Q: how to delete duplicated songs all at one time?

Try downloading a fresh copy of the script. It has a little fix that should prevent the missing object error from occurring or skip over that pass of the loop if it does.

tt2

Hi tt2,

Yes it worked, but DeDuper is now asking me to confirm each deletion.  There was line you told me to edit previously from "true" to "false" or visa  versa to prevent this from happening.  Could you let me know what this is again?

Thanks!

Had to go back a few pages to find it.

protect02476 wrote:

 

Hi tt2,

 

I'm not sure if you remember me from a few months back, but would like to seek your help again.

 

I downloaded the latest version of DeDuper and changed the line "UseTrash=True" to "UseTrash=False" to avoid having to click "ok" for each deletion request.

Currently line 138.

tt2

The following helped me weed out about 1500 duplicate titles and delete them from my library in about 10 minutes. Credit goes to the people who developed the scrip etc.

Unlike other Deupper scripts or whatever is out there, someone developed a script on this forum that is only a couple paragraphs long.

http://forum.maccast.com/index.php?/topic/1172-select-every-other-item/

Run Script Editor from the utilites folder and copy the script using copy and paste, and then press play.  Make sure you are viewing the list of duplicates or exact duplicates when running the script and NOT your whole library. I think itunes has to be running.

The short of the long:  The script adds "duplicate" in the comments section for one of the two duplicate files in the library.  For my library, it took a little while for the script to run.  If you view all of your duplicate songs, and then sort them by "comment" you will see the screen move as script adds the comments...ie, once a blank comments cell is filled with the word "duplicate", the file gets moved up in the sort field, causing the list order to adjust about every second.

Lastly, sory your whole library by "comments" and then scroll down to the d's where the word duplicate appears.  Select all of the adjacent duplicates using shift, and then delete.

Hope this helps!!

Looks like a clever solution. Worth noting that you ought to start with a playlist of exact duplicates sorted in such a way to ensure the duplicates are listed in pairs. It also doesn't address any of the other issues that my Windows script is able to address, such as merging ratings, play counts, and playlist membership, or preserving the original file when two entires point to the same file, or when one entry is broken, or making a choice when the files are of different size or format. It may also fail when there are three or more copies of some of the tracks.

tt2

I agree.  I think I just couldn't get your script to work.  Thanks though!

No worries, I'm glad you found an alternative solution.

tt2

Hi!

Is this still a solution in 2015? Finally in iTunes 12.2.1.16, Apple has fixed the bug that since iTunes 11ish forgot libraries that weren't on your hard disk - fab but now I have copies of every track on my Time Capsule from every time that I set it up the library pointing to it.

Also, read further on and \\ works equivalently on Windows, Mac and Linux I think.

Thnx, great post regardless.

prudenc3 wrote:

 

Is this still a solution in 2015?

It depends on which bits you are referring to. The fundamentals of iTunes file storage and the reasons for duplicates haven't changed despite the visual changes to the front end.

tt2

Hi tt2,

I made a fresh install of of windows today on my desktop pc and forgot to backup my itunes library. Thanks to Match, I only thought it to be a minor problem. But I have all my music files on my desktop (not in the itunes media folder) and prefer to use it instead of downloading everything again. But when I add my music, iTunes recognizes 20.000 new song instead of just updating the location of the files.

Long story short: Basically I just need something to tell iTunes the location of my files. I thought your script could merge the play counts etc. from the cloud files with my local files. But the script doesn't detect duplicates:

(see screenhot)

Any ideas or suggestions?

thanks in advance, empi2k

As it stands I'm pretty sure the current version of the script ignores cloud copies but I would need to double check. Apple haven't updated the iTunes script interface since 2009 so working with cloud items is a bit hit and miss.

Can I check what you do and don't have, and have done so far?

You have all of the media, but it was stored on the desktop which you had backed up?

You don't have your original iTunes Library.itl file, but when you signed into to iTunes with your Apple ID you content was shown in the cloud due to iTunes Match?

You've imported the contents of your desktop folders into the library which is now trying to reconcile that with iTunes Match?

I don't have iTunes Match, but my limited experience testing iCloud Music Library suggests that iTunes should attempt to "match up" local files with the cloud items effectively deduping the collection. Whether it does the right thing with ratings, play counts, playlist membership etc. is anyone's guess.

tt2

This is very helpful many thanks - just one question: when you see all the Duplicates after selecting show Duplicates in the menu, does this mean if you select the Duplicates there is still one original left of the same kind?

This may seem obvious but i just deleted 4 duplicates and then looking at 'Show All Files' I couldn't find a single copy of the files I just trashed?

i.e. if you have 4 Duplicates should you only select and Trash 3 of them?

Thanks for your patience

Yes, show duplicates shows all matching files, so you need to keep one of them. This is my standard post on the topic.

Duplicates in iTunes are usually the result of reimporting content located outside of the media folder when your settings allow for imported songs to be copied into the media folder. iTunes doesn't keep a record of the external paths, so if you add the same folder twice you get two copies.

Apple's official advice on duplicates is here as given above: Find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library. It is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls such as lost ratings and playlist membership, or that sometimes the same file can be represented by multiple entries in the library and that deleting one and recycling the file will break any others.

 

Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates as this is normally a more useful selection. You need to manually select all but one of each group to remove. Sorting the list by Date Added may make it easier to select the appropriate tracks, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created.  If you have multiple entries in iTunes connected to the same file on the hard drive then don't send to the recycle bin.

 

Use my DeDuper script (Windows only) if you're not sure, don't want to do it by hand, or want to preserve ratings, play counts and playlist membership. See this thread (this thread) for background, this post for detailed instructions, and please take note of the warning to backup your library before deduping.

(If you don't see the menu bar press ALT to show it temporarily or CTRL+B to keep it displayed.)

 

The most recent version of the script can tidy dead links as long as there is at least one live duplicate to merge stats and playlist membership to, and should cope sensibly when the same file has been added via multiple paths.

tt2

Thanks again! You have answered my question - in fact since I put the post up here I have been going painstakingly through my iTunes and selecting and deleting duplicates leaving 1 of the originals.

Often there are up to 3/4 exact duplicates.

It would be great if there was a script or key combination which added one more criterion: 'Show Exact Duplicates and Delete All but One of them'

musicspirit wrote:

 

It would be great if there was a script or key combination which added one more criterion: 'Show Exact Duplicates and Delete All but One of them'

That's just what my free Windows script does. For Mac there is Dupin or Dupin Lite from Doug's Scripts.

tt2