Fixing duplicates in iTunes

Several years ago, I moved my itunes library to an external hard drive. At some point, another library was created on my macbook resulting in duplicates songs in itunes.  How can I easily consolidate my libraries into one place and remove duplicates? Maybe I need to move the external library back to the macbook?I can't easily see where the song is located in itunes (maybe I'm not looking in the correct place?) or I could delete the songs one at a time (yuck!). Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

In my opinion the only safe way to deal with duplicates is one by one.
How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2905
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://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/dupin.php (commercial)
http://www.hardcoded.net/dupeguru_me/
http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/tunesweeper/index.php

Similar Messages

  • I'm getting duplicates in iTunes

    I'm getting duplicates. Over 300 songs were added to my library today & I didn't download or add any songs. I now have 2 file types for many songs (mp4 & mp3). The mp4 version is the older one & the new ones added are all mp3's. Is it something in my settings?

    Hello OtisMeister,
    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!
    Sounds like somehow duplicates of your content are appearing in iTunes. I would start by seeing of any 3rd party plugins are installed and see if removing them fixes the issue.
    iTunes: Troubleshooting issues with third-party iTunes plug-ins
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3430
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    How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2905
    Then
    iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
    All the very best,
    Sterling

  • When i try to boot itunes, screen goes black and a message pops up and says not compatible with the visual elements. how do i fix this? itunes wont even open at this point. please help. thanks :)

    When i try to boot itunes, screen goes black and a message pops up and says not compatible with the visual elements. how do i fix this? itunes wont even open at this point. please help. thanks

    Let's first try the following document, only be sure that none of the boxes in the compatibility mode tab are checked (not just the compatibility mode box itself):
    iTunes for Windows: How to turn off Compatibility Mode

  • HT2905 Is there a way to automatically delete exact duplicates in iTunes 11

    Has anyone found a way to automatically delete Exact Duplicates from iTunes 11.  As I read the instructions, it can only be done by comparing the songs with the same title, making sure that it is the same album, etc.  Then I have been going through the duplicates and pressing CTRL in Windows to select the next duplicate song to delete.  I have a very large library and this is going to take hours.
    I guess I didn't get the instructions correctly when I backed up my Library to move from an old laptop to a new one.  I am going to have to go back and read those again because this brand new HP is having problems like the past few that I have received from HP.  I will never recommend an HP Product, I can tell you that.
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    When deduping use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items 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. 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)
    See also HT2905: How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library.
    (Duplicate link)
    If you still have the original library on the old laptop see this  migrate iTunes library post. It may be easier and/or better to redo the transfer...
    tt2

  • Duplicates in iTunes Lib

    Hi, I have a fairly large song collection (>120Gb) kept in the iTune lib (iTunes lib on the primary c drive). The song files are kept in a external disc drive (windows pc). Somehow, I must have imported my CDs into the iTune lib more than once. I now have dups listed in the iTunes lib. I only have one copy of the song on my disc drive. I can manually delete the dup song from iTune lib and answer the subsequent question to keep the file (I answer yes).
    How can I have iTunes do my manual work to eliminate the duplicates in the iTunes lib?

    *How can I have iTunes do my manual work to eliminate the duplicates in the iTunes lib*?
    You can't, deleting duplicates using iTunes alone is a manual process. Did you create the duplicates today or recently on a particular date you know? Right click at the top of any column in your library and from the list choose Date Added. Click at the top of the column and sort it to bring the latest dates to the top. If you did it today all your duplicates should have today's date. Select all the tracks with today's date and delete them. If they were done on a particular date then delete the entries for that date. You could also have a look at Teridon's iTunes Scripts, Robert has a script in there for dealing with duplicates which might be of some help: Teridon's iTunes for Windows Scripts

  • Duplicates in iTunes Music Folder but not in iTunes

    If this has been addressed already, please forgive me, but in my User>Music>iTunes Music Folder each of over 6000 songs has a duplicate.
    They don't show up as duplicates in iTunes or under Show Duplicates.
    Is there anyway I can get rid of the 6000+ extra tunes other than clicking on each duplicate and dragging it to the trash?
    tia,
    Bob

    Steve,
    I started over by trashing everything in my User > iTunes file and relaunched iTunes.
    Then I went to iTunes Menu > File > Add to Library where I re-imported all of my tunes into iTunes from by backup file on my external hard drive.
    I then Consolidated the library (whatever that means); now, I'm back in business.
    Here is a link that might help indirectly: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329
    hth, Bob
    p.s. If you don't have your music backed up externally, you can get the tunes into iTunes directly from you iPod using this: http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/

  • Duplicates in iTunes Music folder

    I just noticed that all of the m4a music files stored in my iTunes music folder have duplicates. This does not seem to be the case for mp3 files. These are not duplicates in iTunes--when I show duplicates in iTunes, I don't have any, even though the files are all listed twice on my hard drive. Why did this happen?

    You probably added the files to the iTunes library with the copy to iTunes library location.
    This will leave the originals where they were and then make a copy in the iTunes library.

  • Duplicates in iTunes 11

    How to group and delete duplicates in iTunes 11?

    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 find/get rid of duplicates in iTunes 11?

    I have to many duplicates on iTunes, and i know there was an option before to find and get rid of duplicates on the old version of itunes. is there a way to do it on the new iTunes 11?

    Apple has removed that feature along with several others, but
    (5/12/2012) Missing 'Find Duplicates' feature in iTunes 11 to be restored - http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57557280-263/missing-find-duplicates-featur e-in-itunes-11-to-be-restored/    "Some of the features Apple has removed from iTunes will see a return, but others may indicate changes to come elsewhere in Apple's product lines."
    Until then you will have to resort to sorting by a particular label such as artist and manually scanning, third party utilities such as Dougscripts Dupin to deal with duplicates, or revert back to iTunes 10.7.

  • Keep getting 'The file iTunes cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes' how do I fix this so iTunes will open on my computer

    I Keep getting 'The file iTunes cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes' how do I fix this so iTunes will open on my computer.  I am running Windows 7 and I think the last time I synced or tried to open iTunes I was running windows XP, but I am not sure. 

    See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash.
    tt2

  • How do you display exact duplicates in Itunes 11. It is now missung under the file?

    How do you display exact duplicates in Itunes 11. It is now missung under the file?

    Right-click on this direct link to ExactDuplicates and "download" or "save link as..." to a location of your choice. Double-click to the file to run it. You should get something a bit like this:
    If your system will allow it my script will produce a progress bar so you can see what is going on, otherwise you will have to be patient, it will carry on working in the background.
    After scanning for duplicates it then adds them to a new playlist. For large libraries this process can be quite slow. (Very slow if you also have old hardware like me.)
    Finally you'll get a results window like this (from a different test run, as I didn't have time for the full one to finish when I was grabbing screenshots).
    You can use shift-delete to remove selected tracks from the library as well as the playlist. Leave at least one track behind from each repeated group and don't send anything to the recycle bin unless you are sure you have more than one physical copy.
    The DeDuper script has several advantages over cleaning by hand. Automating the process allows preservation & amalgamation of ratings, play counts, playlist membership, etc. See this thread for more detail.
    tt2

  • Where is the Show Duplicates in iTunes 11

    Where is the function show duplicates in iTunes 11

    I use a tool called "Dupin Lite" to search for duplicates.  It can be found in the App Store which You have to pay for.

  • HT2905 how do I get rid of duplicates in iTunes 11

    I would like to get rid of duplicates in iTunes 11 which all the posts only help for earlier versions.

    The instructions here are still basically the same, but the command has been moved to the View menu now and relabled "Show Duplicate Items". There are also third-party utilities that can provide more functionality, such as Dupin:
    http://dougscripts.com/apps/dupinapp.php
    Regards.

  • HT2905 What happened to the "Display Duplicates" in iTunes 11?

    Just updated to iTunes 11 and thought I'd do a little cleaning up.  But I can't find the File > Display Duplicates or better yet, the File > Display Exact Duplicates.  Is it gone?  Or is there now a different (hopefullly better!) way to get rid of duplicates in iTunes 11? 

    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. 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 tobackup 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 tobackup applies.
    tt2

  • HT2905 How to show duplicates in iTunes 11?

    there is no "show duplicates" in iTunes 11 file menu
    how to find duplicates?

    StalkingCrow wrote:
    Show duplicates is now under VIEW in iTunes 11.  Just use the drop down menu to select between music, movies, etc.  Then go to view>show duplicates.  Then you can just select all and delete.
    But that is precisely what you should not do. iTunes doesn't distinguish between "originals" and "duplicates", you have to decide which is which. If you delete them all you have nothing left.
    If you want to manually remove duplicate tracks keep one of each repeated group of files and don't send the others to the trash unless you are sure that there are multiple files on the drive as opposed to multiple entries to the same file.
    tt2

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