Duplicate songs problem

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....

Similar Messages

IPod and iTunes - Duplicate song file problem

I have many songs on my iPod that are the same. Is there an easy way to do a search and delete of all duplicate songs in one easy step, either thru the iPod itself, or iTunes?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Keith in MI

You can delete songs through the iPod on the iPod.
Are these songs in your iTunes library as well? You can go to edit-->show duplicates and then delete one of each copy.
There is no automatic way of doing this on Windows.
btabz

Duplicate songs in my 4S but not in iTunes.

I have duplicate songs in my iPhone 4S. But everything is normal in library. I have unchecked the "Sync Music" and then tried to syncronize. I thought that this would delete all songs from my iPhone, so after that I would add my songs again and I would have solved the problem. Syncronization was completed but only the HALF of the songs were deleted. I couldn't delete the other half from my iPhone. I checked the "Sync Music" again and tried to sync again. Nothing has changed. I deleted my whole iTunes library and resynced again, nothing has changed.
In the end, I had to delete every single song one by one (I had like hundreds of songs.) with this "slide to reveal the delete button" move. Many people have asked about this problem in this support community but no stuff has brought a soluotion so far. This is sad, really sad.
Note: These music files can be seemed and played in iPhone but they doesn't exist in iTunes, you can only see the proof of their existence at the bottom of the device summary section in iTunes, I mean the size indicators.
Note 2: The proof I mentioned about is dissappearing temporarily when I check or uncheck the "Sync Music" checkbox. But after the syncronization it's coming back.
Note 3: The problem has occured this time (Yes, it happened few times before.) while I was texting to a friend during syncronization of new music files.
Sorry for the language by the way.
Utku
Istanbul, Turkey

Are these songs that you've purchased directly from your iPhone? If so, sometimes they remain on your iPhone no matter what you do, so when you transfer them to your library and then later sync them to your iPhone, you're left with two copies of each song.
If these are iTunes purchases made directly to the iPhone, connect to iTunes and click on the "Music" tab where you set your iPhone's sync settings. At the bottom of this window, below Playlists, Genres, etc. there is a category "Manually added items". See if you have songs in there -- if you do, select them all and click "Remove" then re-sync your iPhone.
If you don't see songs in "Manually added items", go to Settings/ General/ Usage/ Music/ All Music and tap "Edit" and then tap the "-" sign to erase any music left on the iPhone. Then for good measure to a Reset (press and hold the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons until the Apple logo disappears, then release).
Another option may be to sign out of your iTunes account on your iPhone, then re-sync your iPhone. As a final option, do a Restore of your iPhone (first by re-loading your backup, and as a very last resort Restore again but without loading your backup, which means starting completely over with your iPhone).

HT201253 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?

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.

Why do i have duplicate songs in most of my albums? using iTunes match, use computer to charge phone, it must have synced now have double songs

I think when i was charging my iphone and syncing iphoto, itunes synced. i never check the box that says "synce itunes when iphone connected' but this box somehow was checked. now i have double music, taking up a lot of space. Having to manually remove all the duplicate songs. this is the third time this has happened. I do not have the time to sit and manually do this. Can anyone tell me why this is happening and is there an easier fix? could turn off itunes match and turn it back on again, but then have to redownload my music individually, which is also time consuming.

I had the exact same issue!! Seriously p*ssed me off when I checked out my ITunes purchased items (via my computer) and noticed that most of the additional tracks listed on my IPhone playlist was listed there too. However, I never authorized any purchases!! (I have actually written Apple Support asking for a full refund of all tracks listed on my purchased list)
Be careful when you swipe your finger to the left/right on those "additional" tracks on your IPhone playlist... I'm pretty sure that the cloud symbol is an option to download or automatically buy those tracks.
Solution for the problem:
1 - go to your IPhone settings
2 - choose "iTunes & App Store"
3 - go to "Show All" & "Music"
4 - turn off "Music" by moving the bar to the left (it should be a white color once you turn it off)
Should solve your problem :~)

Duplicate song listings on ipod classic

I can't figure this out. I have duplicate song listings (at least a doz.) on my ipod. Once I connect to iTunes on my computer and look at my music in the ipod section, there are no duplicates (and none in my library either). Also, when going thru the artists section on my ipod,there can be 3 different songs by the same artist and 3 separte listings of the astist - meaning to see all 3 songs by the same artist I have to click on the same artist name 3 different times, then another click or 2 to actually get to the individual song. What is that about?? I can't find anything that addresses this type of problem in my mauaul.... Anyone else have this going on? It just annoys me.

A spelling or punctuation mistake, or sometimes a trailing space usually causes this after the artists and/or song name, which fools the iPod into thinking that there are two different artists or songs. The trailing space is the hardest to spot.
Best way to cure this is to go into iTunes, highlight that artist and/or songs, right click on them and select "get info".
This brings up the multiple song info window. If you see the "artist" field is left blank, then there is a discrepancy with that name.
So to correct this, in the artist or song box retype the name, as you would like it, and then click ok. You should do this even if no mistakes are immediately visible.
Re sync this new artist/song info to your iPod.
If the above is not the issue, try this also. Highlight all the songs for that artist, right click on them and select "apply sort field/same artist".
See if that works.

DELETING DUPLICATE SONGS - PALM PRE

I am unable to delete duplicate songs on my Palm Pre music files. I'm not even sure how the duplicate songs showed up in my files. I have tried everything. I use I tunes & I have set all audio defaults to Itunes. I also use the Palm Music Assistant. I have called Palm and Sprint support. Both have told me to "right" gesture to delete but the songs come right back. I have also deleted duplicates in the I tunes music player (file) but it has no effect on the Pre's music files. Has anyone experienced this problem? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.
Post relates to: Pre p100eww (Sprint)

I asked someone at Palm to take a look at this issue. It's new to me. It makes me wonder if you perhaps have two processes synchronzing media to the Pre - do you use MissingSync and iTunes on a Mac perchance?

Remove Duplicate Songs

All,
If you are using iTunes app to remove duplicate songs, it is a pain in the neck and it will not remove physical files from your music folder.
I have so many problem over the years and bought so many apps and none work like it supposed to work. You can't fix the problem in iTunes app any other Music management app, you have to fix the problem at the source and the source is in your music folders, not iTunes app or any other apps. So I have just designed this app: RDS - Remove Duplicate Songs to do just that. Don't waste your money spending 10-20 dollars. Go here and give it a try. Fix problem at the source: http://thezoovninc.com/Apps.php?AppName=MusicCleanup

this may take a while, but just go to the view menu and click on the "show duplicates" (http://text2go.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/itunes-show-equalizer.jpg) and then sort by name. after doing that, just go one by one and delete the duplicates, but make sure NOT to erase everything because you will delete all the songs that are duplicated.
let me know how it turns out.
ElMijo

Automatically deduping duplicate songs - is it possible?

I copied my libary from a laptop to my PC, using an external hard drive to transfer the files. Somehow almost all, but not every song, was duplicated once or even twice on the hard drive, but i did not know this until i'd impoted the contents onto my PC.
When I go into "show duplicate songs" i get the list of dupes, but have to delete the dupes manually (time consuming). Is there a way of automatically deleteing anything that itunes suspects may be a dupe?
I can't simply start again because I no longer have the laptop, the only place with my libary is my hard drive (dupes and all).

I know my friend has had duplicate songs on his computer and found a program that will scan your hard drive for duplicate songs and allow you to verify and delete. (http://noclone.net/Duplicate_Mp3.asp) The problem in the library is probably solved the way you already are doing it. Allow iTunes to find the copies and select them all and delete them. If you do scan your drive and delete dupes, then you can delete your entire library and re-import all the non-duplicate songs.

Why does the iPod duplicate songs when updating my playlists?

Why does the iPod duplicate songs when updating my playlists? Also, you cannot use the "show duplicate songs" feature on the iPod - I suppose that is because it is not supposed to duplicate songs on the iPod. But, if that is the case - why does it do it?

Try resetting your iPod, press and hold the power and the home buttons together approximately 15 seconds until the Apple logo appears. If that does not work try going into Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings. If that does not work try connecting to you iTunes library via the cable and un-sync the library from your iPod then sync the library. For the next 2 options backup your iPod first, then do a Restore iPod from backup, if that doesn't work... As a last resort Restore your iPod as New. I too had the red circle and square after updating to 7.0.4 the last resort fixed mine, others have reported doing all the above, all have had reports of fixing the problem and not fixing it. Give it a try, hopefully one of these works, Good luck.

Duplicate songs in Playlist

Is there a way I can put songs into a playlist, and if it's already in there, it won't put a second one in, it'll just keep one? I remember it not being a problem before, but now it doesn't seem to want to work.
-NicK

In iTunes, select your iPod, then go to the edit menu and click "Show duplicate songs." From there, just delete the ones that you don't need.

Deleting duplicate songs efficiently

Hi there. I'm having trouble keeping my library free of duplicate songs. Normally I set the view to duplicates and manually delete. I keep the song that is the largest file (assuming that the larger the file, the better the quality). This is very cumbersome. Is there a way of doing this more efficiently (i.e. scanning for duplicates and deleting those with the smallest files)? Thanks very much.

HIClara
I have a program I downloaded from a site I was referred by this site. It is called corral. It collects all duplicate songs( you can set the duplicates to name, artists, size etc) it then collects them and places them in a folder called DUPES. Delete the folder....and done!
One problem I have though is I run this program and everytime I open itunes the songs are back where I found them....like magically reproducing themselves...any help?

Thousands of duplicate songs

So after installing itunes 7.6 on my work Windows XP PC, my itunes library file got corrupted, and for some reason, Itunes couldn't find any of my songs. So deleted my old library file, and reinstalled the 13,000+ songs and videos I have on my external Maxtor hard drive. Problem is, now some 9,700+ of those songs are showing up listed two or 3 times in my iTunes as duplicate songs, even though said songs have the same location filepath under properties. Is there any way I can solve this? It would take me WEEKS to lose all the dupes. I have no problem deleting my library file again since I just did it.

Have a look at Teridon's iTunes Scripts there's a script in there for dealing with duplicates: Teridon's iTunes for Windows Scripts

Duplicate songs in iTunes after switching to new computer

I recently changed from an old Win XP computer to a new Win 8.1 computer. While it seems that Microsoft attempted to simplify file management and make a lot of it automatic, I honestly don't understand how it all works.
I'm sure it was probably user error, but somehow now many of my songs - mostly my MP3s - are in iTunes twice.
When I right-click on the duplicate songs, I can see that they're in two locations. But what I don't know is if they're in two "different" physical locations on the hard drive or if they're in two different "virtual" locations that Win 8.1 sees as two different places, though they may be the same. I hope that made sense.
To make it more clear (hopefully), these are the 2 locations:
C:\users\anthony\music\mp3\songname (song name here)
C:\documents and settings\anthony\mydocuments\mymusic\mp3\songname (same song name here)
Are the songs actually on my hard drive twice or does iTunes just see them that way. And how do I fix it so I have only one instance of each song onmy hard drive and one instance of each song in iTunes?
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

It turns out that the problem was that I had reached my limit of five authorized systems on my iTunes user, and had to de-authorize my old system and authorize the new one. The error message could be a lot more helpful....

Duplicate Songs after migrating from External

I just got a new MacBook and migrated my songs into itunes from my external hard drive. I have a large number of duplicate songs that show up in the application. Is there an easy way to correct this problem?

It would be a good idea since this question is not identical to the one originally posted in the topic if you were to start your own topic on this subject. Somebody may have an answer for you but since it isn't the topic here they will never see your post.
I also recommend you post this question in the itunes forum. There's lots of people there who answer this kind of question all the time, but they run different operating systems from Tiger and almost never post on this forum and will never see your question.
I see the duplicates resolution thing too. It looks like itunes just relies upon artist and name as the criteria. It would be nice if one could activate album as being part of this but I haven't come across it and it might be a good thing to post though the Apple feedback website as a suggestion.

Duplicate songs problem

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for