Suavecito69

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

I would like to get help deleting duplicated songs, I do not know how they got their in the first place.

Windows 7

Posted on Aug 28, 2011 10:29 AM

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

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  • by Christoc,

    Christoc Christoc Feb 10, 2013 7:45 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 10, 2013 7:45 AM in response to turingtest2

    Hi

    I have run the SyncToy. 5394 Successful, 70 failed (create folder) - i have had to cancel the process after this as i have insufficient space for the back up, i need to go get my external hard drive...

     

    what is the impact of accepting this, running the dedupe? potential loss of 70 folders?

     

    truth be told, i would rather lose a gret deal of the songs on itune as i can reinstall from CD - rather than have 100s of dupes! i need to have a clear out of all the songs at some point anyway.

     

    thanks

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 10, 2013 7:58 AM in response to Christoc
    Level 10 (87,858 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 10, 2013 7:58 AM in response to Christoc

    If your iTunes library has dupes where the same file has been added from two separate paths the current version of my script won't know better and will treat them as physical dupes. It will clean one, sending to the trash, at which point the entry for the other becomes broken. As long as the files are on local drives (or you have a backup) it isn't too much of a problem since you can restore from trash or backup. When it would cause real problems would be if the files were stored on a network share in which case deleted files are not put in the trash but permanently erased.

     

    I mention this because someone found out the hard way.

     

    tt2

  • by Christoc,

    Christoc Christoc Feb 10, 2013 8:22 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 10, 2013 8:22 AM in response to turingtest2

    thanks. i now have my ext hd so should be able to rerun with sufficient space, even though i assume ill have 70 folder create fails again... im prepared to live with any losses, if i need to reload some music then so be it - i just hate having dupes!

     

    however, as per my last post, i was unable to complete back up... the synctoy completed - with the 70 fails, and then nero loaded and asked for a location, i did not have one with sufficient space, so i ended nero and went to get my ext hd which my friend had. ive restarted my laptop expeting to have to rerun the synctoy - as i had not completed it i expected to start from the beginning, however i notice from my drive that it must have done some copied because it has increased in size dramatically and has just a few GB remaining..

     

    what do i need to do, complete, if so how do i do this? or restore my laptop to a few hrs ago to undo?

     

    thanks!

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 10, 2013 8:38 AM in response to Christoc
    Level 10 (87,858 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 10, 2013 8:38 AM in response to Christoc

    What did you do with SyncToy the first time around?  Did you backup to another folder within the same drive? If so delete the folder pair you created within SyncToy, delete the destination folder that has the copies (not the originals!), then backup again to the external drive. Once you have a backup go ahead and dedupe the library. Once you've tested your cleaned library and are happy that nothing is broken you update the backup with the changes by running SyncToy again. Use preview so you see how many files are going to be updated or deleted.

     

    tt2

  • by Christoc,

    Christoc Christoc Feb 10, 2013 8:59 AM in response to Christoc
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 10, 2013 8:59 AM in response to Christoc

    I cant see your last post on this thread to reply to..

     

    What did you do with SyncToy the first time around?  I followed the instructions and got to point of backup.

     

    Did you backup to another folder within the same drive?  yes. ok deleted both and will attempt again once connected ext HD.

     

    I will probably have the same roblem with 70 created folder fails - what shall i do about that?

     

    thanks for your support.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 10, 2013 9:07 AM in response to Christoc
    Level 10 (87,858 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 10, 2013 9:07 AM in response to Christoc

    It depends why the folder creates failed. If there is an existing folder then it can't be created. SyncToy ought to know which folders it has created and not try to create the same folder twice, but having some experience with writing programs I know that things are never quite as easy as you expect them to be.

     

    tt2

  • by Christoc,

    Christoc Christoc Feb 10, 2013 9:47 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 10, 2013 9:47 AM in response to turingtest2

    no problems creating folders with the ext HD...

     

    i have run the exactduplicates (as on v11) - it has created a play list called "exact duplicates" - How do i now delete the duplicates and keep the original?

     

    im not sure what phase it is at...

     

    The script runs in four phases, the first identifies logical duplicates, multiple references to the same physical files, the second identifies distinct files with the same metadata and file size (physical duplicates), the third identifies files of different size with the same metadata (alternate duplicates). The final pass automatically removes all duplicates or optionally removes selected files from the different classes of duplicates with the physically duplicated files being placed in the Recycle Bin just in case you find you want to restore them later.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 10, 2013 9:59 AM in response to Christoc
    Level 10 (87,858 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 10, 2013 9:59 AM in response to Christoc

    Ah, the ExactDuplictes script was written for the first build of iTunes 11 which forgot to include a Show Duplicates feature. This is now found by holding Shift and using View > Display Exact Duplicate Items. DeDuper is the script you want to run.

     

    tt2

  • by Christoc,

    Christoc Christoc Feb 10, 2013 10:23 AM in response to Christoc
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 10, 2013 10:23 AM in response to Christoc

    Im afraid it hasnt worked, it appears to have deleted many songs that were not duplicates...

     

    How do i use synctoy to restore?

     

    thanks

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 10, 2013 10:45 AM in response to Christoc
    Level 10 (87,858 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 10, 2013 10:45 AM in response to Christoc

    The deleted files should be in your recycle bin. Sort on Date Deleted and only restore those deleted in the right time frame. If that doesn't work 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.

     

    tt2

  • by Christoc,

    Christoc Christoc Feb 10, 2013 11:09 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 10, 2013 11:09 AM in response to turingtest2

    hmmm im afraid there are only about 8 i tunes in my recycle bin...

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 10, 2013 12:28 PM in response to Christoc
    Level 10 (87,858 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 10, 2013 12:28 PM in response to Christoc

    Christoc wrote:

     

    hmmm im afraid there are only about 8 i tunes in my recycle bin...

     

    Did you mean songs? Did you backup all the files from your media folders? Did you try the second approach using SyncToy to restore the files?

     

    tt2

  • by Christoc,

    Christoc Christoc Feb 11, 2013 4:35 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 11, 2013 4:35 AM in response to turingtest2

    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

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 11, 2013 9:04 AM in response to Christoc
    Level 10 (87,858 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 11, 2013 9:04 AM in response to Christoc

    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

  • by Christoc,

    Christoc Christoc Feb 11, 2013 10:29 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 11, 2013 10:29 AM in response to turingtest2

    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?

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