Why is the itunes store downloading multiple copies of almost everything i buy?

Hi there. It seems iTunes can get confused from time to time and will show separate iCloud links for purchases that have already been downloaded to your library. In general all you need to do to resolve this is sign out of your Apple ID from the iTunes Account menu, then sign back in again. In rare cases there can be some purchases that will continue to show after you have done this (in my case I can think of Digital Booklets where I've moved them from the path where iTunes would normally place them) in which case you can hide the purchase to make the cloud version go away. See Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Apple Support for details on how to do this.

tt2

I've also seen where if I edit the tag of an iTunes purchase (for example, to remove "(feat. xyz)" from the song title) I will see my local (edited) copy and a cloud version of the un-edited original.

Presumably, any edits to the tag of a purchased song will do this, so I get around this not by setting iTunes to only show downloaded music:

• For a general Song view of the entire library, select View/ Only Downloaded Music (to see this, you have to have a song in your library selected first).
• For smart playlists, add the criteria "Location -- Is -- On this computer".

This doesn't explain why the OP is seeing duplicates, but it may help if signing out/in of the account doesn't resolve the problem.

The "cloud thingy" means that it is a purchased item that is not downloaded, so it's not taking up any disk space since that indicates that the item in question is in iTunes in the Cloud.

Maybe you could start from the beginning - tell us what your set up is - for example, are you using Apple Music?

Where are you seeing these "multiple copies" of things? What views are you looking at?

What is the issue with playing an album?

What version of iTunes are you running?

What OS are you running on your Mac? (11.4.1 is an iOS version not a Mac version).

We need a clear picture of what it is you are seeing and experiencing before we can attempt to help. Screenshots would also be helpful if you could provide them.

Best,

GB

OK, so what I'm seeing here is a Smart Playlist. Can you tell me what your edits for the playlist are? Nothing is downloaded twice. It is showing the same track number as you can see - one with a cloud, one without.

GB

Well, it does appear as though something is amiss since your music cannot be both in iCloud and downloaded to your computer at the same time.

However, an easy fix for removing any visible iCloud items would be to go to View at the top of the iTunes screen, then tap on View>Show View Options>and uncheck the iCloud Downloaded box.

In the meantime, I'll send out a Bat Call to our resident iTunes expert to see if he can explain why your music is showing both in and not in iCloud.

Best,

GB

Use File > Library > Show Duplicate Items > Same Album. Sort by Date Added or perhaps Date Modified, so that there is a clear contiguous set you can discard. If you cannot make two clear groups then at least selecting alternate tracks from the list isn't too hard. Don't hide from the cloud when deleting if you can help it at this stage.

tt2

Show Duplicates in iTunes should work as it is based on the metadata, not the filename. The Same Album feature narrows it down further and excludes different versions of the same song by the same artist unless they are also from the same album with the same track number.

tt2

Good points. 🙂

tt2