finding duplicate files that are not linked to active folders

I'm not sure what you mean by "linked to active folders". Do you mean that you have files in your folders that are not linked to iTunes, or entries in your library that are not linked to files?

iTunes may create duplicates if the same content is repeatedly added from outside the media folder when it is set to make copies of anything that is added to the library, or is added from an external drive that hosts the media folder that was offline when iTunes was launched.

Apple's official advice on duplicates is here: Find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library. It is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls such as lost ratings and playlist membership, or that sometimes the same file can be represented by multiple entries in the library and that deleting one and recycling the file will break any others.

Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates as this is normally a more useful selection. You need to manually select all but one of each group to remove. Sorting the list by Date Added may make it easier to select the appropriate tracks, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created. If you have multiple entries in iTunes connected to the same file on the hard drive then don't send to the recycle bin.

Use my DeDuper script (Windows only) if you're not sure, don't want to do it by hand, or want to preserve ratings, play counts and playlist membership. See this thread for background, this post for detailed instructions, 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.)

The most recent version of the script can tidy dead links as long as there is at least one live duplicate to merge stats and playlist membership to, and should cope sensibly when the same file has been added via multiple paths.

In its current form the script only processes files that are added to the library. If you have orphaned files in the media folder these could be added to the library before you start deduping.

tt2

Thanks for the clarification. The script should work for your problem.

The most recent version of the script can tidy dead links as long as there is at least one live duplicate to merge stats and playlist membership to, and should cope sensibly when the same file has been added via multiple paths.

tt2

Use my DeDuper script (Windows only) if you're not sure...

tt2

If you hold down the shift key before you click View you should see the text Show Exact Duplicate Items, however an alternative method is to show duplicates and then use the Same Album button.

tt2

The bad ones. Here are some alternate approaches if all the duplicates that need to be eliminated are broken entries and you're not interested in the features of my script that merge play counts, playlist membership, etc.

Lost & Found Playlists

Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist. Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist. They can be selected with Ctrl+A and then deleted with Shift+Delete.

Or use iTunes Folder Watch and enable its option to check for dead tracks on startup.

tt2

You're welcome. 🙂

See also Make a split library portable for advice on putting your whole library in the one place and Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for backup advice so you'll never need to go through this sort of clean up again.

tt2