# Start a new scan

Follow the steps below to find all duplicates and similar files on your Mac:

1. Add scan locations.

Do any of the following to add a scan location:

- Click on the Add sign (+) on the launch screen. Either choose one of the recommended locations or navigate to a desired folder (click ‘Choose custom folder’) in the dialog that appears. If you’d like to find all duplicates on the computer, choose an entire Home folder (scanning may take a while in this case).
- Drop folders, drives or libraries onto Gemini.
- Navigate to a desired location in Finder and choose Services > ‘Scan for Duplicates with Gemini 2’ from its shortcut menu.

Note: If you have an App Store version of Gemini 2, you’ll need to grant it access to your Home folder before the first scan. It’s a standard safe macOS requirement for all applications. Also, note that Gemini 2 does not support iPhoto libraries (as well as Aperture and Lightroom).

2. Add more locations to scan: Click (+) and navigate to a folder, library, or drive you want to scan (including external drives). Or, just drop additional folders onto the Gemini window.

3. Start scanning: Click Scan for Duplicates.

If you want to speed up scanning, you can disable similar files search in Gemini 2 Preferences. Alternatively, you can choose another location or increase the size of files that must be analyzed (on the General tab of Gemini 2 Preferences, choose an appropriate file size from the ‘Minimum file size’ list).

To stop scanning: Click Stop on the scan progress screen.

To discard scan results: Click Start Over to go back to the start screen and discard current scan results.

See also:

- Start screen
- Ready to scan
- Gemini 2 Preferences: General