Cleaning up duplicates in iTunes library

I just moved my iTunes folder 'offshore' to an external HD to which my MB Pro connects wifi via an Airport Extreme. It's working fine however when it copied over it made a bunch of duplicates.
My question is this; is there an automated way to rid my library of duplicated song files or do I need to continue to do it manually which is taking forever.
Thanks.
MB Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I've read on here that there's a script you can use from dougscripts.com or something like that...sorry, I've never used it, but it might get you going in the right direction.

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After cleaning up "duplicates" in my Library, when I sync any device thereafter some Playlists are missing those songs?

Missing songs from playlists after sync

How did you clean up the duplicates? A playlist is an ordered list of references to tracks in iTunes. If you had duplicates in the library you may have added one version of a track to one playlist and the duplicate to a different list. When you remove the duplicate only the first list contains a reference to the song.
I have a script which would have eliminated duplicates while preserving playlist membership, and merging ratings, play & skip counts etc. More here: Re: When I delete duplicates how do I know which version is the original song and which is the duplicate? If restoring the playlists is important you may be able to restore a previous version of your main iTunes library,itl file that still has the uncorrupted playlists using the techniques in Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash and then run my script to dedupe. If you've updated iTunes regularly however, and don't have some other backup of the .itl, your most recent file is likely to be from last October.
tt2

Duplicates in iTunes Library

I seem to have several thousand duplicates in my iTunes library. Is there a quick efficient method of getting rid of them?
Thanks John

You could take a look at Robert Jacobson's scripts at:
http://home.comcast.net/~teridon73/itunesscripts/
There is a script for removing duplicates and also one for removing dead tracks i.e. the "not found" tracks.
It is best to download the EXE version which has all the scripts in it and you choose the one you want when you run it.

How can i delete all the duplicates in iTunes library?,

have three copies of each song showing in the library. i am sure there is an easy solution. what is it?

It depends a bit on how they got added and if each duplicate represents a separate file (physical dupes) or if you have multiple entries to the same files (logical dupes). See this article How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library. The method given there works fine if the duplicates were all added at the same time and are physical duplicates. If they are logical duplicates then don't delete the underlying files or you lose your only copy of the track. If the dupes are not so easy to isolate by sorting then arrange them in the usual album order and delete all but one of each repeating group.
If that all sounds like too much effort try Dupin/Dupin Lite from http://dougscripts.com/itunes/.
tt2

Lots of Duplicates in Itunes library

I recently bought a Seagate external drive to back up my music, among other things, to using SyncToy. When finished I went to look at the results and found that SyncToy had not backed up all my music and those backed up had a lot of duplicates. Not so concerned about SyncToy here but if anyone knows why it didn't back up everything I would appreciate the help.
The problem is the duplicates in the library.. Some CDs had none. Some had incomplete song titles with a correct title included. Some had duplicates of every title with a (2) at the end. Some were duplicated with no indication of any differences. I did check the file size often enough (by hovering over the title) to generalize they were the same size. Sometimes there are 3 files, two duplicates and one with a (2) at the end.
My library is "organized" in the Music under Itunes Media, I use Itunes 10.7 and do NOT want to "upgrade" to Itunes 11.
Any ideas where they came from? And if I can somehow get rid of them, will they come back? I recently subscribed to Itunes Match to rid my old purchases of copy protection, it worked but those matched songs have no more or less duplicates than those ripped from CDs. I have been using Itunes since about 2003, so the libraries have gone through many upgrades.
Thanks for the help!

Apple's official advice on duplicates 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 such as lost ratings and playlist membership.
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, 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

HT2905 Can't remove duplicates in iTunes library

I just downloaded the newest verion of iTunes and there is no option to "display duplicates" under the "file" tab. Any ideas? Thanks!

The show duplicates/show exact duplicates features have been left out of iTunes 11.0. Rumor suggests they will be restored in the next build. In the meantime I have written two Windows scripts to make playlists of Duplicates and Exact Duplicates, either from a selection of tracks or the entire library. Note that, as with the iTunes feature, this list makes no distinction between "originals" and "dupes", you have to decide which is which.
There is also my DeDuper script for automatically removing duplicate copies but keeping one remaining copy of each set. This can preserve ratings, play counts, playlist membership, etc. which are lost in a manual clean up. Please take note of the warning to backup your library before deduping. See this thread for background on deduping and the script.
If you want to manually remove duplicate tracks use shift-delete to remove selected tracks from the library as well as the playlist. Keep one of each repeated group of files and don't send the others to the recycle bin unless you are sure that there are multiple files on the disc as opposed to multiple entries to the same file. Same advice to backup applies.
tt2

How to easily clean broken photos from itunes library

hi everyone,
i'm getting really frustrated with this iphoto thing, i always had all my photos organised by folders on my Pictures folder and external hds... and for some crazy reason i decided to give it a go at iphoto so i started organising them on iphoto... but now my biggest pain is i don't carry all my HDs with my photos all the time... i have about 5 HDs with photos plus some photos on my computer... and my wife's computer
That is really annoying, as every time i open iphone and i don't have everything connected it keeps popping 125 gazillion errors saying server not connected, hd not connected... drives me insane and takes me 20 mins to click cancel on all of them until i'm able to use iphoto....
i'm at a stage that i have 2 options:
1. find a way to delete all those broken links from the DB and only use iphoto for my local photos...
2. go back to my old system that worked pretty well since than, but than how do i remove all the photos that are on iphoto????
i think apple really stuffed up on this, since there are a lot of people in this forum with the same problem...
there should be a command on iphoto... search and delete broken links...
can anyone help???? Please!!!!!
cheers,
dan

Ok so I know this post is very old for me to be answering now, but it's still one of the top hits on google for "fixing broken links in iphoto."
Anyway, so I had the same problem where I deleted numerous photos from my computer. (slideshows I've made for friends) Yet their thumbnails were still showing up in iPhoto like they still existed. Making it difficult to see which ones were technically broken wasn't until I previewed the image in full frame by hitting space-bar that iPhoto would prompt saying "photo is missing"
So as I was searching my iPhoto library files looking for duplicates I found the thumbnails folder. For some reason I thought these were duplicate photos so I deleted them all, which turned out to be a helpful trick! Because upon going back into iPhoto, the program began re-creating all of the thumbnails I just deleted. Which turned out to be a great work-around. Now the photos that were broken appeared as empty grey squares. Figured I'd just to pay it forward and possibly help someone else.
15" MBP
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iPhoto '11 9.4.3

How do I divide my iTunes library into multiple libraries based on unique Apple ID?

I have one iTunes library on my iMac that started with just me. As each of my kids and my husband got their own Apple IDs, all of their purcahses are loaded into my library. They have their own IDs because each has their own phone/iPod/iPad and is responsible for paying for their purchases through their own accounts. We decided to use only my computer so we could share content. But Apple restricts each device from having content from more than 5 IDs anyway.
Now, I really don't want my kids stuff anymore though they may want some of my music (which I imported from CDs for the most part). I learned how to create a new library but I don't understand how to move content into each library. Would it make more sense for each kid to set up iTunes on his own computer? If so, how do I move the content from my Mac to their computer, when it's not my entire iTunes library moving?
Thanks in advance for your help

Duplicate the entire library, then in each copy throw away the content that you don't need.
You can duplicate the iTunes library by copying the folder to a new location.
You can switch between libraries by holding down shift as you start iTunes.
iTunes uses the name of the folder as it's window title. You could, for example, rename the copied folder as "Bob's iTunes" and the original as "Alice's iTunes", assuming the two people in question are called Alice and Bob.
tt2

Sharing an iTunes library for syncing with an iPhone

Not sure if this belongs in iTunes or iPhone thread but here goes. My wife and I have our own profiles on our Mac. Right now all the music/video is in my iTunes library. We are both getting iPhones and I want both of us to be able to sync the music/video from iTunes (maybe from some shared library folder) but I want her mail/contacts/addresses/etc. to synch on her phone and mine to synch with mine. She will be logged in to her account when she syncs and I'll be logged into my account when I sync. Is this possible with iTunes? Can we put the iTunes music/video in a shared folder that we both attach to and yet still sync our iPhones with our own info? I'd prefer not to duplicate the iTunes library in both accounts because that just wastes space. Any ideas?

My husband and I have the exact same question. Have you figured this out? We were getting ready to share our music library and then panicked realizing that this might then totally mess up our synching to our own separate iPhones.
Any info would be GREATLY appreciated!!!
-- Jaynie

I transferred my iTunes library from one external hard drive to another and added more music on the same day. How do I get rid of my duplicate files without going through them one by one which would take forever?

Please help. I have transferred my iTunes library from one external hard drive to another plus added additional music now I have duplicates of the same music in many albums. How do I delete the duplicates without going through them one by one which would take forever? I understand how to get the "show exact duplicate" feature up on iTunes but, because they were added to the library on the exact day I can't seperate them I'm that manner. So each duplicate is right next to eachother in the exact duplicate screen.

My DeDuper script is designed to help clean up. See this thread for background.
tt2

ITunes Consolidation: Will it create duplicates of media files if they already exist in the new itunes destination folder but arent being referenced by the itunes library?

I have a macbook pro from fall 2010. I have been using my external HD as my primary itunes folder for the past 7 yrs ( i.e it is organized by itunes default categorization, etc). However, there is some overlap between my external HD itunes folder and my comps original itunes folder (probably 20-30% of my current library's media files were already duplicated there from when i first bought the HD and transferred files to the external, however they are mostly referenced from the external now). Also there are files in the comp's itunes folder that are not on my external (probably due to organizational mishaps and podcast downloads when not connected to the external, etc). I do not know how many files this is the case for.
Recently, i decided that i wanted to consolidate all of my itunes music into one concise folder on my macbook's HD to avoid these issues going forward. I also just bought a new external which i will use to back up my comp's itunes folder once i consolidate everything to the comp. But i plan on using the itunes folder on the comp going forward or at least using the consolidate fcn to avoid these issues.
Here is my dilemma. Prior to learning of the consolidate feature today, I changed the default itunes folder in settings to the original itunes folder on the macbook and then manually dragged all of the media files from my external itunes folder to the macbook's itunes folder. There were a ton of duplicates or overlapping folders with similar artist names, so i opted to have them merge all folders where possible. After doing this, i realized the itunes library still references these files that i dragged and dropped from the external since that is where my default itunes folder used to be. At that point i then read and learned of the consolidate itunes feature which seems like the best way to do this. But i am afraid that if i consolidate my library to my macbook's itunes folder now, will it create duplicates of the 4000 + media files i just dragged to the macbook's itunes folder which are already in the itunes library but being referenced from the old external??
Question: Is there a way that i can make these files i just dragged to the macbook's itunes folder become the ones referenced by the itunes library through the consolidate feature without creating duplicates of these 4000+ files? I want to avoid having three copies of these files (two duplicates in the itunes and the originals on the external). Furthermore, is there a best way to find out which files in the macbook's itunes folder are not being included in the library after consolidating everything to the computer's HD? Then after that, what is the best way to start backing this all up to my new external, so that this overlapping issue doesnt happen again? Im assuming i just need to make sure to consolidate first when changing itunes folders going forward. Thank you. I know that was a lot to read but hopefully someone can help with this issue.

In general:
- The best way to check if files are in a library is to drag the whole media folder to the library. If something was missed it will be added. If it is in the library is won't be added a second time.
- If you have a second copy of a file and iTunes does not currently list that specific file in its database then even if it is identical to one already in the database it will add it a second time. So if you have file xyz on the internal drive and the external drive and add them to iTunes you will end up with two entries for the same thing in iTunes because you really do have to copies of the files. While this can happen with two copies on a single drive, it will almost definitely be the case when you have a copy of a file on two drives because iTunes really sees them as two different things.
-Unless you know how iTunes works, avoid moving files yourself. Let the consolidate feature do all the file moving. Manually moving files can really mess up iTunes unless you know what you are doing and have iTunes set to not try to do it itself.
- There's no clean and easy way to delete duplicates. The best thing is to change practice so you don't create them. Here are references:
How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2905
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/dupin.php (commercial)
Posts by turingtest2 about different types of duplicates and techniques- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3555601 and https://discussions.apple.com/message/16042406 (Note: The DeDuper script is for Windows)
http://www.hardcoded.net/dupeguru_me/

Duplicates and too many formats in iTunes library

How do I clean up my iTunes library? I have duplicates of every song now in both AAC and MPEG formats in there. I would like to delete the duplicates and all the mpeg songs leaving only the AAC songs in my library to sync with my Nano. THANKS

Robert Jacobson has a script for removing duplicates here:
http://home.comcast.net/~teridon73/itunesscripts/
As for removing MPEG files, have you discovered the "kind" column. If you go to View>>View options, there is a check box to display it.
You could either sort on the kind field or create a smart playlist where Kind is the format you want to delete.
This will group files of the same type together, but you would have to delete them yourself.

The previous version of Itunes had a function where I could identify duplicate songs in my iTUNES library. I cannot find this function in the new version of iTUNES.

The previous version of Itunes had a function where I could identify duplicate songs in my iTUNES library. I cannot find this function in the new version of iTUNES.
Please advise where this is in the new version?

The show duplicates/show exact duplicates features have been left out of iTunes 11. Rumor suggests they will be restored in the next build. In the meantime I have written two Windows scripts to make playlists of Duplicates and Exact Duplicates, either from a selection of tracks or the entire library.
If you want to manually remove duplicate tracks use shift-delete to remove selected tracks from the library as well as the playlist. Keep one of each repeated group of files and don't send to the recycle bin unless you are sure that there are multiple files on the disc as opposed to multiple entries to the same file.
There is also my DeDuper script if you don't want to do it by hand. This can preserve ratings, play counts, playlist membership, etc. which are lost in a manual clean up. Please take note of the warning to backup your library before deduping. See this thread for background on deduping and the script.
tt2

What is the best way for cleaning up duplicate iTunes files in iCloud?

I have about 5000 of my songs in iTunes that are duplicates in iTunes, when I go to delete them it asks me to delete in iCloud too. I do this and then another file is either uploaded or downloaded with iClouds. Is there a webbased way to access iCloud and clean up duplicate iTune songs?

iTunes 11 has removed the Show Duplicates/Exact Duplicates functions so I've added two new scripts to make playlists of Duplicates and Exact Duplicates to my scripts collection.
If deduping by hand use shift-delete to remove selected tracks from the library as well as the playlist.
The Exact Duplicates script makes a good starting point from which to run my DeDuper script if you don't want to do it by hand. Please take note of the warning to backup your library before deduping.
tt2

ITunes library duplicates caused by iMatch

Why does turning on iMatch completely mess up my iTunes library? It creates duplicates & also causes the original songs in my music library to suddenly fail to locate their files. And if I use the song version that's in iCloud, I lose the ratings, play counts, etc, from the original song files.
I purchased iMatch so I could have a backup of my entire iTunes library. However, every time I turn it on creates a huge mess that takes me hours to clean up--part of which involves turning off iMatch! Argh!

These are the system requirements of iWOW:
Mac OS X 10.2 or later
OS X 10.2 and iTunes 6 or better
Will not run on specific combination of iTunes 7 with OS X 10.3.9
Will not run as intended on OS X 10.4.8
Because of the last line, I haven't installed and tried it.
I've read and replied to some posts of people who had difficulties after the evaluation period of iWOW expired and wanted to get rid of it.
Did you use the accompanied Uninstall application to get rid of it?
It may otherwise have left pieces that interfere with iTunes and cause it to crash.
That 'Uninstall' app. is a run-only script, so I can't look into it to see what it exactly does.
If you didn't run that Uninstall app., it might be a good idea to run it now.
I don't expect re-installing iTunes to solve the problem, but you never know.
Remove the 'iTunesX.pkg' file before doing that and also trash the iTunes application, so the Installer will install a complete 'fresh' app. and not just update components.
Re-installing iTunes will not affect your library or library files.
If you still experience crashes, click 'Report' and save the report. I'm not good in reading crash reports, but it contains information about the thread that crashed and the components involved. Someone might be able to detect the culprit.
As a last resort, perform an 'Archive and Install' of OS X. This will install a complete fresh system folder, but retain most of your personal settings.
I's a good idea to have a backup of at least your Home folder before doing that.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner Mac OS X (10.4.8) iTunes 7.0.1

Cleaning up duplicates in iTunes library

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