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Q: why are there duplicates in itunes

How do I prevent music from being duplicated in my i Tunes library

Posted on May 24, 2016 1:37 PM

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Q: why are there duplicates in itunes

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  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 24, 2016 7:31 PM in response to LearnEveryDay
    Level 10 (85,368 points)
    iPod
    May 24, 2016 7:31 PM in response to LearnEveryDay

    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 View > Show Duplicate Items (pre iTunes 12.4) or File > Library > Show Duplicate Items (post iTunes 12.4) and then click Same Album to display exact 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 on the script, 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.



    tt2

  • by w0rdgirl,

    w0rdgirl w0rdgirl May 25, 2016 8:16 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    May 25, 2016 8:16 AM in response to turingtest2

    turingtest2, my duplicates are all in the exact same location, exact same album, exact same dates.  The only difference between the songs are the file extensions: one is .m4a and the duplicate is .m4p

     

    Do you recommend your DeDuper script to remove the .m4p files?  There are currently 4534 songs in my iTunes and I am really hoping I won't have to manually take out the .m4p files.

    Thank you in advance.

  • by hhgttg27,

    hhgttg27 hhgttg27 May 25, 2016 8:25 AM in response to w0rdgirl
    Level 5 (5,407 points)
    iTunes
    May 25, 2016 8:25 AM in response to w0rdgirl

    Create a Smart Playlist with the following criteria:

     

    • Playlist is Music
    • Kind is Protected AAC audio file

     

    This should select all the m4p files and exclude the m4a's.  Once you've verified that this is the case, select all songs in this playlist then press SHIFT and DELETE - you'll be prompted to confirm that you want to remove the songs from your library and delete the files from your media folders.  As with any operation of this type, its a good idea to make a backup of your library first so that you can recover from any unanticipated results.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 25, 2016 9:24 AM in response to w0rdgirl
    Level 10 (85,368 points)
    iPod
    May 25, 2016 9:24 AM in response to w0rdgirl

    The script should work fine, though in this case the method above is another way to achieve the same ends. The difference would be that the script would add up the plays and, and preserve playlist membership. I take it you've used iTunes Match to download new DRM free versions of your old purchases.

     

    tt2