iTunes Deleting Duplicates

Deleting iTunes Duplicates

iTunes is sort of bloated and can be annoying sometimes. The biggest issue with iTunes has always been the inability or rather refusal to effectively monitor folders for new content either music, photos or videos.

Not everyone like managing the media catalog from inside iTunes. Actually many prefer managing the music library for themselves using the file systems directory structure. The problem with this approach is that it confuses iTunes. This is because iTunes does not know how to handle the fact that a file has been deleted, moved or replaced.

Another problem with iTunes Find Duplicates is that it does not detect when two entries point to the same file in the library. It will delete the file then you get the cannot get file error dialog the next time you try to play the song.

If you have a vast music collection in your iTunes, you may see copies of files or songs displayed more than once in the iTunes library. To find and remove all duplicate copies of the songs that are repeated, in your iTunes library, the following steps can be followed to delete iTunes duplicates.

The steps affect the following versions of iTunes; iTunes 8, iTunes 9 for Mac, iTunes 9 for Windows, iTunes 7 for Windows, iTunes 7 for Mac OS X, iTunes 8 for Windows, iTunes 10 for Windows, iTunes 10 for Mac, iTunes 9 for Mac

On the tool bar, choose File > Display Duplicates to reveal the duplicate items (iTunes makes matches using the song name/ title/filename and artist). If you willingly have multiple versions of a song by the same artist, for example, one version performed live/ an accoustic version and the original studio versions, or alternatively versions from various albums) you hold the Alt or Option key for Mac OS X or the Shift key for Windows and then on the tool bar choose File > Display Exact Duplicates. This will reveal only repeated songs having the same name/ artist/ file name/ song title, and album.
You can also sort by the date when you added the song to the iTunes library by clicking the Date Added column.
In order to delete the older items, select the item with the oldest date and click on it, hold down the Shift key or the Control key, and then click on the older item that is next to the most current date. After that is done, delete the duplicate items by choosing Edit > Delete from the tool bar.

It is important to know that if you have the same iTunes library synced with another or other computers, you will have to replace the older iTunes library with the newer items in your library.

There are a few problems associated with the manual method of deleting iTunes duplicates. The major one being that you are never sure you are going to delete the correct file. Many a time you will find that the iTunes duplicates differ in quality or length. Usually most of us will save the song with the longest length.

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Deleting iTunes Duplicates in iTunes

By mikeandpete On December 16, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Deleting iTunes Duplicates in iTunes.

With the large iTunes libraries that some users have, it can be easy to end up with duplicates of the same song which unnecessarily take up space on your hard disk. But if your library has thousands or even tens of thousands of files, it will be hard to find the duplicate files especially if you have multiple versions of some songs that you keep for example one from the CD and another from a live concert. Fortunately, there is a built-in tool that eases the task of identifying iTunes duplicates.
To have iTunes sort out the issues itself, for all songs that have the similar song title and artist name, go to the File menu >> and click on Display Duplicates. iTunes will then create a smart list of all duplicated songs and display them on the right hand side of the iTunes window. You can then continue to sort these by name by just clicking on the column near the top of the iTunes window or by date added by clicking the corresponding column.

This allows you to see the songs side by side in order to easily determine which file is a duplicate. From here you can select the files you want to delete.

The iTunes Display Duplicates command is very useful, but it’s not always as accurate as we need it to be. This is because it only matches songs based on their title and artist, it often shows songs that are almost similar but aren’t exactly the same to be considered duplicates. For instance, an artist might record the same song twice at different times or even with different producers, While the iTunes tool ‘Display Duplicates’ will often show these types of songs as being duplicates, they are not actually duplicates and you might want to probably keep both these versions.

If this is the case, you may need a more accurate way to display duplicates. iTunes also offers an alternative in the form of ‘Display Exact Duplicates’. You access this command in the same way as ‘Display Duplicates’, but when you click on the File menu, hold the Shift key down on Windows or the Option key on a Macintosh. This will bring up the Display Exact Duplicates option in the menu.

You will now see songs that have the same exact song title, singer, and even album. Since it is not likely that more than one song on one album will have the same name, it gives you more confidence that these are the only true duplicates. You can then sort them to compare even further.

Please note that if you remove a duplicate file that is in a playlist it will not be automatically replaced by the original file by iTunes. You’ll have to add the original file to that location by hand.

Though even the files shown by Display Exact Duplicates may not be accurate. This is especially the case when you store two different copies of the same file, one high-quality AAC and another lower quality for use on an iPod.