how to delete duplicated songs all at one time?

hi, yes, sorry songs.

i backed up all itunes songs using synctoy...

i have not yet attempted to restore... - can you advise how to do so...

unless we can identify why it hasnt worked and i can dedupe properly... or restore and try again?

thanks

As I suggested earlier... Delete the current SyncToy pair (otherwise it will want to replicate the deletions), then set it up again. This time a preview should show that it is going to copy the missing files back. Only proceed if the bulk of operations are new copies with a few overwrites representing the updated library files.

I'm wondering now however if you may have media in other locations which you haven't considered and thus haven't backed up properly. 😕

tt2

im not clear what i neded to do..

so, ive got the tunes backed up on my ext hd..

you are saying "delete folder pair" and then "create new folder pair" - and then i preview to see if the synctoy is going to find all the tunes on my ext hd?

when i create new folder pair does the left folder remain as my core itunes folder and right stay as ext hd folder?

Yes, that it... With luck it should restore anything deleted in error. You need to delete and then recreate the folder pair to avoid SyncToy simply replicating the deletions. You should still use the same order for left and right and you need to use the Sync action. Check the preview before you let it run to make sure you are happy with what it is about to do.

tt2

ok, it has listed 13 items.

4 "overwrite" sentinel, ituneslibraryextras, itunes music library, itunes library.

then 9 "new" - which are actualy the 4 songs in the recyle bin...

it found 5640 files that did not require action

total bytes to copy = 74953498

avoided copying 37291082923 bytes in 5640 files

so.... what does all that mean....? 😉

I guess it means I'm more confused than ever... 😕

How many songs do you think are missing? Are these missing songs no longer in the library, or do they show with an exclamation mark? If they show with an exclamation mark can they be found by searching your hard drive?

tt2

i think there are thousands that are not in the itunes application.

they are no longer in the library.

if i go to the itunes media folder>music on my ext hd it has thousands of folders - so i assume the songs are there somewhere...

I'd normally expect you to have all your media files arranged inside the iTunes Media folder and every media file in that folder connected to your iTunes library. And since you've used SyncToy to clone the iTunes library folder there should also be a complete set of the same content on the external drive. You can always use File > Add Folder to Library > Select iTunes Media folder to make itunes scan the folder for any orphaned files.

How does 5640 files compare with the size of your library? There will be album artwork files so that number should be larger than the number of songs in the music section of your library if the library has been backed up properly.

tt2

No. This is the sort of thing that causes problems. If your active iTunes library is on the C: drive in the usual location of C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes and the media is presumably in C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media then this is the folder you scan for orphaned files, not the backup copy of it.

tt2

File > Add Folder to Library. Choose the iTunes Media folder on the internal drive.

Everything already connected to the library will be ignored. Any other media files not currently connected to the library will be added.

tt2

well it has completed...

there are probably circa 40 songs with warnings - meaning the "original file could not be found" - im not overly fussed about that.

is there any way to count the number of songs? i recall on last version of itunes it was realy simple - i see no way of identifying how many songs there are.

so, now ive reloaded the tunes, do i risk the dedupe again? !

You can turn on the status bar with CTRL /

I didn't think of it earlier but you should probably use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to make sure that everything that iTunes is connected to is inside the iTunes Media folder and will therefore be included in your SyncToy backup.

To check for certain which files are missing you can use this set of lost & found playlists.

Lost & Found Playlists

Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music (use the Songs view) and drag it into the Found playlist (it may take some time to count the tracks that are to be dropped). Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist.

You can either repair the broken links if you have some other source, say your downloads folder, or delete the broken tracks by selecting them in the Lost playlist and pressing Shift Delete.

Best to clear/repair any broken tracks before deduping.

You mention that tracks were "converted" when you added the folder which suggests there are some .wma files lurking in your iTunes folder. Now that you've converted them to some suitable format you should probably search for these and archive them elsewhere so they're not accidentally conveted & duplicated again in future.

tt2

ok

so next steps are

use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files

and then create a found folder, drag everything in...

then create lost folder... how do i select "All the rules Playlist is Musicand Playlist is not Found." - will this come up when i drag to lost folder?

thanks

Excellent - done that.

The drag to 'found' was instant. There are 128 songs, so i can reload any i want.

ok, so q is now.. do i make a second attempt at dedupe!? based on what i've done in the past, does it sounds like i've done something wrong, or the script isn't suitable for my needs?

thanks!

In the Songs view hold down shift and then use the menu options View > Show Exact Duplicate Items. How many are there?

If you see some where there is a working track and an otherwise identical broken track you can delete the broken ones from the list. You should then Display All and Show Exact Duplicates again to refresh the list.

For what remains select one of a pair of duplicates and use Get Info. Note down the exact path from the Summary tab. Now look at its partner and do the same. What are the two paths? If both files are in the same folder and have different names, or both paths are absolutely identical then my script will be OK to run. If the filenames are the same but the paths are different there is a slim chance that the two paths connect to the same folder in some fashion. This is where the current version of my script falls down. You should check a few different pairs to be sure you are clear what the pattern is.

When it comes to running the script you could select one albums worth of duplicates tracks first and process these first. If things behave as expected then you could do a larger selection but you don't have to do everything in one go.

tt2