how to delete duplicated songs all at one time?

Sorry I wasn't clear enough, can I see the filenames in Windows/File Explorer please? I'm assuming that mostly I will be able to deduce the metadata from the filenames. I can then create matching dummy entries in a test library and explore why the script isn't detecting the tracks.

tt2

Brilliant. Now in one of those images could you point out some of the tracks that FindTracks is failing to pick up, or mark out the successes, whichever is easier. I'm interested in the failures at this point.

tt2

Hmm, download a fresh copy of the script. I made a minor change two days ago while troubleshooting a different issue, but it might solve the problem for you too. So far I've picked up all of the first dozen test tracks I've made to match your examples.

tt2

Aha, I thought we were still trying to repair the broken links!

I'm thinking what you want is a DeDuper that ignores Album, Disc & Track number? Danger with that is that if you have both live and studio versions that aren't distinguished by track names then you'll throw out one at random. It would take a little thinking about and testing, but I could probably shoehorn that in as an option.

In fact, dirty and untested, simply change these 6 lines in DeDuper (currently starting at line 246):

Case 2 ' Physical dupes, same details and size

If L<>"" Then Key=LCase(.Artist & "\" & .Album & "\" & DN & "." & .TrackNumber & " " & .Name & "=" & .Size)

Case 3 ' Alternate dupes, same details but different size

If L<>"" Then Key=LCase(.Artist & "\" & .Album & "\" & DN & "." & .TrackNumber & " " & .Name)

Case 4 ' Missing dupes, same details but file missing

If L="" Then Key=LCase(.Artist & "\" & .Album & "\" & DN & "." & .TrackNumber & " " & .Name) Else Key=""

for these:

Case 2 ' Physical dupes, same details and size

If L<>"" Then Key=LCase(.Artist & "\" & .Name & "=" & .Size)

Case 3 ' Alternate dupes, same details but different size

If L<>"" Then Key=LCase(.Artist & "\" & .Name)

Case 4 ' Missing dupes, same details but file missing

If L="" Then Key=LCase(.Artist & "\" & .Name) Else Key=""

And it should do what you want.

I guess you'll also want a more liberal pattern matching system for the SyncStats script as well. 😉

tt2

Yes! I was trying to repair broken links.

But then, when I wasn't able to repair all of them, I added the songs that weren't repaired and tried to merge them with DeDuper (which worked for some). And I have very few duplicates of songs. Usually picked which one I liked most.

Yeah, the SyncStats, I plan to use when I get this first broken links part complete. I haven't tried it yet. The play counts on my iPod are hundreds more, for some reason.

I think, I used to save Playlists, and those playlists contained play counts. When iTunes deleted or corrupted my playlists in updates, I think iTunes reset the playcounts to the "music" counts on this computer.

Should I try Find Tracks again (is that the one that is a new version?) and then run DeDuper again?

Try a fresh download of FindTracks first. If you've only got one remaining physical file track from two originals (one currently lost and one found) then iTunes should show the same metadata for both once things are reconnected, and the unaltered DeDuper will then behave as it is meant to.

tt2

The fuzzy matching scheme obviously works better when there aren't so many tracks all lumped into the same folder, and with so many sharing the same starting characters, nevertheless there are some surprises there. 😮😕

Looking at it there will be a fuzzy match from the Name to the Artist. I'm sure I can find a way to tweak the script to prevent those. See Soundex for the rule scheme. Cream & Cryin' both get a soundex code of C650.

tt2

I've added another tweak to FindTracks so that it uses two soundex patterns rather than one when the search string contains " - ". Hopefully this won't negatively impact the behaviour elsewhere (I haven't had time to test or consider it deeply enough) but it should prevent the song name is similar to the (completely unrelated!) artist name matches that you've been seeing. Grab a fresh download and see if it has helped.

tt2

I take it that is the newer version of the FindTracks script? I've probably got to force it to skip some of the other search patterns that it is using for your library. Hopefully I can look at it again sometime tomorrow. SyncStats is going to need a tweak if you hope to match tracks on the device that might have valid track no. or album data with those in the library that don't (or vice versa).

tt2

Apologies for not getting back to you sooner. Been busy with Real Life™. Still haven't got around to tweaking FindTracks further as I think that will need more of a hack, but for SyncStats and ImportDevicePlaylists you should be able to go in and edit this line:

Signature=LCase(.Artist & "\" & .Album & "\" & .DiscNumber & "." & .TrackNumber & " " & .Name)

in a function called Signature and replace it with something like:

Signature=LCase(.Artist & "\" & .Name)

to reflect the properties that you still have in your files after you've edited them. Differences in album, disc number and track number will be ignored but as long as a track with matching artist and song name exists it will be treated as a match.

tt2

My PC died and I replaced it with a MacBook. I lost iTunes but not my music files as most were stored on external drives. I can import them to a new iTunes library but, want to avoid duplicates. The trouble is that the file names are in disarray. For example, sometimes "The Beatles" are just "Beatles" and album names may be Anthology Disc 1 or Disc One. Some of the titles include a track number, sometimes there is no album name or it's "Unknown Album". I have about 340GB of music files mostly ripped from CDs, a few purchased, and a few recorded live. What is the best way to get the library reconstructed with the fewest duplicates or errors?

I looked at the 9000 duplicate songs in my Itunes folder and found a common thread that I am using to get the duplicates out somewhat quickly. The duplicate filename ends with either a space then 1.mp3 , 2.mp3 , 1.m4a and 2.m4a. I began by using a program called SearchMyFiles to search my Itunes music folder for filenames that ended with each of these file endings using wildcard options. I then selected the results of the individual searches and moved them out of the Itunes folder into a new folder called duplicate songs on a spare hard drive . Afterwards, I re scanned the Itunes folder for duplicates and found it to be clear. You might also check for duplicate album cover Jpegs and other files using the same methods.

Good luck

BH

I looked at the 9000 duplicate songs in my Itunes folder and found a common thread that I am using to get the duplicates out somewhat quickly. The duplicate filename ends with either a space then 1.mp3 , 2.mp3 , 1.m4a and 2.m4a. I began by using a program called SearchMyFiles to search my Itunes music folder for filenames that ended with each of these file endings using wildcard options. I then selected the results of the individual searches and moved them out of the Itunes folder into a new folder called duplicate songs on a spare hard drive . Afterwards, I re scanned the Itunes folder for duplicates and found it to be clear. You might also check for duplicate album cover Jpegs and other files using the same methods.

Good luck

BH

I just used the DeDup script on nearly 6000 duplicate files. It worked like a charm. And I don't know a thing about "scripts." I just followed the directions and let the DeDup script do it's thing. It saved me hours, or days, trying to manually delete all those duplicates. I highly recommend the DeDuper.vbs script! THANK YOU!

Turing, I am having the following error when using DeDuper. Do you have any ideas of solutions to this? Thanks in advance.