Reverse Image & Video Search

Upload a reference file and select a folder to search for similar images and videos using Color Signature matching.

Step 1 — Select Reference File

Choose a single image or video file to use as reference

Step 2 — Select Folder to Search

Select a folder containing images/videos to search.

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🔁 What Is Reverse Image Search?

Reverse Image Search is the opposite of the duplicate finder. Instead of scanning a folder and automatically grouping everything that looks alike, you choose one specific file as your reference, then Sakarto scans a folder to find everything similar to that one file.

Use it when you already know what you're looking for — for example: “find all copies and variations of this specific photo in my archive.”

One Reference File

You upload a single image or video as your starting point. It stays pinned at the top of results and is protected from move or delete.

Scan Any Folder

Select a folder and Sakarto compares every image and video in it against your reference file using Color Signature matching.

Results Appear Live

Matches appear in real time as the scan runs — you don't have to wait for the full scan to complete.

Reference is Protected

The reference file is always shown first with a blue REFERENCE badge. It can never be accidentally moved or deleted.

↔️ Duplicate Finder vs. Reverse Image Search — Which Should I Use?

Comparison of duplicate finder and reverse search use cases
Situation	Use This
I want to clean up a messy folder and find all duplicates in it	📂 Duplicate Finder
I have a specific photo and want to find all copies of it in an archive	🔁 Reverse Search
I don't know what the duplicates are — I just know there are too many files	📂 Duplicate Finder
I know exactly what file I'm looking for, I just need to find where copies live	🔁 Reverse Search
I want to compare all files in a folder against each other	📂 Duplicate Finder
I want to compare all files against one specific file	🔁 Reverse Search

🧠 How It Finds Similar Files

The Color Signature algorithm analyzes the actual colour content of each image rather than comparing file names or metadata. Here's what happens when you click Start Search:

Process the Reference File
Your reference image or video is processed immediately when you select it — before the folder scan even starts. It's drawn onto a 288×288 canvas and its colour signature is computed. This is the “fingerprint” that everything in the folder will be compared against.
Reference Card Renders First
Before any scanning begins, the reference file appears as the first card in the results area with a blue REFERENCE badge. The search header shows “Searching…” and updates live as matches are found.
Build a Colour Signature for Each Folder File
For each image in the folder, Sakarto draws it onto a 288×288 canvas divided into a 24×24 grid. Each overlapping 3×3 neighbourhood produces averaged Y, U, V values (brightness separated from colour). Image processing runs in a background Web Worker so the UI stays responsive throughout.
Compare Each File Against the Reference
Every scanned file is compared directly to the reference file's signature using squared Euclidean distance across all three YUV channels. If the distance is below the similarity threshold, the file is a match. An aspect‑ratio pre‑check skips files with very different proportions before the full comparison runs.
Matches Appear Immediately
Each time a matching file is found, its card is added to the results list right away — you see matches accumulate in real time. The header count updates live. When the scan finishes, the final count is shown.

✅ What It Finds — and What It Might Miss

✅ Finds Well

Exact copies of the reference file
The reference saved at different resolutions
Re‑exported copies in different formats (JPEG → PNG)
Copies with minor brightness or contrast adjustments
Re‑compressed or lower‑quality versions
Screenshots of the reference image
Videos sharing key visual scenes with the reference

⚠️ May Struggle With

Heavily cropped versions of the reference
Copies with heavy colour grading or filters
Rotated or mirrored versions
The reference photo as part of a collage
Black‑and‑white vs. colour versions
Very small thumbnails of the reference

For rotated, heavily cropped, or perspective‑warped copies, try the ORB (Feature Matching) reverse search algorithm instead — it detects local keypoints and handles transformations that fool colour‑based comparison.

📋 Step‑by‑Step: How to Use Reverse Image Search

Step 1

Select Your Reference File

Click Choose Reference File in the left panel. Select any image or video from your computer. A preview appears immediately so you can confirm you picked the right file.

Sakarto processes the reference file right away — computing its colour signature before you even select the folder. This means the search starts instantly once you pick a folder.

The reference file does not need to be inside the folder you're about to scan. It can be from anywhere on your computer.

Step 2

Select the Folder to Search

Once a reference file is loaded, the Choose Folder to Search button becomes active. Click it to open a native folder picker (Chrome / Edge). Or drag and drop a folder onto the page.

The folder count shows how many files were found. The Start Search button activates once both the reference file and a folder are selected.

Enable Fast Mode in the toolbar if you're scanning many JPEG files — it reads embedded thumbnails and is 5–10× faster than loading full images.

Step 3

Start the Search

Click 🔍 Start Search. The reference file card appears immediately at the top of the results with a blue REFERENCE badge. A progress bar shows how many files have been scanned.

You can switch browser tabs during the scan — image processing runs in a background Web Worker and continues uninterrupted. Video processing pauses when the tab is hidden and resumes when you return.

Step 4

Review Matches as They Appear

Every time a matching file is found, it appears as a new card next to the reference. The header count updates live. Once the scan finishes, a final summary shows the total number of similar files found.

Click a card to select it (blue border)
Ctrl+Click (Cmd+Click on Mac) to add to the compare list (purple border)
Click the 🔍 icon on hover to preview full size with metadata
Right‑click any card for the context menu (the reference card has Move/Delete grayed out)
Click & drag on empty space to box‑select multiple result cards

Step 5

Compare Reference vs. Match Side‑by‑Side

Ctrl+Click the reference card and one or more match cards, then click ⚖️ Compare in the toolbar. A modal opens showing all selected files side‑by‑side with their dimensions, file size, path, and a similarity percentage. For 3+ files, a full pairwise similarity matrix is shown.

Similarity percentages above 80% are shown in green, 50–80% in amber, and below 50% in red — giving you a quick visual indicator of how close each match is to your reference.

Step 6

Act on Matches — Move, Delete, or Copy

Select the files you want to act on (not the reference — it's protected) and use the toolbar. With Queue Mode on (recommended), files are staged first:

📋 CopyCopy filename(s) to clipboard

📂 MoveStage matches for move to a named folder

🗑️ DeleteStage matches for permanent deletion

⚖️ CompareView selected files side‑by‑side

Deletions are permanent. The File System Access API bypasses the recycle bin. Always use Queue Mode to review before executing. The reference file cannot be deleted or moved.

Step 7

Queue Mode — Review Before You Commit

When Queue Mode is enabled (the default), clicking Move or Delete stages files rather than acting immediately. Switch to the Move Queue or Delete Queue tab in the sidebar to review what's staged, remove individual files, then execute when ready.

With Queue Mode disabled, a confirmation dialog appears and the operation runs immediately after you confirm. The reference file is excluded from all queue operations automatically.

🏛️ Quick Reference — Buttons & Controls

All toolbar buttons, checkboxes, and keyboard shortcuts for reverse search
Button / Action	What it does
Choose Reference File	Select a single image or video to search for. Preview appears immediately.
Choose Folder to Search	Select the folder to scan. Activates once a reference file is loaded.
🔍 Start Search	Begin scanning. Reference card renders first, matches appear live.
🔄 New Search	Reload the page and start a fresh search with a new reference file.
📋 Copy (N)	Copy selected filenames to clipboard. N = count selected.
📂 Move (N)	Move selected match files (not the reference). Stages in Queue Mode.
🗑️ Delete (N)	Delete selected match files (not the reference). Stages in Queue Mode.
✕ Deselect All	Remove selection from all cards
⚖️ Compare (N)	Open the compare modal for Ctrl+clicked files. Needs 2+.
🔇 Videos	Toggle mute/unmute for all video cards
Queue Mode checkbox	When checked: stage files for review before executing. Recommended.
Fast Mode checkbox	Use EXIF thumbnail for JPEG scanning — much faster. On by default.
Click card	Select / deselect a match card
Ctrl + Click card	Add / remove from compare list (purple border)
Click & drag (empty area)	Box‑select multiple match cards
Right‑click card	Context menu: Copy / Move / Delete / Compare. Move & Delete are disabled on the reference card.
🔍 hover icon	Open full‑size preview with metadata. Reference shows a REFERENCE label.
Hover video card	Auto‑play the video clip

🛡️ How the Reference File is Protected

The reference file is treated differently from all match files throughout the entire tool. Here's exactly what is and isn't possible with it:

✅ You Can

Click the reference card to select it
Ctrl+Click it to add it to the compare list
Preview it full‑size with the 🔍 icon
Copy its filename to clipboard
Right‑click to access Copy and Compare

🚫 You Cannot

Move the reference file
Delete the reference file
Add it to the move or delete queue
Use the toolbar Move/Delete buttons on it
Right‑click Move or Delete (grayed out)

This protection exists so you can't accidentally delete or move the very file you were searching for. If you want to delete the reference file, do it through your normal file manager outside of Sakarto.

⭐ What Users Say

Based on 124 reviews

"I uploaded a photo and found 47 copies across my archive in under 2 minutes. The reference card being protected saved me from accidentally deleting the original. Brilliant tool."

Laura M.

"I had a specific photo and needed to find all versions of it — different resolutions, compressed, cropped. The reverse search found them all. The YUV colour matching is surprisingly accurate."

Thomas B.

"I work with large photo archives and reverse search is my daily driver. Pick a reference, scan a folder, and instantly see all copies. Much faster than running a full duplicate scan every time."

Nina K.

"I had to find all versions of a specific logo across thousands of marketing images. Reverse search with Color Signature found every single one — different sizes, colours, and even rotated variants. Incredible."

David P.

💡 Tips for Best Results

Back Up First

Always back up your files before deleting anything. Deleted files bypass the recycle bin and cannot be recovered.

Use the Best Quality Reference

Use the highest‑quality, largest version of the file as your reference. A small or heavily compressed reference may produce fewer matches.

Compare Before Acting

Ctrl+Click the reference and a match, then click Compare to see them side‑by‑side with a similarity percentage before deciding to delete.

When In Doubt, Move

Use Move instead of Delete if you're unsure about a match. You can always permanently delete from the destination folder later.

Fast Mode for Large Folders

Enable Fast Mode when scanning large folders of JPEGs. It reads embedded EXIF thumbnails and is 5–10× faster than loading full images.

No Matches? Try a Different Algorithm

If Color Signature finds no matches but you know copies exist, try ORB (for rotated/cropped versions) or pHash/wHash (for format‑converted copies) from the Reverse Search hub.

⚠️ Known Limitations

You must select a folder each time.

Browsers cannot silently read your disk. A folder picker dialog is required every search session.

No undo for file deletion.

The File System Access API bypasses the OS recycle bin. Deleted files are gone permanently. Use Queue Mode to review before executing.

Single folder at a time.

You can't search across two separate folders in one scan. Workaround: scan their common parent directory.

Video scanning pauses when you switch tabs.

Browsers throttle background video decoding. The scanner pauses video processing when the tab is hidden and resumes when you return. Image scanning is unaffected — it runs in a Web Worker.

Memory limit for large collections.

50,000+ images may slow down or crash the tab on devices with less than 8GB RAM. For large folders, scan subfolders in batches.

Move and Delete require Chrome or Edge.

The File System Access API is only available in Chrome 86+ and Edge 86+. Firefox and Safari can scan and display results but cannot move or delete files. Use “Download List” to export results in those browsers.

🔒 Privacy & Security

Zero network activity after page load. Open DevTools → Network tab and verify: no outbound requests during any scan, compare, or file operation. Your reference file and folder contents are never transmitted anywhere.

No accounts, no cookies, no analytics. The only localStorage data is your OS detection and checkbox preferences (Fast Mode, Queue Mode). No file names, paths, or scan results are ever saved.

Folder access is scoped and session‑only. Permission is granted only for the specific folder you select, lasts only while the tab is open, and is revocable at any time from browser site settings.

Purely static — no backend. Sakarto is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There is no server, no database, and no API receiving any data from you.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

How is Color Signature reverse search different from aHash, dHash, or pHash reverse search?

Every hash‑based algorithm (aHash, dHash, pHash, wHash, BlockHash) converts images to grayscale before processing — they compare brightness structure only and completely ignore colour. Color Signature is the only algorithm that compares actual colour. It measures the average YUV value (Y = luminance, U and V = colour channels) across a 24×24 regional grid. Two images with a similar colour palette across their regions will match; two images with the same brightness pattern but different colours won't. This makes Color Signature uniquely able to find colour‑similar copies of your reference that grayscale algorithms group incorrectly or miss entirely. The trade‑off: colour‑shifted versions of your reference (different white balance, filtered in Instagram, hue‑rotated) won't match even if the subject is identical.

Does my reference file need to be inside the folder I'm scanning?

No — select it from anywhere on your computer. Sakarto automatically skips the reference file if it appears inside the scanned folder, matched by filename, file size, and last‑modified timestamp. The reference card is pinned at position 0 and is never treated as a scan result even if an identical file exists in the folder.

A copy of my reference isn't appearing. What should I try?

First, raise the threshold slider. Second, consider whether the copy has been colour‑graded, filtered, had its white balance changed, or converted to black and white — any of these will shift the YUV values in the 24×24 grid enough to reduce the similarity score. Color Signature is intentionally sensitive to colour changes because that's its purpose, but it means colour‑processed copies won't be found. For colour‑insensitive matching, try pHash or dHash. Third, check aspect ratios — pairs differing by more than 10% are excluded. Fourth, for rotated or heavily cropped copies, try ORB.

I'm seeing too many unrelated images as matches. How do I reduce false positives?

Lower the threshold slider. At loose thresholds, images that share a similar overall colour palette — two outdoor nature photos both dominated by greens and blues, or two sunny portraits both warm‑toned — can match your reference even if they're completely different scenes. Tighten the threshold to 3–7 to require a much closer regional colour match. If false positives still occur at strict thresholds with this particular reference, the folder may contain many images with genuinely similar colour palettes. In that case, combine results with a second pass using pHash and keep only files that appear as matches in both.

Does Color Signature work well for finding re‑compressed versions of my reference downloaded from social media?

Yes — this is one of its strongest use cases. When an image is downloaded after platform re‑encoding, individual pixel values change slightly but the regional colour distribution across the 24×24 grid stays almost identical. The YUV averages per region are very stable across quality changes. At a threshold of 8–12, Color Signature reliably identifies re‑compressed downloads even from platforms with aggressive compression (WhatsApp, older Twitter, Messenger). For very heavily compressed versions (quality 20 or below), try raising the threshold to 12–18.

Can Color Signature find video copies of my reference image?

Yes, and this works both ways — an image reference can match similar video frames, and a video reference is compared against both images and videos in the folder. For videos, Sakarto extracts 3 frames at regular intervals and computes an averaged colour signature. This means a video that contains a scene similar to your reference image will appear as a match. Note that video matching via colour signature is less precise than image matching — two videos sharing a similar colour scene can match even if they have different content. Always preview video matches before acting.

Why does video scanning pause when I switch tabs?

Browsers throttle video element processing when a tab is hidden to conserve battery and CPU. Sakarto detects this via the Page Visibility API and pauses video frame extraction automatically, resuming when you return. Image processing runs in a background Web Worker that is not throttled by tab visibility — images keep scanning at full speed regardless of which tab you have open.

Can I recover files after deleting them?

No. Sakarto's remove() call permanently deletes files without going through the OS Recycle Bin or Trash. The reference file is always protected and cannot be deleted. For matched files, always use Queue Mode to stage and review before executing. Moving to a “Sakarto‑Duplicates” subfolder is a safer alternative to immediate deletion.

Does this work on Firefox or Safari?

Reference processing, colour comparison, result display, and the Compare modal all work in Firefox and Safari. Move and Delete require the File System Access API (Chrome 86+ and Edge 86+ only). In other browsers, complete the search, review results, and use Download List to export a report for manual file management.