on the web — use TinEye or Google Lens.
• You have an Intel Mac or use Linux — the Mac build is Apple Silicon only, and there is no Linux build. The Mac build is also not yet notarized by Apple (first-launch steps).