SureniWonder

Q: deleting the correct song version

my itunes is on a PC.  I recently found that I had two or three copies of a song, numerous songs.  when i go to delete duplicates i get a message when i try to play the remaining copy that it cannot be found.  how do i delete duplicates without deleting the actual song?

dell laptop, Windows 2000

Posted on May 16, 2016 7:31 PM

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Q: deleting the correct song version

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  • by alex_h1,

    alex_h1 alex_h1 May 18, 2016 6:42 AM in response to SureniWonder
    Community Specialists
    May 18, 2016 6:42 AM in response to SureniWonder

    Hi SureniWonder,

     

    I understand that you are seeing a few duplicates of your songs on your iTunes library, and would like to pare down the duplicates a bit. I have some information for you that will help you accomplish this. First, here is an Apple Support article about a built-in feature of iTunes that will help you address duplicates:

     

    Find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library - Apple Support

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201812

     

    You may also find further help in this Apple Support Communities thread, which addresses a user who is experiencing similar issues to your own:

     

    How can I delete 11,000 duplicate songs? | Apple Support Communities

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/29774459#29774459

     

    If you happen to decide to use a third-party app to help you address this situation, you may find the information in this user tip helpful as well:

     

    Removing Duplicates - Manual Labor or Dedicated... | Apple Support Communities

    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-9461

     

    Hope this information helps you address your iTunes duplicates. Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 18, 2016 10:10 AM in response to SureniWonder
    Level 10 (85,076 points)
    iTunes
    May 18, 2016 10:10 AM in response to SureniWonder

    Alex has linked to an earlier copy of my post below but I'll reprint so it here is in this thread to refer to, and to let you know I'm on hand if you have any follow up questions about it.





    iTunes may create duplicates if the same content is repeatedly added from outside the media folder when it is set to make copies of anything that is added to the library, or is added from an external drive that hosts the media folder that was offline when iTunes was launched.

     

     

     

    Apple's official advice on duplicates is here: 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 View > Show Duplicate Items (pre iTunes 12.4) or File > Library > Show Duplicate Items (post 12.4) and then click Same Album to display exact 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 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