Why is iTunes duplicating my songs?

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Level 1

9 points

Why is iTunes duplicating my songs?

V 12.1.0.50

Ever since I've upgraded to a new MacBook Pro, iTines has started to duplicate my music. I'll use Tune Sweeper to get all the duplicates removed, and wallah, as I'm looking at my iTunes list, the music starts to duplicate right in front of my eyes. Every song has been doubled-up. I don't get it! I just checked again as I'm composing this, and now they're all tripled-up. This is frustrating!

Does anybody know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks for the help in advance.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 31, 2015 5:12 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

timothy62 Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 2, 2015 3:14 PM in response to timothy62

Got ahold of Apple iTunes support. They were able to diagnose the problem. Turns out I had a couple corrupted operating files it iTunes. Way to go Apple support!

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2016 11:51 AM in response to timothy62

Quick iTunes sweeper question if you know the answer.

Thanks to some well intentioned but horrible advise from an Apple support person my iTunes library went from 19,000 songs to 53,000 songs as there are now 2, 3 or 4 copies of every song in my library. For a given song, say Let it be.m4p there is now Let it be 2m4p, Let it be3.m4p. You get the idea. DO you if iTunes sweeper can search for the shortest text string for a given set of duplicates and then simply delete all the rest?

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Answer 3

timothy62 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 21, 2016 10:45 AM in response to Robert Rabner

I had exactly the same thing happen to my library. iTunes Sweeper did not work for me. Every time I closed down and then opened iTunes again, it would duplicate every track. Removing all the duplicates took hours upon hours to complete, but then they would duplicate again after closing down and restarting iTunes. BRUTAL! The problem was way out of my expertise. I was able to connect to Apple Support with an iTunes specialist who was able to help me locate and dispose of some corrupted files in the iTunes software. I think this happened when I bought a new Mac and transferred my library. It's been working great ever since.

My advise to you is to contact an iTunes specialist with apple support. It was very complicated. The sweeper program was totally insufficient for the problem.

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