How to delete songs with exclamation mark and duplicates?

I have a large iTunes library, around 600GB. Due to a HDD failure some of the files are no longer in existance and so show up with a '!' in front of them. Is there a way to automatically find all of these and delete them?
In addition, according to iTunes, using the 'Show Duplicate' feature, I have around 50,000 files that are duplicates. Is there a way to sort this out (not manually)?

For the dead tracks, there is http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=removedeadsuper - I'm currently running it now.

Similar Messages

  • Deleting Songs with Exclamation Mark (!) in Bulk

    I have hundreds of songs, all (I think) duplicates that have an exclamation mark in the left most column. All these need to be deleted - is there a quick way of doing this or do they all have to be done manually.
    I can't work out how to order the first column to put them all together. And I realise they represent songs that iTunes can't find.
    Thanks...

    You can do this with a script called itunesremovenotfound which you can find here:
    http://home.comcast.net/~teridon73/itunesscripts/
    Or if you prefer to say in iTunes, iT can be done with a combination of playlists:
    Create new regular playlist – Playlist1
    Select whole library and drag to Playlist1
    Create new Smart Playlist with the rule: Playlist is not Playlist1
    This playlist should contain all the dead tracks
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5696793#5696793
    Once you have all the dead tracks in a playlist, they can be deleted together.

  • ITunes Match sometimes skips / plays songs with exclamation marks

    Using iTunes Match (v10.5.3) from my MacBook (OS X 10.6.8) I synched about 60G of music located on an external hard drive connected to my home-based AirPort Extreme base station into Apple's cloud. It works great from my iPhone and the iMac in my remote office, but occasionally when I connect with my MacBook I get these confounding exclamation marks between the song list number and the selection check box.
    When this happens and I attempt to play a song with an exclamation mark sometimes iTunes prompts me to connect to the hard drive connected to the Airport and when I don't the exlamation points appear. Other times I can play the songs, but only if I individually select them; otherwise it skips all the songs with exclamation marks until it finds a local song (or recording) (i.e. without an exclamation mark).
    Sometimes restarting iTunes gets rid of the exclamation marks, sometimes it doesn't. I've noticed that I often have this problem when I upload new music to the Airport-connected hard drive. But sometimes it happens without me uploading.
    Through trial and error I'm starting to get a sense of what's happening but it still feels kind of arbitrary. Can someone explain what's happening?
    Many thanks in advance.

    The problem is that iTunes thinks the external HDD is not connected so it can't find the actual song files. So the problem you need to solve is why is the external HDD not connected.

  • I have duplicates, triplicates and songs with exclamation marks.

    I keep an external drive for iTunes. When I reinstalled iTunes and pointed it to that drive, it imported my playlists, but the songs have exclamation marks. When I click on a song a window pops up asking if I want to locate that list; then the beachball kicks in and I have to perform a force quit.
    Now I have three of every playlist and in the Music library, duplicate songs, some with [!] and some without.
    Can/should I start over? If so, what are the steps?
    Thanks.

    to take care of dupes:
    _*How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library*_
    or [_*Araxis Find Duplicate Files*_|http://www.araxis.com/find-duplicate-files> (free trial)
    or [Dupin|http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/dupin.php] (commercial).
    JGG

  • I'm finding that songs that I have imported to Itunes are suddenly showing with "Exclamation" marks and Itunes tells me that the original file cannot be found.  When I tell it to locate the file, it can't do it.

       I'm finding that songs that I have imported into Itunes and played before are suddenly showing an"Exclamation" mark and Itunes tells me that the original file cannot be found.  When I tell it to locate the file, it can't do it.  I went to the Itunes help for locating files, but that still won't do it.  It seems that somehow they are getting deleted, but not by me that I know of.
    Can anyone help me?

    Maybe you rename it. Somehow the path to the songs have changed if not deleted.
    In Finder go to "Macintosh/Users/username/music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music" that's where all your songs located so if those songs are not there you get an exclamation mark. You can delete those entries in iTunes and re-import again.

  • File with exclamation mark and cannot connect

    My ipod stopped working. I had a low battery so I charged it. Now when I try to turn it on, it just churns and churns and then the file with exclamation mark comes on the screen. Also, when I try to connect it to my computer, the computer doesn't recognize it.

    Unbelieveable, since last Saturday, I needed to fix up 3 iPods with similar problems from family members and friends, 2 connected with PC and 1 with Mac. I guess it will be a good idea if I can share with you all and hope that it can give you some hints when you try to fix yours before sending it for repairing.
    Before you do anything I suggest that you should read the following carefully..
    http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/index.html
    Most problems came from the iPod not being recongzied by the computer (mainly PC and I find it less often with Mac). Second issue is iPod not being charged for quite some time.
    I must say that I am not an expert but I did learn something during the past experience on fixing for more than 10 iPods but none of them are shuffle.
    The first thing you need to do is plug your iPod directly to the AC charger not the USB of your computer, and leave it for 2-3 hours and most of the time you will able to wake up your iPod.
    Secondly, do a reset of your iPod when it hangs, it is simple just press "Select"+"Menu" keys, which will not erase your data of your iPod.
    In case the above both do not manage to fix your iPod problem then you may force to do the following, but it will erase all your data therefore it is always to be wise to have a backup before your iPod got problem.
    1. Reinstall the latest iPod updater after the reset
    If 1 still not able to recongize your iPod by the computer then you have to put your iPod to DiskMode i.e. plug your iPod to the AC charges, do a RESET and press "Select"+"Play" keys, you will see the message "Disk Mode" in few sec. Then you need to connect your iPod with your computer, and hope that it will be recongized. If you are lucky to reach this stage then you simply need to restore your iPod updater, and your iPod should be back to normal.Please note that You may need to plug and unplug few times in order to let your iPod to be recongized.
    If your iPod still not able to be recongized then you have to format your iPod while it is in a Disk Mode, you need to use the Disk Utility software (for Mac - I am not sure about PC) to erase the Partition of your iPod then do a formatting and disk verify straight after. Then you should able to reach the final stage i.e. restore the latest iPod updater and sysc your iPod with your iTune.
    Additional hints which may help your during the fixing ..
    1. Try to do few attempts, which could take you as long as 1 hour
    2. Try to exchange cables to connect with your computer i.e. USB and Firewire
    3. If you fail to solve your iPod with your PC then try to fix it with Mac and vice versa. Surprisingly, I do have experience that the iPod got recognized by my Mac after I connected it with a PC
    Above are my experience and I am glad that more than 90% chance I am able to solve the iPods' problem with only one iPod Mini needed to be repaired.
    Good luck and hope it works in your case

  • Exclamation marks and duplicates

    A while ago I messed up when copying my library to and exhd. Anyway I have cocked up again in a different way and I have 3 copies of songs in my itunes library, one of each has no tick next to it because I went through the whole library weeks ago and unchecked one of everything, these also have an exclamation mark next to them. Then some have exclamation marks and ticks.
    Confused? I am!
    Anyway what I want to know is whether I can somehow delete the whole library and then just somehow get one of everything back, or somehow bulk delete these exclamation lists?
    My ipod is on autosync so I daren't connect it incase I lose some things or end up with tthousands of duplicates on the ipod.
    Any help appreciated....

    iTunes Library.itl in the iTunes folder is the file where iTunes stores the information about your library, tracks, ratings, counts, playlists.
    You drag it to the desk top so iTunes can't find it and creates a new empty library. The desktop is just a convenient place to put it without deleting it, you might want to put it back.
    When you add your music folder to iTunes, all the tracks with exclamation marks will be gone and you will only have entries for the files actually in your iTune music folder. This only addresses tracks with exclamation marks which are dead links, it does nothing about duplicate files.

  • Trying to create a new playlist but several songs are marked with exclamation mark and will not transfer into playlist - any advice?

    I have never had trouble creating playlists before but quite a few songs will not transfer and ate marked at the side with an exclamation mark.  I know ZERO about technology so if you can help me in very simple language, I would be very grateful!  I am wondering if it may have something to do with the fact that I have had to start new accounts when I have moved countries, on order to be able to use the credit card of the new country in the Itunes store of that country... I am in Aus and have bought a lot of tunes here but last year I was living in Brunei and, in order to use my brunei credit card ( as it was the only one with money in it) , I had to set it up as different to my Aus account.  Could this be the issue?  prior to Aus my account was in Ireland.  I have paid for all these songs but it seems I cannot now use some of them... Please help!!!  Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer, Lisa

    The exclamation mark next to a song means it is no longer where iTunes is looking for it. iTunes won't let you add such "missing" songs to a playlist. Possible reasons for a song going missing are that you or some third party software has moved or deleted it, or a folder that contained it, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter, or a configuration file has changed making iTunes look in a slightly different place from before.
    Select one of the songs with an exclamation mark, press CTRL+I to Get Info, say no when prompted to locate it, then note down the location from the Summary tab that begins file://localhost/ - please post back this path as given. Hopefully you can find the file this entry in your library is supposed to be connected to. Assuming you can please post back this path as well. These two items of information may suggest a fix through folder manipulation or a configuration change.
    If things have got a little more disorganized then, as long as the tracks still exist to be found, my FindTracks script should be able to reconnect them to iTunes. FindTracks uses some fuzzy matching routines and searches for multiple potential locations. For more details see this thread. Start by selecting the tracks of a single album and then run the script. Your media folder should normally be detected automatically, e.g. as C:\Users\<User>\iTunes\iTunes Media, but you can edit the path if it is wrong or a particular batch of lost files are stored at another path. If it works as expected you can then move on to fixing the rest of the library in bigger batches.
    tt2

  • I recently removed duplicate songs in iTunes. Now my library has a bunch of songs with exclamation marks by them.  How do I get all my iTunes working again, but remove all the duplicate files?

    I had manually deleted a number of duplicate iTunes that I originally have as mp3s.  I want to only have one iTune of each song, but they do need to be working copies.  However now, I have a bunch of iTunes that will not play now and they have an exclamation mark beside them.  How do I get these working again and still only have one copy of them?

    I suspect you might have been suffering from logical duplicates. See this  thread for a discussion of the topic. Restore any files that are in your recycle bin, import any disconnected media either by adding the media folder to your library or using a tool such as iTunes Folder Watch. Once the files are back in your libray you can use the methods I outline in that thread or my DeDuper script to tidy up.
    tt2

  • How do i group all songs with exclamation marks

       How can I get all of those songs (that show exclamation marks following consolidating files) to group so that i can delete enmasse

    Not easily, use iTunes Folder Watch and set it's option to check for dead tracks on start-up.
    tt2

  • How to delete songs with ios 7

    I don't know how to delete my songs that I want to delete on my  music

    Everyone,
    In order to delete some of the songs that are not delete(able?) you have to first re-download them from the cloud. There just seems to be some confusion with the itunes match having songs show up that are not actually on your machine therefore, you aren't able to delte them.
    -'Settings > Music' and toggle OFF "Show All Music"
    -delete all the songs you are able to download.
    -make a note of all teh songs you can't and then,
    -'Settings > Music' and toggle ON "Show All Music"
    -go back to iTunes on your device and re-download (click on the cloud icon) all the songs you noted in the last step
    -Once they're all downloaded on to your device,
    -go back to 'Settings > Music' and toggle OFF "Show All Music"
    and the songs you donwloaded should be the only ones showing up.
    -Delete those and you should have a "media on deivce" or something
    -go back to 'Settings > Music' and toggle ON "Show All Music"
    -and you should have a clean iTunes Match library.

  • Folder icon with exclamation mark and no comms with laptop whatsoever!!!

    My mini ipod has taken me to my wits end. My ipod always opens with a folder icon with an exclamation mark. I can get it in to disk mode but my laptop doesn't see it whether I'm using itunes, explorer, or updater. When the mini ipod is plugged into my laptop it displays 'do not disconnect' and the circular arrows in the top left hand corner are displayed but they aren't moving. I've been all over the website but everything seems to assume I can communicate with the **** thing. Restore seems to be the preferred option but as I can't communicate with it that isn't possible as far as I can see. This happened when I tried to updated ipod software from version 1.3 to version 1.4. It's not possible to go back as I can't communicate with the ipod in order to perform this task. It's going to get lobbed out of a high building soon and replaced with a Sony......can any get me out of this hole???
    mini ipod   Windows XP  

    Further to what I've said I've been all over the discussion posts on this site, and the help pages, but I've been unable to find a suitable answer!!
    My mini ipod has taken me to my wits end. My ipod
    always opens with a folder icon with an exclamation
    mark. I can get it in to disk mode but my laptop
    doesn't see it whether I'm using itunes, explorer, or
    updater. When the mini ipod is plugged into my
    laptop it displays 'do not disconnect' and the
    circular arrows in the top left hand corner are
    displayed but they aren't moving. I've been all over
    the website but everything seems to assume I can
    communicate with the **** thing. Restore seems to be
    the preferred option but as I can't communicate with
    it that isn't possible as far as I can see. This
    happened when I tried to updated ipod software from
    version 1.3 to version 1.4. It's not possible to go
    back as I can't communicate with the ipod in order to
    perform this task. It's going to get lobbed out of a
    high building soon and replaced with a Sony......can
    any get me out of this hole???
    mini ipod   Windows XP  

  • How-to find all songs with exclamation mark?

    Hi,
    Is it possible to have iTunes show all songs for which it can't find the file? The external hard disk with all the songs failed and I want to verify that I have restored all of the library.
    Regards,
    Al Malin
    iMac 17 Flat Panel w/Super Dr   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   iTunes 7.0.1

    Here's a few scripts which should help.
    Super Remove Dead Tracks v1.5
    Bring Out Yer Dead v1.1
    Fix Broken Tracks
    iTunes Track CPR v1.3
    List MIAs v1.2
    Remove Dead Tracks v1.1

  • Deleting tracks with exclamation marks

    Does anybody know if there is an easy way to delete all the songs from my library that have exclamtion marks next to them. I recently categorised all my music on my harddrive into Genre specific folders thus moving the files. I also have songs still listed there that I have deleted.
    Because I have so many 'dead' files listed and they are so widely dispersed my library is huge when infact i think only around 500 of the songs actually work. Just to make clear - i dont want to find the files - i know how to do that. I want to delete the dead ones.
    Cheers
      Windows XP  

    Pay a visit to Otto 42's website and download the easier-to-use iTunes script zip file .
    When you set it up on your computer, there's an option to "Remove Dead Tracks from iTunes Library".

  • How to delete songs permenently from iTunes and iCloud delete permenently

    I have songs that won't go away. It's like they keep popping up. No matter how many times I delete them they show back up. Seriously painful cause, their haunted!

    Michael,
          It's Jimmy..
    Sorry, I don't wish to insult your intellegence.
    I don't know what you mean. I delete them
    then there's a cloud hovering there. I feel
    after awhile they find their way back through
    iCloud. I wish the songs I delete would
    disappear. But even with the iCloud logo
    they still play. On my iPhone 4s 64gb.
    I feel you understand what I said. Only,
    what do I do to get your instructions to
    work. And thank you very much by the way..

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