Itunes has duplicated my entire library is there a way to restoring it

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

Thanks for the info. I got rolling and was able to dedupe one album. Two questions:

1) As the album was being deduped it asked me for each multiple if I wanted to delete it. Is there a way to avoid this?

2) When I look in my iTunes folder on my external hard drive I still see multiple duplicates of the the track I deduped. How do I get rid of those?

Thank you!

1. Should only happen if you answer no at the first prompt which puts it in track-by-track confirmation mode. This is mainly for testing purposes. If you ascended yes and are still deletions then can you check whether it is the script asking the question or Windows? If Windows it might be, for example, that the source files are marked as read-only or there could be some other permissions problem. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows for details.

2. The script can only manage content that is connected to the library. Depending on how you generated the duplicates in the first place, and any prior attempts at deduping, there may be files in the media folder that iTunes doesn't see. Adding the media folder to the library would fix this, again assuming the permissions are set correctly.

tt2

Thanks for your guidance on this! Something that started as a simple project turned into a good learning experience.

My 2nd item seemed to take care of itself. I went back and looked in my main itunes folder and after running some of the songs there is only one of each.

As for #1, I followed the directions, but still have to allow each song to be deleted. I tried the windows idea. If it's the script is there a way around that? Thanks,

Rob

Can you please post an image of the dialog box that pops up?

tt2

I am saying yes to everything. Not sure what's going on.

See http://www.nextofwindows.com/windows-8-tip-enabledisable-file-delete-confirmatio n-dialog-box/

tt2

Great call, but it's still bringing up the dialog box. Interesting.

Lower or turn off UAC?

tt2

I did double check on this.

I unclick the read-only, click apply, then okay. When reopen the propertied it is rechecked. Might this be the problem?

No, that is normal behaviour. Folders are always treated as read-only. Check the files inside the album folder for the next album you test.

tt2

Ok, what should I look for?

Check to see if the files themselves are clear of the read only flag. I'm sure they will be, but if they are not then perhaps the permission changes are not propagating down. Taking ownership from the top level folder may fix that. Otherwise I'll look to making an edit to the script so there is an option that moves the dupes to an archive folder instead of deleting them. You can then delete all of the dupes in one action in Windows Explorer after checking the library. May take me a day or so.

tt2

So when I opened the next album this is what I see. If I uncheck the box, won't it just recheck it?

You're looking at the folder. Open it and select the files inside, then get their properties.

tt2