Duplicate songs in iTunes

If a true duplicate or copy, they are completely separate files on your computer's hard drive. Deleting one would not affect the other.

With Songs selected after selecting Music under Library in the iTunes source list, at the iTunes menu bar go to View and select Show Duplicate Items.

Are the duplicates shown there?

If you have a Mac, select one of the songs that is duplicated and at the iTunes menu bar go to File and select Show in Finder. Repeat for the duplicate.

If iTunes cannot find the remaining song after one is deleted, the remaining song must not be in your iTunes media folder - the remaining song must be stored elsewhere on your computer's hard drive. You can also use Get Info with a song selected and under the Summary tab for the selected song, it will show where on your computer's hard drive the song is stored.

Were all duplicates downloaded from the iTunes Store?

If not, at iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, do you have Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library selected?

Then you should be able to locate the separate files where they are shown to be stored on your computer's hard drive. Can you locate both files on your computer's hard drive for a duplicate?

Does your answer mean both versions were not downloaded from the iTunes Store?

If downloaded from the iTunes Store, you can delete both and redownload the purchased music without having to pay for it again.

Does the same occur regardless which version for a duplicate is deleted? Trying to delete one and the remaining version cannot be found by iTunes, restoring the first one and trying to delete the 2nd next to see if the remaining version can be found by iTunes?

Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items as this is normally a more useful selection. You need to manually select all but one of each group to remove. If you have multiple references to the same files then don't send to the recycle bin. Use my DeDuper script if you don't want to do it by hand. See this thread for background 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)

tt2

I have recently switched to iTunes and now face the prospect of 12000 dubplicat songs. I downloaded the DeDuper but not sure how to get it to work. I get an error message can't find script engine VBScript. This is crazy and makes me wonder why I did not stick with Zune. Apple is supposed to be easier then MAC

You have a problem with the Windows Scripting Host. Use Google to search for the precise error message. It may require that you reregister the scripting engine.

FWIW iTunes. Windows Media Player, Winamp, MediaMonkey et al are all capable of importing duplicates into the library if you go about things in the wrong way for that software. If you only add what isn't already in the library you won't have a problem.

tt2

Ok so How do I make sure it does not keep happening? Do I need to set something in iTunes? Creat a special directory? I think the problem may come from the fact that there are several users on this PC with music files that duplicate parts of the other files. Should I consolidate and delete the other "my music files" first before trying to eliminate the dupicates in iTunes? I can then clear my iPod and start all over. Kind of pain but easier than having most of my ablums with duplicates of every song. I am just surpised Apple has not expected this and given some guidance in iTunes set up to avoid the problem.

Multiple users adds extra problems, particularly if using a common media folder but separate libraries, as changes one user makse can impact another.

There is an option under Edit > Preferences > Advanced labelled Copy files to the iTunes Media folder when adding to library... If this option is enabled, and you add a folder of files stored outside of the media folder to the library, iTunes will make copies of all the files and forget about the originals. If you add some more files to that folder and then add it to the library again you are effectively instucting iTunes to add duplicates to the library.

I find it best to place files I want to add to iTunes into the media folder, then add just those files to iTunes, or use <Media Folder>\Automatically Add to iTunes which lets iTunes add them, and move them as it wishes.

If you consolidate your iTunes library at least you know that everything in your library is stored in the right place and deduping won't affect the other libraries. You can then clean up any media files stored in your profile, but outside your iTunes Media folder, unless they are still shared with others.

tt2

I have itunes on Windows and tried runnig the Deduper script. It removed a small number of the duplicated I have but not all. I still have 3000+ entries and would love to not have to delete them manually. Any ideas what may be preventing me from using Deduper successfully?

What is the count shown when you use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items?

Are all tracks currently connected to the library or do some show with the "missing file" exclamation mark?

Does the script crash out with an error? If so details please.

tt2

ah, that may be it - they all have teh exclamation mark (ie, are missing). any suggestion how to deal with those?

Enable the status bar with CTRL+S and the count of tracks displayed will be shown at the bottom of the screen. There should also be useful numbers in the summary dialog when the script completes a run. If it says something like 3000 tracks were processed of which 1500 were missing that would explain why nothing was deleted. See this recent post for more information.

tt2