Itunes duplicates my music library

itunes duplicates my music library

If you are on Version 11.0.1 rather than 11 Apple put it back in
View > Show Duplicates
Option + View > Show Exact Duplicates
so if you are on 11 upgrade to 11.0.1 and you will have it

Similar Messages

ITunes duplicates whole music library

Hi everyone,
I have just moved to a SSD to use in my Mac Mini. The drive is too small to store my iTunes library so I am using a external HDD to store the library on. I copied the whole iTunes folder to the external drive from my backup, then openned up iTunes and changed the location of my iTunes library to the location I saved the iTunes folder on the HDD. I then selected file>library>import playlist and imported the 'iTunes Library.xml" file and iTunes went to importing everything, and its still going. The thing is, iTunes has decided to create a new folder called 'Music' in the iTunes folder and copy all the music to it. This means I have an 'iTunes music' folder and a 'music' folder which both contain the same music, and take up a whole lot of hard drive space.
Is this normal behaviour? And when iTunes has finished importing everything, which folder should I delete?
Cheers
Tom

You don't change the location from inside iTunes. That just changes where iTunes puts the media but not the whole collection. Note the difference between the two procedures below (you should use the first one).
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the whole iTunes folder and all its subfolders and files intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.

How to make iTunes recognize the music library in my external hard drive after instaIling Yosemite?

How to make iTunes recognize the music library in my external hard drive after instaIling Yosemite? I tried re-setting the media folder location, but it didn't work. What else should I do?

The issue is not related to the external drive. iTunes Match has difficulties matching tracks ripped fom CDs because they may differ slightly from the versions on sale in iTunes. You can try the match again. Otherwise do a search of this forum. There are already many discussions on this subject here that may help you.

HT2470 Why won't Itunes store my music library in my User/Music Folder, if I select my user name as a storage location in Itunes, Itunes creates folders for artist name right in my user folder, instead of in my user/music folder

Why won't Itunes store my music library in my User/Music Folder?
If I select my user name as a storage location in Itunes, Itunes creates folders for artist name right in my user folder, instead of in my user/music folder. This gets especially annoying because if I tell Itunes to store my "media" in my user/music folder, Itunes will then create a folder named "music" in my "music" folder and will also create additional folders in my user/music folder location to store other non-music media in as well. It is very annoying to see this lack of affinity for folders between two Apple created programs.

Help iTunes locate your media folder:
No content shows up in iTunes after updating
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967

I used the youtube mp3 converter via Safari and I can't find where the music downloaded to. It isn't in iTunes or my music library. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I used the youtube mp3 converter via Safari and I can't find where the music downloaded to. It isn't in iTunes or my music library. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I should say that I am doing this on the iPhone4 and not a laptop.

I believe that there is an app called MxTube that lets you download high quality youtube videos to your iPhone

Numerious duplicates in music library after receiving Itunes update

Since upgrading to Itunes 10.5.3.3 my music library has numerous duplicates. I have found that I can only delete them sungularly. Is there a way to do multiple delete's in one stroke? What caused this in the first place?

I've written a script called DeDuper which can help remove unwanted duplicates. See this thread for background.
tt2

Re-ripping CD's in lossless creates duplicates in music library

Hi,
My music has already been ripped into iTunes using AAC 256kbps which is fine for mobile music. I'm planning on picking up an Apple TV for a music only server to my home music system and I want to re-rip my music into iTunes using Apple Lossless. I created a new folder under playlists for the lossless music but duplicate copies remain in the music library! Is there a way for me to re-rip my music and have it in one folder and not have the duplicates in the music library? Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
Brent

I think I understand what you want to do.
I have about 200 CD's and a dozen albums bought from the iTunes Store. I thought about ripping all my CD's in Lossless format and then creating AAC versions from these. Music streamed to my Airport Express should be Lossless whenever possible, while music on my iPhone should only be AAC versions.
In iTunes, the "Music" category will contain both versions, as "Music" is your music library. You can create smart playlists to select only Lossless or AAC versions, but you can't have "Music" show only one of these versions.
At the moment, iTunes isn't able to handle the same song in different formats (the way I want it to). Ideally, there would be an option like "Prefer Lossless version" or "Use AAC versions when syncing iPhone/iPod" or something like that. You could also use two separate iTunes libraries (start iTunes while holding the Option key).
Kind regards,
Michael

Installed ITunes 8 - entire music library lost - hangs if I try to add fold

I just installed iTunes 8 after having been prompted to do so.
When I first opened it the app started to render my album covers, and then stopped.
I was curious about the genius feature, so I enabled that, and it said it was active, but then nothing showed in my music library at all -- no covers, not a single track.
I tried re-adding the folder where I store my music, I get a processing message, but then it just hangs.
I ended the task, tried adding a single song -- that song added successfully, so I added one more -- also OK, and they could play. So I tried adding the whole folder again - hangs.
End task again.
Re-open - the songs I added manually aren't there anymore. Every time I add a song, it shows temporarily, then when I exit and go back in the whole list is erased again.
At the file system level the folder where it stores all the info about music is COMPLETELY EMPTY: \\server\users\myusername\my documents\my music\itunes\itunes music\
That folder used to have hundreds of folders and files? What the heck happened? Where are my files?
Is this a bug or just some weird issue on the x64 version of Vista that happens when you have my documents folder re-direction turned on? This wasn't a problem with v7.x

Copying the old iTunes Library (from the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder) didn't work for me. iTunes went through its typical "Updating iTunes Library" routine the next time I launched, and any attempt to add a folder of files to my library still returns Error 13014.
Message was edited by: iphone-pwner

How can I burn an audio CD in iTunes with my music library on an external drive?

I keep my entire music library on an external hard drive. I just tried to burn a playlist in iTunes, and iTunes goes through all of the motions (asks for a blank cd, says it's burning) and then it says "Finishing burning" for a while. Then iTunes tells me I have a blank CD in my computer.
I fear the issue is that the music is not on my computer. However, I've added all of the music folders to iTunes, and it plays them off of my external hard drive.
Please help! Thanks.

Great suggestion. I had quickly considered burning a disc outside of iTunes with Burnz only to learn that trial period had ended. So...thanks to your 2x4 blow to my head, I tried a Finder burn and got an error, too: The disc can’t be burned, because the device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media. Doing a big of research indicates this might be simply a dust problem in my MacBook and can be resolved with some compressed air. Checking my toolbox shortly and I'll report back! Thanks!

HT1751 Why can't iTunes handle a music library on an external drive?

I put all my music files on an external drive and imported them into iTunes. So far so good. The first time you run iTunes while the drive is disconnected - all your songs suddenly have that dreaded exclamation point next to them. Yes, while the drive is connected, I can still go to any song and double-click it to play; but the vast majority of songs stays "exclamated" and greyed-out. Shuffle ignores them. Even if I use some method to re-recognize all my songs, next time I open iTunes without first attaching the drive, it'll all go down the drain again.
Apple - this MacBook air is great but it only comes with 256 GB of built-in storage. I HAVE to use an external drive in order to have my music library. Why can't the MacBook recognize the drive, remember it, and know when it's connected and when it isn't?

If you mistakenly open iTunes with the drive disconnected, close iTunes, connect the drive, open iTunes, then visit iTunes > Preferences > Advanced and reset the media folder to the external drive.
Better yet is to move the iTunes library folder into the root of the external drive as <Device>/iTunes, then connect to it by holding down option as you start iTunes. Once iTunes "knows" your library is on the external drive it will complain of a missing library when you try to start with the drive disconnected. Cancel the warning, connect the drive, start iTunes.
For maximum portability you should set the media folder to <Device>/iTunes/iTunes Media and consolidate the media to that folder. You should then backup the drive to another for security.
tt2

HT1364 How to install iTunes, but access music library from external drive?

I tried to install iTunes (11) on a new computer with Windows 8. I keep the iTunes library on an external drive. I tried to move the media files over to the newly installed iTunes within the hard drive program files, but it doesn't seem to work. The relevant threads in the forum are a bit over my head (I am brand new to Windows 8, having leaped over from XP). Is there some simple way to straighten out the paths on iTunes so that it will properly play songs from the external drive, show my old songlists, etc?
I've now uninstalled iTunes from computer. Would like to reinstall without too much headache ...

Hello there FunkyMuzak,
iTunes can be set to use the library on the external drive, and save new content.
To have iTunes open the alternate library on the drive use this option:
Steps to create or choose a different iTunes Library file
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
If you are using Windows, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu and choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.
If you are using the Mac, open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option key.
You should see one of the following screens:
From: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1589
And to tell iTunes to save your new media when you buy songs or movies, etc., use this part of our article named Where are my iTunes files located? found here http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Discovering and changing the iTunes Media folder location
Note: You would usually only change the iTunes Media folder location to share music between accounts on the same computer. See this article for specific steps on how to accomplish this. Also, see this article if you want to know how to move your music to a new computer.
Mac OS X: Click the iTunes menu and choose Preferences.
Windows: Click the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced pane. iTunes displays the location of your iTunes Media folder.
You can then:
Note where your media folder is, such as for backing up your media.
Use the Reset button to reset it's location to the default (which is the iTunes folder).
Click the Change button to select a folder for a new location. Once you change this location:
If you make a new or alternate iTunes library, the new location will be used by that library.
Existing files will not be moved unless you choose File > Library > Organize library and choose the option to "Consolidate files."
Cheers,
Sterling

Updated to itunes 7 and music library appears empty

Upgraded from itunes 6 to 7. Open itunes and nothing displays from the Music Library. I changed the Prefs/Advanced/General itunes music folder to point to where my music folder is but it still doesn't display anything in that folder. When I used itunes 6 I created a music folder in My Document/My iTunes/My Music. All my music is still there but itunes 7 won't display it. How do I fix this?

That little lock usually indicates that the iPod is set to autosync. In order to play iPod content through iTunes, you have to be on manual sync.

How do I see total number of songs in itunes 11.0 music library?

I can see the total number of songs in my playlists but not in my music library in itunes 11.0. Can anyone help. Is there an instruction book available for the new version of itunes 11.0?

When I go to view and 'show status bar' I still am not seeing the total number of songs in my 'music' library.

ITunes and entire music library lost in compute crash... help needed please

Evening everyone.
I lost my iTunes and complete library in computer crash, but music is still on my 4G iPod touch.
Can I use this to copy my music library back to my PC?
Thanks
Anna Marie

Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities

Itunes organised my music library in to Artists!

I thought that I would organise my Music Library and delete a few things that I didn't really need. But I have found out that Itunes has organised my music into Artists! I have quite a lot of compilation albums and now I have hundreds of folders with just one artist in. Making it very hard to organise and delete some of the things I do not need! Is there anyway that this can be sorted out? I would hugely appreciate the help.
Thank you in advance,
Archie

If you do your deleting through iTunes itself, you can sort by any criteria you want. Note also tha, if you delete or reorganize files using the Finder, iTunes won't recognize what you've done.

Itunes duplicates my music library

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