How do i stop iTunes duplicating files?

I have read the past years posts; I do believe they answer this question.
I deleted all the giga bites of duplicate files in the iTunes directory - this took about 5 hours. I then selected edit -> preferences -> advanced and turned off 'keep itunes media folder organised' and 'Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library'. I then - heroically - added in the user folder to itunes and let it run for 15 minutes. Itunes has re-created the duplicates. I'm very unhappy (but am not expecting you to help me with this). But, can you tell me how i stop itunes duplicating all my files when i add in the root folder to iTunes? Please.
More details. When i add the music into iTunes, the files i saved were all the full music title. Itunes duplicates these in two ways. When it simply doubles the number of files, it does so by concatenating the artist's name to the start of the track name separating it from the track name with a '-' and truncating the track name if required. When it triplicates the file name it adds a 1 to the end of the concatenated file name.
I'd really appreciate some help on this, even it it is simply pointing me towards an answer elsewhere on the web. Thank you very much!

robin_lbs wrote:
I have read the past years posts; I do believe they answer this question.
I deleted all the giga bites of duplicate files in the iTunes directory - this took about 5 hours. I then selected edit -> preferences -> advanced and turned off 'keep itunes media folder organised' and 'Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library'. I then - heroically - added in the user folder to itunes and let it run for 15 minutes. Itunes has re-created the duplicates. I'm very unhappy (but am not expecting you to help me with this). But, can you tell me how i stop itunes duplicating all my files when i add in the root folder to iTunes? Please.
More details. When i add the music into iTunes, the files i saved were all the full music title. Itunes duplicates these in two ways. When it simply doubles the number of files, it does so by concatenating the artist's name to the start of the track name separating it from the track name with a '-' and truncating the track name if required. When it triplicates the file name it adds a 1 to the end of the concatenated file name.
I'd really appreciate some help on this, even it it is simply pointing me towards an answer elsewhere on the web. Thank you very much!
The behavior by which iTunes does or does not re-add files it is given is a bit confusing. If the files are located outside the iTunes Media folder, and the library version has been edited since they were added, iTunes will create a new one.
In any case, simply re-adding the whole root folder is asking for trouble.
Message was edited by: ed2345

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