! and duplicate songs
I've just been through the whole palaver of transferring my itunes over to my new PC, which all went pretty smoothly. Because I had to do the transfer in 2 loads, I followed the instructions for if you already have stuff on your new itunes. Again, this went OK, except that I know have around 4,000 songs in duplicate, half of which have the ! next to them because they're not in the right place.
Is there any way I can get rid of all these in one go, without having to scroll down all 4,000 tracks manually?
Thanks
Yes, I have a script that will delete all the "!" files. See this post:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3733073#3733073
Similar Messages
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Music found in two separate locations and duplicate songs found
My apologies if this question has been asked before...
Recently one of my playlists "dissapeared." I searched a few forums and tried a few suggestions, but I felt the best resolution was to retrieve the iTunes library files from my backup. This worked fine, but I noticed one of the songs I recently imported was no longer in iTunes, but still could be found within the itunes folder in Finder. I figured this was not a big deal and something must have happened to the library database that caused it to crash. But this promted me to start looking at the folders and files in my iTunes library. First I noticed that I had the same music in two locations:
myHomeFolder>Music>iTunes>iTunes Music>Music and myHomeFolder>Music>iTunes>Music
But I found they were not exatly the same after checking the info of both music folders. I found the music in the iTunes Music>Music folder was about 4 times the size of the other. After viewing the files in the folders of the iTunes Music>Music folder I found there are duplicates of every song in every album in this folder. In some cases there are three copies of the same song.
Note that the same song is found within the same album folder. For instance: within the Billy Joel Glass Houses album I have the following files:
01 You May Be Right 1.mp3
01 You May Be Right 2.mp3
01 You May Be Right.mp3
My first question is why do I have two different locations for my music? Within iTunes I verified the only files in iTunes are in the iTunes Music>Music folder. So I assume I can delete the other folder. But this leads me to my second question - Why do I have two and three duplicates of the same song? And lastly what do I do about it? Should I leave everything as is? Shold I start deleting files? How do I prevent this from happening again?
I am using a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.8.4 and iTunes 11.0.5. I allow iTunes to consolidate my files and reorganize the files...
Thanks.Two things to add to this:
First, one of music folder locations in my previous post is incorrect. It is not "iTunes Music>Music". It is supposed to be "iTunes Media>Music". I cannot figure out how to edit my post.
Second, I see pretty much all of the filenames of the music in iTunes has a 1 or 2 and the end of the filename. See the images. How did this happen, and how do i fix it? -
Hey there,
I have a pretty robust library, and I pride myself on keeping up with the "scene" (lol).
My friends and I often exchange "mixes" ala sendspace, and it's a great way for us to get cued into new music.
However, sometimes a friend will make a mix that has a song in it THAT I ALREADY HAVE.
But since it's an essential part of the "flow" of the mix, it pains me to delete it.
But I HATE duplicates!
Is there any way to create a sort of "alias" in iTunes?
Or, perhaps, is this a use of the "grouping" or "sorting" functions I've somehow managed to avoid up until now?
Also… per the MIX itself, obviously I don't want to change the "Album Name" to "Sarah's Mix!" or something like that. Should I be using the "grouping" or "sorting" functions to denote and separate these mixes?
I don't think I want separate playlists for each.
Thanks in advance!
eIf you create an iTunes playlist for the mix, then yes you can use a single iTunes library entry in multiple playlists.
After you create your next mix, make sure to post the playlist on Zen Running Order. -
Does anyone know of an EASIER way to delete duplicates then holding CTL and clicking?? I'm running ALOT of duplicates here. If there is a way to like just select one of the duplicates for all of them at one time...That would be awesome. Thank you.
Check out Robert Jacobson's scripts at:
http://home.comcast.net/~teridon73/itunesscripts/
There is one to delete duplicates and also one to remove dead tracks - ones iTunes can't find.
It's best to download the EXE version and you chose the script when you run it. -
In my library for some reason itunes duplicated a bunch of songs, do I have to go through my whole libray and delete all the duplicates? or is there a command within Itunes to do it all at once?
To clarify the 'duplicate' issue a bit, one needs to understand the difference between duplicate song references within iTunes and duplicate song files on the PC.
You can sometimes wind up with two (or more) song references in iTunes that point to the same physical file on the PC. In this case, you need to keep only one of the references within iTunes. If you also happen to delete the underlying PC song file, then the remaining reference will show the dreaded '!' of a broken link. Recovering the miss-deleted song can be easy if you haven't emptied the Recycle Bin, or difficult if you have. Also note that when mass deleting files, if the amount is too big for the Bin, the PC will bypass it and permanently delete the files.
Other times, you have two identical (or close) references within iTunes that each point to a unique song file on the PC. In this case, you need to delete both the reference in iTunes and allow iTunes to send the underlying file to the Recycle Bin. If you only delete the reference, you end up with an 'orphan' song file on the PC taking up space. Some less than musically hygienic folks have ended up with GBs of unwanted songs mingled throughout their iTunes folders. There is a novel method to find and remove them....
The take-away from the above is: Make sure you know which type of duplicate issue you have. Check each and every grouping before you delete the reference &/or the file. You can look at the underlying file of each reference through iTunes by using the 'Get Info' and note the path and file it accesses.
Also note that some song references can appear to be duplicates but are really two different song files, as in the case of the same song in AAC format and Lossless format. Unless you have the 'Kind' column showing, or notice the 'size' or 'bit rate' of the files, you may mistake them for true duplicates.
It seems to never be a clear-cut answer when dealing with iTunes....
There is no automated method to delete duplicates as there are several types. You can completely 'Refresh' your Library to remove the duplicates, but you will reset your 'play counts' 'last played' 'date added' and 'ratings' attributes.
Post back if you have any interest in this method.... -
I have Windows XP-Pro SP3, the latest upgrades of Three media players, iTunes being the default player. I keep getting duplicates in playlists, libraries etc., of the same version of song. Everytime i make a change or renew my media to device or SYNC it wants to add duplicates to the computer disk, lists etc. Can you filter out same copies without having to edit each and every song, which in my case is quite large. For instance if you want to convert all mpeg, or mp4-a files to AAC you will end up with duplicates of each file type. Or you sync to an ipod, the library adds to itself---- including copies of songs already in it, if in a different file version.
Your refer to:
" if you want to convert all mpeg, or mp4-a files to AAC "
This will always duplicate files within iTunes. I need to ask why you're doing this conversion - all formats are compatible with iTunes, and conversion between mp3 and AAC will always involve some loss of quality. -
I have 2 accounts in my family and would like to purchase some of the same songs for both accounts, however when I try to purchase a duplicate song from the second account the song says play instead of purchase. How can I get some of the same songs?
Drrhythm2 wrote:
What's the best solution for this? I
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from her old compouter to /Music/ in her account on this new computer. -
I want to delete my duplicate songs, but I have thousands of songs and cannot realistically go through and review and delete them one at a time. Can I do it all at once?
Apple's official advice is here... HT2905 - How to 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.
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 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 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)
tt2 -
How do we delete duplicates songs easily and not one at a time in iTunes?
how do we delete duplicate songs easily and not one by one in iTunes?
I've written a script called DeDuper which can help remove unwanted duplicates. See this thread for background.
tt2 -
My Nano is full and I can no longer sync more music. How do I delete duplicate songs on the Nano to make room for syncing more songs?
I had the same problem today and was able to resolve it without having to do a restore or reset. The problem had something to do with my mail accounts. The upgrade reset my mail settings, switching both my gmail and my .mac mail to "archive all mail". I went into the General Settings, disabled that setting, and resynced the phone. The "other" storage allottment dropped back down to less than a gig.
Before you restore or reset, I would try that first. -
I just got an iPad 2 and have not yet synced to my computer. I don't want to have all the duplicate songs in my iTunes. How do I get rid of duplicates?
You don't say whether you are on PC or Mac. For Mac there are these two programs which might help (I havn't tried either) :
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ipod_itunes/songsergeant.html
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ipod_itunes/idupe.html
There are probably similar programs for PCs, but I don't know what they are. On a PC you can hold the shift key and do File > Display Exact Duplicates (without the shift they may not be exact matches) - if one of each duplicate pair has the same date added then you can sort by that and then delete those with (or without) that date. -
How do I delete duplicate songs in my iTunes? I have hundreds and I don't want to delete them one by one. They were all added on the same date, so sorting by the date won't help.
Hi, if this is in regards to your library simply open up itunes and do the following steps:
Click File
Scroll down to "show duplicates"
A list will then appear of your duplicate song titles.
Be sure to CAREFULLY review each song to make sure it is a duplicate ( as I have some music that is the same song but live, acoustic etc...)
Proceed to manually delete each song from the list and leave alone any song that you wish to keep.
Best of luck,
Cait -
If I've downloaded my music to an itunes library from an external hard drive and I have several duplicate songs, is there an easy way to delete the duplicate songs? Or, do I have to go through my entire library song by song to delete duplicates?
In iTunes, File>Display Duplicates
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i tried to delete all of my duplicate songs in iTunes and it deleted all of my music. Is there a way i get my music back?
From the backup you maintain in case something drastic happens to your collection as it surely will when your drive crashes, the computer is stolen, etc.?
Are the files in the trash? I don't let iTunes manage my music so when I delete a track I have to hunt down the file, drag it to the trash, and empty the trash in order to get rid of it. I don't know how iTunes does it for others.
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