Empty Playlists & Duplicate Songs!

1) All of my laboriously created Playlists in iTunes are suddenly empty! Is there a way to get the contents back? This seems to have happened since I upgraded to Lion.
2) I have a lot of duplicated songs in iTunes. Is there a quick way to delete the duplicates?

I am having this problem also. I have searched and found many posts on the subject, but no solutions found.
Thanks,
Debbie at
Qtrmoon Pond

Similar Messages

Playlists,Duplicate songs...

I have several playlists on my Ipod,I also sometimes have the same song in a few different playlists(Ex:Classic Rock,Acoustic Rock),does my Mac or Ipod recognize this and use the same song for the different playlists,to conserve space? Thanks in advance!

I created two Playlists in iTunes with some songs in common.
I synched the two playlists to my iPod Touch one at a time,
and it did not duplicate the songs which were in two playlists.
Jim

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.

I am trying to delete duplicate songs in my library, when I click on the duplicate and go to edit to delete it, it asks me if i want to delete the playlist!

I am trying to delete duplicate songs in my library, when I go to edit to delete it, it asks me if I want to delete the playlist!

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

Duplicate Songs On iPod When Adding New Playlist?

Hi All-
I'm experiencing a new problem that is driving me crazy. It seems to have started after the last iPod updater but that could just be coincendence. Now, whenever I copy a playlist from iTunes to my video iPod, it will copy most of the song files as well (not all of them but a good portion) - making many duplicate song entries on my iPod that I then have to go in and delete?
Any ideas?

For Authorization issue see:
iTunes Store: Authorize or deauthorize your Mac or PC
For the duplicates
https://discussions.apple.com/message/9276177#9276177
and maybe
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2905

Delete iTunes duplicates songs without losing playlist data?

i have double tripped dupulicated songs in my itunes ... how can i get rikd of them and keep one song each. but without losing playlist data? which means my many playlist are stay same without losing any songs..
possible?
this is furstarating please someone help?
thank you!!

i have like 35-40 playlist.. could u explain to me how to do it simple way and not losing sings from each playlist.. i know removing duplicate songs from entire library is great but i dont want to lose songs from each playlist..
could u help? thank you

Manually manage music + import .m3u playlist to iphone 5 = duplicate songs

hello,
I tried searching the forums for a related questions but didn't find any. if it exists let me know.
i have a iphone 5 (ios 6) and a ipod 2g (ios 4.2). I use itunes on windows and manage both devices manually for music and videos. Now I have a playlist in WMP which I exported as a .m3u file.
In itunes, I can import the playlist and it shows up under the 'playlists' correctly. Now I wanted to transfer this playlist to my ipod and iphone (note: my ipod and iphone already have all the songs in the playlist plus many others. I never use them in 'sync' mode).
I was under the impression that a playlist is just a list of pointers to songs and not songs themselves. So when I drag the playlist into the ipod within itunes, it creates a new playlist with that name on the ipod and correctly transfers the pointers onto the ipod. the playlist works perfectly on the ipod and there and no duplicate songs.
now with the new iphone 5 and new ios 6, something seems to be different. when i drag the playlist into the iphone, it does create a new playlist but it copies all the songs again, even though the exact songs (all metadata identical since they're from the same physical source on my harddisk - album, artists, art, title, etc). so it creates duplicates of these songs.
now the still tougher part. I tunes apparently has a find duplicates feature. But it onyl seem to work for music imported into itunes library. It is greyed out if you click on the iphone and then try to find duplicates (if iphone is set to manually manage music.)
so is this expected behaviour? I think this is a bug in the new ios since the drag drop playlist manually works perfectly in ios 4.2.
any thoughts?

Unfortunately, you'll need to 'start fresh,' as it were. However, you could transfer your library from the old computer and sync. This MAY keep you from having to erase everything. Worst case scenario, if you transfer your library, though, would be to wipe it and then load the same content right back on.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer

Duplicate songs when adding new playlists

Ok heres the problem and its been going on far too long for me....
Every **** time I want to create a playlist on itunes and then drag it to my ipod I get duplicate songs that show up on my ipod. I know exactly why its happening. Because there are tiny differences from some of the files in the playlist then from when I first added them to my ipod (for example, lets say I added "Purple Haze" to my ipod then later discovered Purple Haze had a space at the end of the title, so I removed it on the file in itunes but NOT on the ipod, and now if Purple Haze is one of the songs in this new hypothetical playlist i've created it will show up on the ipod twice). I get that. Problem is, I have created a playlist now and 10 out of the 50 songs that were on it were I guess changed in some way shape or form since I last added them to the ipod. I tried cancelling it but a few got thru ..and I have no idea which of the 50 songs were the ones that got duplicated. This REALLY infuriates me man because it happens all the time. How can it be 2011 and an ipod cant just recognize these files are the same? Or better yet, just UPDATE the old song automatically with whatever changed about the old file (for instance, if it was Purple Haze with the space on the ipod before, if I throw a playlist from itunes with Purple Haze without the space on it, why cant the ipod just UPDATE the previous file with the space and take the **** space out rather then adding another file). It would also be nice if I could just go to the ipod (when its connected to itunes) and sort by Date Modified or something and see which ones were the ones that were duplicated. But i cant, it just keeps the last modified date of the song on itunes not on the ipod ..i dont know if im making sense here but I really hope someone can "show me the way" because I just refuse to believe that this is just the way it is ..its gota be something im doing wrong here. So please someone, school me!

You are just making work for yourself by dragging songs to your iPod manually.
I have manually manage music and videos turned off. I sync my iPods using selected playlists. Whenever I make a change in a selected playlist, it is automatically synced the next time I connect my iPod. If I decide I don't want a particular playlist on my iPod any more, I just deselect it. If I change anything about a song in one of my playlist, the change is automatically synced.
Watch these 2 video tutorials and see if you want to make things easier on yourself:
Creating playlists: http://support.apple.com/kb/VI71?viewlocale=en_US
Syncing your iPod: http://support.apple.com/kb/VI72?viewlocale=en_US

HT2905 Is anyone having iTunes crash whenever they try to delete a (duplicate) song or playlist? If so, any workarounds?

Ever since I upgraded to Lion 10.7.4, I've been having a headache-of-a-time with applications unexpectedly quitting (especially Apple apps like Pages & Numbers and iTunes). Every time i try to delete a (duplicate) song (by any method, whether it's control-click, edit menu-delete, or command-delete, etc.) I get the spinning beach ball and then an expectedly quit "do you want to re-open?" window. Can anyone offer detailed advice how to downgrade iTunes to a pre-10.6 version? (where to find and download/install?), or is the problem probably OS-related, and I just have to wait it out until 10.8 becomes available?

Yes, the list on my computer of what is in my iPod library is grey, not black font. I tried "manual" but it will not allow me to drag anything to the iPod. Not even newly purchased music.
That certainly sounds like one of the Automatic syncing options has been engaged.
... quickly doublechecking, just in case. After selecting "Manually manage ..." in the device tab for the iPod in iTunes, did you click "Apply"?

HT204406 How to delete duplicate songs from Libary without deleting them from play list or other devices

How to delete duplicate songs from libary without deleting them from playlist or other devices

I'm with you verm71; it's not entirely clear how Apple is expecting you to manage this. I'm going on vacation soon and want to clean up my phone so that it's nice and empty for the new pictures. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this without losing your pictures in the new Photos as well. If imported, it's impossible to see which is the Cloud version and which is the Local version. It's very annoying.
I've also noticed in iPhoto you used to have the ability to locate the original of the picture inside the photo database. That option is not provided in Photos, making finding the original extremely difficult.
It seems to be a great, well-oiled system. But I would love to know how Apple envisions the typical workflow for archiving...

How do I find duplicate songs which the latest itunes libary update does not show?

How do you find duplicate songs in itunes which the latest updated version of itunes does not show, where the older version did?

=Downgrading from iTunes 11 to iTunes 10.7=
Try activating the sidebar, menu bar, and status bar and see if this is close enough to the previous version to make you content. It is easier than downgrading and eventually you will be forced to run a newer iTunes unless you have an endless supply of the model computer you currently own.
You may be able to go back with Time Machine but this may involve restoring other items too (https://discussions.apple.com/message/20441404). Alternatively:
Back up your computer first, in case the unexpected happens.
Quit iTunes.
Get iTunes 10.7 from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1576 or the direct download link at: http://appldnld.apple.com/iTunes10/041-7195.20120912.d3uzQ/iTunes10.7.dmg
Do a few preparatory steps by making sure all iTunes components are not running and cleaning old files.   See https://discussions.apple.com/message/20475394. Do steps 3 and 4. Steps 6-8 may be also useful but I don't know if they are essential. Some of the other steps are not necessary, duplicate steps listed later in my post or are perhaps even unhelpful in the process.
Replace the iTunes 11 application with iTunes 10.7. Simply dragging the application to the trash may not work. Lion (OSX 10.7) and newer systems have iTunes integrated into the operating system and deleting is a bit more involved. Two ways to do this are:
1. (Easier) Use the shareware Pacifist utility (http://www.charlessoft.com/) to install iTunes 10.7 including all associated system files. Details at http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=16400819&postcount=6
2. (More work) Check this reference on how to delete the iTunes application itself:
    Delete iTunes in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion - http://osxdaily.com/2011/09/13/delete-itunes-in-mac-os-x-10-7-lion/
    After deleting the application there may be other files that need downgrading too. See the note about error -42408 at the end of this post. You may want to tuck these away somewhere safe until you have completed the installation of iTunes 10.7. I have not tested this but ideally if newer versions are not found then the installer will put in the old versions. This may include these files in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ which apparently get updated by iTunes 11:
AirTrafficHost.framework
CoreFP.framework
DeviceLink.framework
iTunesAccess.framework
MobileDevice.framework
After doing one of the two procedures above you will have to rescue the most recent old iTunes library from your iTunes > Previous Libraries folder. Rename it "iTunes Library.itl" and replace the existing one in the iTunes folder. A newer version of iTunes irreversibly updates your library file so you have to replace it with the old one or you will get an error message. Note, this will revert your library to the version at the time of the upgrade and you will have to update any changes made since. See:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20401436 - turingtest2 11/2012 post on rebuilding empty/corrupt library from previous iTunes library file after upgrade/crash.
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
Other issues:
- https://discussions.apple.com/message/20432309 - solution to mobile devices saying they need to be restored after downgrading
- If you encounter error -42408:
iTunes: Advanced iTunes Store troubleshooting - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3297 > Specific Conditions and Alert Messages: (Mac OS X / Windows) - including specific error codes.
Alternatively, check https://discussions.apple.com/message/20441424 which requires you have a Time Machine backup (though possibly if you remove the newer version of these files old ones may be installed with the iTunes 10.7 installer - untested). A variant of this is at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20448184
- Persistent "Show in iTunes Store" arrows after downgrade - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4567064

Three libraries, three iPods, lost music, empty playlists

My wife, daughter, and I have three iPods and three libraries (we use the option key when starting up iTunes). We store all the music files on an external HD. Today, while cleaning up a bunch of duplicate files/folders from a system reinstall, I deleted all the music files Ouch! Not to worry, I have the iPods and Senuti. If I simply reimport the music, I get ! signs on every track, and empty playlists. With Senuti, I can drag playlists one at a time and they seem to repopulate the existing playlists nicely. But at over 150 playlists per iPod, it's a lengthy process. Can't select more than one playlist at a time in either Senuti or iTunes, and haven't been able to find a helpful Doug's script. Is there a way to speed up this process? After being unable to reassociate the songs in the library with the playlists, I simply deleted my whole library, and am now redragging one playlist at a time. I will do the same with my wife's iPod and then my daughter's, being careful not to sync and overwrite them. My daughter's nano is set to auto-update so I will have to move her library to a different location, I think, so it won't auto-update and delete all her music. Help!
marmer

I haven't used it for awhile but can't you simply
download the playlist without downloading the music?
I wish, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Senuti will let you download the music IN the playlist, but not just the playlist info. Same, AFAICT, with iPodRip.
What I may do is the following:
1. Delete everything (scary).
2. Restore from my iPod first (I'm Dad, mine is biggest!).
3. Duplicate the resulting Library and playlists to a new library for my wife, and rename it.
4. Delete a few playlists she doesn't want and restore the playlists that (she wants but I don't want) from her iPod using Senuti.
5. Repeat for my daughter. She has a nano and not much music, so this will be much faster. Her tastes run to standard pop fare, no classical.
I think, when all is said and done, I will have one Music folder with all the actual MP3s, AACs, and the occasionall AIFF in it, and three libraries corresponding to the three iPods with Library subsets of the total Music folder.
Does that sound about right?
marmer

Duplicate song titles for imported CD library

Had my computer crash, but had music files backedup. Had itunes installed at the time, but not the latest version. Up and running now with XP Pro/service pack 2. I can see all my music files. Installed the new version of itunes as a new user since the harddrive was reformateed assumed this was right. Everything seemed to load fine - supposedly music files were converted, etc. When checking Music Library, I saw all my music (over 300 CD's) successfully imported and something strange was all my former playlist were listed in the playlist column. Now here is the problem - in Itunes music library, for each song there is two or three duplicates under the same CD title. When trying to make a new playlist by dragging a song over to a new playlist title, only one of the songs can be movee. The other duplicates cannot be moved and as soon as I click on one, an exclamation marked is recorded by the song. Since I've got the 40GB IPOD, I had created playlist for each artist and so just about all my music was in a playlist and is my IPOD. For the few CD's I had previoulsy added(before the crash) that were not in a playlist, these songs are not duplicated and can be moved to a new playlist with no problem. Tried the unistall and reinstall, this did not work. Tried deleting some of the old playlist, unistalling and reinstalling to see if the duplicate song title problem was solved and this did not work. Besides manually massaging my entire CD library to delete the empty song titles, is there something I can do? (By the way, the crash was a software probelm and not a hardware issue)

when I burn a cd the track listing does not show the song titles when it is in someone else's computer, but it does when it is in mine. Any suggestions?
After you burn the CD in your computer, select the CD in iTunes.
Make sure the song info is correct then menu Advanced -> Submit CD track names.
This will send the info to Gracenote, which is where iTunes (and other apps) get the track names.
Dunno about the icon.

How do I delete duplicate songs from my iphone 4s

I have tried re-syncing with my iTunes on my PC and it doesn't work. Just says "syncing" and quickly goes through the steps, and everything on the iphone is still the same. I can delete albums from my collection on my PC and they delete from the iphone, but the duplicate songs are not showing up on the PC and they are in the phone and I can't see any way to get rid of them without deleting the whole album from my collection.

I just had this happen when I wanted "normalized" music on my iPhone because I am no satisfied with sound check. All my songs still had different volumes. I turned off the cloud on my phone and added music with USB. I turned the cloud back on and I got the duplicate issue. Here is what I did to fix it:
Turn off Match on phone
Update match in iTunes from the "store" menu (see below for why this might be REALLY important.
Connect phone
Check "manually manage" in iTunes from the first tab when you click your phone in the left pane
Open the "tree" for you iPhone in iTunes by clicking the triangle.
Select "music" in that tree.
Delete all the Music from the phone.
Sync it.
Eject phone.
Turn match back on and download music via the iPhone but this takes a while.
or I just reconnected it, then went to the music tab for the phone ticked the sync option and checked the playlists I wanted. I synced it. I then made sure "manually manage" was checked in first tab, then went into the left pane and deleted the playlists. This leaves the music on the iPhone but not the playlists. I ejected and turned on match on the phone.
My guess is there is a glitch where identical playlists from the cloud seemed to conflict with the ones physically on the phone and / or iTunes match could not match the physical files on the phone. It seems my metadata for the files "seemed" different than the ones in the cloud. Running RealPlay gain on my library is suspect for my issue so if something happened on your computer that changed the data about your files even without you knowing, this might be the issue. It is merely a hypothesis but it seems logical. Resyncing match then putting the newly understood match on the phone seems to resolve my issue.

Empty Playlists & Duplicate Songs!

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