Elimination of Duplicates in Library?

I'm a newbie and have managed to copy duplicates of photos into my iPhoto main library. Is there a simple process for mass-identification and elimination of such duplicates for the entire library? Thanks, David

Hi David,
You can try Duplicate Annihilator
Depending on how you imported the duplicates your milage may vary. Let us know how it goes.

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Hello, i have my iPhoto library on my macbook air. how can i duplicate this library on my new iMac?

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How do I organize a huge (120GB , but alot of duplicates) music library with iTunes?

How do I organize a huge (120GB+, but alot of duplicates) music library with iTunes? Thanks!

If you do not want the duplicate files, maybe the best thing to do first is to eliminate as many duplicates as you can..
You can use iTunes: View/Show Duplicate Items
Or you could use one a script

Duplicate iTunes library entry

Apple support is awful and unhelpful. Do I really have to go to an Apple store (miles away and in areas where parking is expensive) just to find a solution? (Rhetorical question, no need to reply to this.)
I've searched for an solution in support/communities but found nothing for this particular problem.
My iTunes library on MacBook Pro was imported to the MacBook Pro from an older laptop. I still have the older laptop. I do not listen to music on the older laptop and I do not use it for synching devices.
The new laptop now has duplicate music library entries and I can't tell which is the original and which is the duplicate.
Likewise, I've lost a link to a lot of music when I deleted duplicate entries. (Apple, this was a stupid design.) So…anyone got any solutions to help me RID my iTunes library of the duplicates listings WHILE maintaining a link to the original music? And where do I find the index so I can get my deleted files back?
Thanks.

This is what you should have done. You can tell us what you actually did:
If you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to choose a library, then select the copied iTunes folder.
If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)

IPhoto 11 duplicates iPhoto library when I open it in Finder

The other night was on my wife's iMac and needed to grab a photo from my iPhoto library and upload it to the internet. I tried to open the connection to my Airbook where the photo resides and was prompted to login to connect to the iPhoto library. I used my Apple ID and logged in so I could browse my Airbook for the photo. When I tried to open iPhoto it immediately tried to duplicate the entire iPhoto library to my wife's iMac, which isn't at all what I wanted.
I stopped the duplication and selected the "Disconnect" that shows up in the upper right corner of the screen when viewing my Airbook in her Finder window. All seemed fine.
But now, every time I try to open iPhoto on my Airbook it creates a copy. Just like it did when I was on my wife's computer.
So I think this is a sharing issue, the iPhoto can't handle one user logging in from multiple computers so it's trying to duplicate the library. My question is: How do I make it stop? Anytime I try to upload a photo to a website by browsing to my iPhoto library, it generates another copy. I've disconnected from browsing for my Airbook from her computer. What more do I need to do to make iPhoto know that only one computer is modifying the library?
Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Thanks for your reply, Terence. Please note that this isn't exactly two users, it's one user Apple ID from two separate Mac computers.
I know the library is duplicating because a small rectangular window opens up that says "Duplicating iPhoto Library" with an x next to it that I can click on to stop the duplication. Also, I've had up to 4 copies of the iPhoto library entitled iPhoto Libary copy, iPhoto Library Copy 2, etc.
It filled my hard drive and I couldn't open iPhoto because there was "not enough space to copy iPhoto Library."
I've tried to use File, Open to open the library, tried to use Command O to open it, and tried to click on it to open it. All attempts to open it through Finder or browse to it through an upload window result it it duplicating the entire library.
I never got a message that the Library was locked.

Can you help me delete photo library & duplicate photo library

Hi,
I don't know what I did, but I somehow copied 44 of my daughter's music images into my photo library and then created a duplicate with 43 images. These 87 images are taking up room and there is no obvious way to delete them.
Here's what happens when I touch camera roll it brings me to the photo library -- where 43 out of 44 images are hers:
I click edit and the only options are share via email, faceboook, twitter, etc. or add to which leads to create a new album. I don't want to do any of this. I just want to delete them to make room.
The same options apply for the Duplicate album as well.
Can you help me delete the photo library and the duplicate library on my phone? I only want to keep one video in the camera roll and all of the rest of the images can go.
Thanks!

Thanks for your response. I think you just isolated my issue -- I was trying to upload music and somehow wound up syncing my daughter's photos to my iphone. I don't know how to delete them because not all of the album/folders are appearing there. Do you have any suggestions on how to find them?

Duplicates in library....why?

I have many duplicates of some pics in my library. I want to erase the duplicates. Some of the duplicates have multiple pics with "library-xxxx" as title. Can I erase these safely? Why do I have so many duplicates?

Hudson Mom
Welcome to the Apple user assistance forums
Where do yousee these duplicates?
If they are in the iPhoto library looking with the findr they are normal and it is advised taht you do not go into the iPhoto library directly and never change anything in the iPhoto library using the finder
If they are in the iPhoto libray window using the iPhoto program then yu have imported duplicates to the library - Duplicate anniliator - http://www.brattoo.com/propaganda/ - has been successfully used by many to resolve this issue - back up your library and run it
LN

Duplicates in library, which is in album, (more complicated)

So I had 3 massive libraries that I merged into 1 using iPhoto Library Manager. However on my first attempt I neglected to check the option to not import duplicates and replace duplicates in existing albums. I had attempted a second time and was successful, however that library has since been damaged and is more or less un-usable.
So reverting back to my original attempt. I have an album structure that is all set and good to go. However I forgot that there were many duplicates and I'd like to trim down the size of my library. I am aware of duplicate annihilator and would love to find a way (efficient way) to rid myself of the duplicates while not being destructive to the albums and/or being able to re-link the albums to their originals.
I'm thinking that the tools I will be needing to use are Duplicate annihilator and iPhoto Library Manager. I think that it's the method that I can't figure out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If I wasn't dealing with a library in excess of 40,000 photos this wouldn't be too difficult to do manually. Thanks for any suggestions.
Nathan

There are two apps, actually one app and one Applescript script, for finding and removing duplicate photos from iPhoto. They are:
Duplicate Annihilator
iPhoto AppleScript to Remove Duplicates - free
The Applescript is a wee bit slower than AH but can do essentially the same thing, identify the duplicates. Just create two smart albums: one with Description contains "duplicated" and one with Description contains "original". Then you can compare the two and delete the one you don't want.
OT

Sharing music from laptop to Imac duplicates in library

Everytime my daughter or wife download music to laptop then I update library on Imac it duplicates the whole library again. I just got rid of exact duplicates on Imac, so now my question is how do I transfer between the two with out transfering the whole library again and duplicating files?
Thank you in advance

However, there may be some fixes in that latest
update mentioned by btabz that may help!
That's what I was thinking
Also, shouldn't shared music be an option even if there is no shared music available?
btabz

Adding song to playlist and duplicates in library

Hi,
Every time I add a song from my library to a playlist, that song duplicates itself in my library. Is there a way I can have the song not duplicate itself?

After the duplication has happened, do you see two identical tracks in your music view? If you check with the Get Info Summary tab, are the file names/ paths the same?
i have this problem of duplicate songs after I did a restore with my backed up library. Some of the file paths are the same and others go nowhere. will I be able to remove the song duplicate with the same path without deleting the song as long I say not to remove file? I think there was a time I tried to and that option did not appear. I can't be positivly sure on that though. could the duplicate have happened because the backup copy was from a different version? It is still version 8.0 just a different number after the decimal.
thanks, Don

Setting up new computer - duplicates in library

I just got a new HP computer, running Vista, so I needed to transfer my music. Here's my problem. I used my iPod and the Transfer Purchases from iPod option under the File menu to copy songs into my new library. But, (user error) this was done twice, so now I have duplicates of almost 500 songs, so deleting manually is not a good choice. In addition, there were about 40 new songs in the new library, so they weren't on the iPod that was synced on the old computer, so I can't really delete everything and start again, without somehow preserving these new songs first. Any ideas?

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

Un-purchased duplicates in library

On one of my albums, the songs are duplicated, but the duplicates are un-purchased and have a 'buy' button beside them. I have tried to delete them but they are still in the library
This is a screenshot of my library
Does anyone have any ideas of how to get rid of them?

Such a "Buy!" button can appear besides a song, if you tagged a song while listening to Radio stations on an iPod. When you sync your iPod, the tags will be saved in iTunes and the songs will be shown as ready to buy, see this help text: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12298?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Did you sync an iPod nano with iTunes?

Too many duplicates in library

Hello,
The duplicate list says there are over 200 duplicates in my library. I have already deleted some of them through windows explorer. Is there a way to refresh the itunes library so the deleted items don't show up in the duplicate list any ore. Any other option besides clicking 2000 times to remove them 1 by 1, or deleting the entire library and starting over? Thanks you any help you can give! Kathleen

Apple's official advice on duplicates is as above... 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 or 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 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

Deleting duplicates in library

II've noticed over time I've got a few duplicates in the library but want to is there a easy way of deleting them all or do I have to do the tracks one at a time ! I know through view I can show duplicates but is there a way iTunes will do it for you instead of me doing it one at a time ! Oh plus im on iTunes match / cloud so do that cause I problems

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 the other.
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.
I don't have access to iTunes Match for testing, but I suspect it might be a good idea to turn it off while cleaning the library.
tt2

Removing duplicates in Library

Is there an easy way to clear all duplicates in the library all at once.. There is an option to display duplicates but now what?
yes Windows XP

There is no way of doing this in iTUnes except manually. Apple does this in iTUnes so there is no mistakes of deleting a song you actually wanted to keep. THeres 2 types of duplicates, one where you have 2 of the same songs on the PC, the other where you have one song but its listed twice in iTUnes.
You can go here and download a Script that will auto delete duplcates based on the info you put in http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/scripts01.php?page=1#corralitunesdupes

Elimination of Duplicates in Library?

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