iTunes 12.2 keeps duplicating playlists. How do I make it stop?

I suggest you sign out of iTunes Match and/or iCloud Music Library before attempting to clean up. Then Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy before turning those features back on. That way it will be easier to restore a tidy version of the library if the problem occurs again.

tt2

I'm not sure how you can stop it from happening again, but you can delete the duplicate playlist on your device, then sync your device on iTunes again.

I might have found the problem. My iTunes kept making duplicate playlists by adding "1" at the end. I realized playlist A had fewer songs than A1 and the discrepancy was songs iTunes would not match for some reason. It seems iTunes Match makes a duplicate "online" playlist when it can't match all the songs in a given playlist.

I filtered out the songs iTunes wouldn't accept by using smart playlists (comparing A1 to A), deleted and re-downloaded them. I copied the songs from A1 to A, adding only the ones not already in A and then deleted playlist A1. Just make sure you're not online, or iTunes may keep updating your recently deleted playlists again. A bad bug and lots of work.

I rolled back my iTunes library to the last one before upgrading to 12.2. This has helped fix some of the nonsense. Once things get fixed a bit, I'll "upgrade" as it were.

Same problem here. After upgrading to ITunes 12.2 for Windows and iOS 8.4 I'm noticing after I do a sync I get duplicate playlists. The more I update a playlist the more dupes I have of that playlist. This is so annoying!

I'm having the same problem as well. Everytime I try to use the cloud my playlists are duplicated. I honestly thought I had done something wrong and tried it twice. The second time I tried to use the cloud I ended up with my playlists being duplicated five times. Does anyone know how to setup Apple Music properly? I'm trying to access my music library from my work computer. I would have thought the people at Apple would have figured out the use cases but instead they created a bloated mess that simply doesn't work. I can't see using this service after the free trial period based on what I've seen so far.

Same issue here but I can't see a resolution yet anywhere. I only change my playlists on my MacBook but everytime I synch my phone it duplicates which ever one I changed on the computer. It's extremely frustrating. I don't have Apple Music and I'm not using iCloud. I'm just a humble user with a computer and a phone and I want one playlist called Gym. Not Gym1, Gym2 and whatever else Apple decides to call it. This new change has been horrendous and I'm considering throwing my Mac into the pool

I too have this issue which started recently and I'd not upgraded any IOS?

Is APPLE listening? Do they realize that "syncing" means to intelligently recognize anomalies and ask the user which one to accept?????

At the very least it could highlight the differences???

Sigh.

I'm also getting this on Retina iMac running 10.10.4 and iPhone 5s running 8.4.1

I have turned off iCloud, iTunes Match, Apple Music and every other faulty cloud based thing I can think of but every time I resync with iTunes on the Mac I get another duplicated playlist.

I've deleted my further thoughts on this as they won't get past the 'editors'.

I have the same problem except....I'M NOT IN THE CLOUD!!! I have iCloud Music Library turned OFF. Life was much simpler and much less stressful before iTunes became the fantastically bloated, buggy behemoth that it is today.

I had just performed a sync to restore my meticulously tagged playlists to my iPhone. The songs in these playlists had their tags deleted somehow during a previous attempt to join the highly-touted iCloud Music Library (btw, if you're thinking about it...DON'T. The cloud remains Apple's biggest weakness). After turning the cloud off and painstakingly re-tagging my files, I performed a relatively trouble-free sync to my iPhone. Later, I decided to add a few more songs to various playlists and after THAT sync, these playlists became duplicated with the dreaded "1" added to the title. The "1" playlists are also off in number from the original playlists by a few songs; can't figure out why that is or why the new playlist was generated to being with.

I have multiple duplicate copies of personal playlists that I have created. I used to have 1. Now I have (playlist name) 1, 2, 3, 4. Now it doesn't take up anymore space. It just creates a replica of the same playlist. The other weirdness is that I have multiple copies of a playlist and they have different quantities of songs. My correct playlist has 2215 songs. Other versions have 749 songs 2031 songs, etc. The weirdness seems to be that there is no rhyme nor reason to these playlists just appearing from nowhere. *UGH* How do I stop the madness??!! Don't sit in a cube in Palo Alto and attempt to control my iTunes libraries wherever I am in the world. My songs are all purchased and from CDs so I am not sure why these playlists keep appearing randomly...It's weird!!!

Oh yes...almost forgot...a few of these playlists have a cloud made out of broken lines and a slanted line through it...I'm not sure what status that is showing but I don't need 7 playlists, just my original personal playlist. That's all. Thanks to anyone that can help stop this madness and then stop it from reoccurring. Many thanks and appreciation for reading.

iTunes Version: 12.3.1.23

Apple OSX Version: 10.11.1

It’s happening in the purchased items sync phase when I connect my iPhone to my iTunes (step 4 of 8).

I did several things can’t guarantee what but two things worked on two different repeating duplicate files:

First: Make sure you have your files backed up using Time Machine on your Mac. Then make sure you have previously backed up a copy of your Device under iTunes - Preferences- Device while the phone is plugged in.

Went to iTunes preferences with -parental-turn iTunes Store to unclick- go to store-and unclick everything in all check boxes-OK

go to sharing, unclick everything there.OK

Go to Devices and clicked Prevent all iPods etc.. from syncing automatically. OK

Go to menu bar- Store-Turn iTunes Match and Genius OFF.

Turned off Wifi on Macbook.

In settings, turned off iCloud on my iPhone

In settings, turned off Find my phone under iCloud in Settings.

Plugged in iPhone to laptop.

When your device shows up in side bar click on it. go to Summary-Options-unclick Sync over WiFi-

click Manually manage music and videos

in your iTunes,

Take your original file (A) and your duplicate (A1)and drag all songs from the A1 into A. Hit Skip when prompted, Then delete file A1. Rename the file into something totally new. (for now)

Don’t worry all these are backed up in iTunes.

Go to Music up top and while, unclick your A1 files , do a manual Sync.

On the sidebar of iTunes click iPhone under ‘Devices’ Click arrow to open up a sub menu of whats on your device. See if there’s any duplicate files there. INCLUDING the original. Try to right click on the playlist under iPhone and duplicate playlists by right clicking. It either said Delete option for me or it said Export only. Depending on where I was at the beginning, during or after the manual sync did it open the Delete option for me. This was key. Kept trying it. Kept deleting all playlists that showed up in both side bars during manual sync on Device playlist opened and in my iTunes play list during sync. The new playlist was Renamed so don’t delete that. Eventually after a few manual syncs, the files started disappearing. So when they are all gone, go to iTunes preferences- Devices, click on your phone and Delete Backups. this stops the tainted backup from repeating. Make sure Wifi is off. Now eject your iPhone and plug back in, Click on iPhone on left side of iTunes and go to Summary. Click Back up now. Check and make sure theres no duplicates in both iTunes or in your iPhone’s playlists by clicking the arrow next to iPhone.

After back up, you should be in the clear to reopen iTunes store, turn on Wifi, and all your regular settings. But I’d still stay away from Clouds and iTunes Match but that’s just me. After you are free to go back to your regular settings, you can keep or rename your Renamed file to the same or not. Good luck. May not work for everyone but it worked for me. I’m running 10.6.8 on a MacBook Pro and iTunes 11.4. Simpler times before Apple ruined iTunes!

I am up to over 8,451 duplicates on at least one playlist. I am not kidding. It has turned iTunes syncing into a complete vegetable.

Does anyone know how to delete 8400 duplicates of a genius playlist? iTunes only lets me delete one at a time! 😟

Windows or Mac? What is the name of the list? Do all copies have exactly the same name? Are they all at the top level, not in a folder? Do you have Apple Music or iTunes Match?

tt2