Itunes folder on external: every song has a duplicate

I looked at my external HD itunes music folder and every song has an exact duplicate. ie) song.mp3 has a sister song.mp3...although in my actual itunes program only one is listed, there are no duplicates. My ipod also only syncs to the itunes program and only is syncing one song not the dupes. I don't know how it happened but it is obviously taking up double the space on the external. Other than going through and spending two hours deleting one of the files (and not knowing which one to delete) what can I do to dump the dupes. I clicked a few of them and they both open equally no matter which one I click...so I know that they are exact dupes. Thanks

One thing that I found is that the external reads song.mp3 and then another reads song1.mp3 etc...same file size etc just a "1" after the dupes. Any new CD I load does not dupe... I had an old macbook and now have the new imac.

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I just installed iTunes on my new computer and transferred all my files, but now every song has a duplicate

Hi everyone. CAn someone help me wiht this problem? I recently bought a new Windows 8 machine and transferred all my music onto the new computer. When I installed iTunes and loaded all of my music, every song title has been duplicated. When you click on the first title, iTunes tells you it can't find the file. The second title will play. Is there some easy way to fix this problem without manually deleting all of the duplicate titles?

First and foremost, learn punctuation and capitalization so we can read what you're writing properly.

Every song has a duplicate how can I eliminate the duplicates?

When my ITunes updated to the new version it didn't read the songs from the H-Drive and could not locate them, instead it defaulted to the C-Drive. I redownloaded the files into ITunes so they could be located. Now I have two sets for every song. One that is rated and still can't locate and one that is not rated but can locate the songs.
My goal is to eliminate all the songs with out ratings and to keep the songs with ratings and get the system to be able to play them. Hopefully there is a way to do this easily.
I hope this makes sense and I hope someone can help me.
Thanks in advance.

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I put all my itunes folder on external hard drive, now I want to put it back on the mac how do i do this

put all my itunes folder on external hard drive, now I want to put it back on the mac how do i do this.

Drag the entire iTunes folder back to /Music.

Having moved my Itunes folder to external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences Itunes can't find them and I have to direct it to every song - I have a months worth of songs on there so this will take avery long time - any ideas on what;s up?

Having moved my Itunes folder to a new external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences Itunes can't find them and I have to direct it to every song- a little ! pops up next to the song and a dialogue box says Itunes can't find it so thn i have to manually search for it - I have a months worth of songs on there so this will take avery long time - any ideas on what's up?

nellydee wrote:
Having moved my Itunes folder to a new external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences
That's not how to do it. You don't move stuff then set the iTunes prefs > Advanced.
Once you move the /iTunes/ folder, hold Option, launch iTunes and select Choose library... and select the ITunes folder on the external.
This will use the iTunes library file in the iTunes folder you moved.
Don't change iTunes prefs > Advanced.

Moving iTunes Library to external HD--song could not be used

I wanted to move my iTunes library to an external HD, because my internal drive was running out of space. I looked around on here and found directions how to move my iTunes Library to an external hard drive. I followed those directions, and everything seemed copacetic the first time I started iTunes after the move and pointed it at the moved library. Songs played and everything was great.
But tall subsequent times I've started iTunes, I get the dreaded "song could not be used because the original file could not be found" message for every song I've tried.
I looked around on the discussion boards here some more, and seem to be seeing that there is no general solution. There's no good way to tell iTunes, "Go match up all the lines in the iTunes database with all the song titles in such-and-such a location."
I also read the article about "What are the iTunes Library files." I see that there are 2 basic files. One is a database file called "iTunes Library," and the second is a text file called "iTunes Library.xml." I opened up the XML file and looked around a bit. Here is what I find:
Every song in the XML file seems to be referred to with a relative path, such as: <string>file://localhost/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Krys%20Mach,%20Jo%20Az usa,%20Jerome%20Mokar/Native%20Spirit/01%20Cave%20Dweller.m4a</string>
The thing is, that's not the right path, unless localhost happens to be pointed at my external HD, which I don't know why it would be.
I suspect that this is the exact same problem inside the database file, too.
I'm looking around for a definition of localhost... the only thing I'm finding is in /etc/hosts, which looks like:
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
I think it's odd that localhost is in there twice, but maybe that's normal.
Anyway, enough rambling, the basic question is, how can I tell iTunes that my files are on my external HD instead of wherever it thinks they are on "localhost," which I'm sure somehow resolves back to being my internal HD. Can I do some tricky grep-ing through the database file and strategically replace all occurrences? Or is that just asking for trouble?
Thanks!
Rodney

I don't know if this is at all useful to other people having similar problems, but I did get all my songs back more or less, and this is how:
1) With iTunes shut down, I went into my iTunes directory (ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTune), and moved my "iTunes Library" and "iTunes Library.xml" files to someplace else.
2) I started iTunes while holding down the Option key.
3) When iTunes popped the "Quit / Create New Library / Choose Library" dialog, I selected "Create New". I chose the path back to where my original iTunes Library used to live and where my music is; ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes.
4) iTunes started up with a completely blank library. I went and looked in the above directory, and yes, there was now a very small "iTunes Library" file there.
5) Under the File menu in iTunes, I chose "Add to Library". I then navigated to the location of all my music, which was ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.
6) When I selected this folder, iTunes started going through a bunch of gyrations of scanning, organizing, adding... I don't know what all it thought it was doing, but it finished 24 GB of music in about 3 minutes.
And now my music is all playable again! Of course, all my playlists are toast... completely gone, since they were in the old library.
The thing I notice is that iTunes moved all the artist folders... For instance, my album by the group Baka used to be in "ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Baka" with previous versions of iTunes, but now iTunes 8 seems to want to flatten that out and it moved that directory to reside at "ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/Baka". So, while it works, it looks messy. I liked it better when all the artist folders were down a level in the directory /iTunes Music/. Then the only things in the iTunes folder were the database files, a few other files iTunes has created over the years, and the iTunes Music folder.
But whatever... at least I don't have to add thousands of songs back into iTunes manually.
Just as a side note, I took a clue from the directory flattening out, and I tried one other thing: I put all the artist folders back down in the /iTunes Music/ folder, and I moved my original "iTunes Library" files down into that folder too. Then on startup, I tried pointing iTunes at the original library which was now down one level. But that didn't help... the individual song paths in that database are apparently still pointing onto my internal HD.
Rodney

HT1449 Moving Itunes folder to External database

So I followed the instructions on moving my itunes folder, word for word from this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449. However, itunes wouldn't open at the end. I moved back the itunes folders from trash and it still won't recognize the folder. Can anyone help? I can't get itunes to open at all now.
The error I'm getting is "The iTunes application could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (13014)." I've tried holding down the option button and redirecting itunes to either the original or the one on the external drive and its not fixing the problem.
Thanks.

Okay, so I tried something else and it has worked once but has to be repeated every time I open itunes...
When I moved the first set over, it didn't seem to move the library files over to the external drive... so I just moved those manually and then did the following following another piece of advice on this bulletin board.
Hold Option and restart iTunes.
Select *Choose library* them select the *iTunes Library.itl* file in the iTunes folder you moved.

Unable to copy iTunes folder to external WD My Book drive

No idea what's going on here. If I attempt to copy my iTunes folder to an external HD it fails with the error message
"The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient priviledges for some of the items"
If I attempt to copy a single (artist) folder it fails with the same message after creating the destination folder (though empty)
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If that works, then my guess is that the iTunes folder and its sub-folders probably have some sort of a permissions limitation placed on them, probably an Access Control List. Try doing a "list really long with every option known to man" on the iTunes folder and various sub-folders. Start with the iTunes folder itself:
ls -alO@e ~/Music/iTunes
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Francine
Francine
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You should be able to change the drive letter of the DVD. I always change mine to Z:
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With a split library iTunes sometimes makes a good stab at relinking files if you correct the media folder location, attempt to play a file, track it down and then use the same location for other missing files. Alternatively I have a script called FindTracks which can help.
tt2

Moved iTunes folder to external hard drive

I have a 40-gig iBook and wanted to create more space on the hard drive so I pick up a 160 gig external hard drive. I copied the iTunes folded onto the new external hard drive including the iTunes Library, iTunes Music and the iTunes Music Library.xml files. I then went to the iTunes reference folder and changed the location of the folder to the new external hard drive. My music shows up in iTunes but when I select a song I get the “The song “___” could not be found. Would you like to locate it” error message. How do I fix this problem without relocating each song?

OK try this. Warning, while I am hoping it won't this might lose all your ratings, playcounts, and playlists.
Exit iTunes. Go into the iTunes folder and make a copy of the two database files onto your desktop. These are the files that contain the ratings, playcounts, playlists, etc. If you don't care about those things, then skip this and go to the next step.
Now create a NEW iTunes library by following these instructions...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
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Again, if you don't care about ratings, playlists, etc. you can stop here since you now have everything back in your library and working. If you want to try and save your ratings, etc. we can try this...
Exit iTunes. Go get those copies of the database files you put on the desk top. Move them and overwrite the ones that were created in your brand new library. Restart iTunes. Did you get them back?
Patrick

New iTunes folder on external drive...move xml file there?

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In investigating this, I see that the .xml and .its files are not in the folder on the external hard drive. In fact, there is no folder at all called "iTunes" on my external drive. They are still in the "iTunes" folder in my music folder on my internal hard drive. This is what is still in the music folder in my home folder on my internal drive:
Should I manually move the .xml, the .ita and the other files into the folder on the external drive?
Thanks

In my message above, I tried to include a .png file of what my internal hard drive has in the music folder, but that did not work, so I am trying to paste it in here. I am wondering if I should manually copy these files to the music folder on my external hard drive. There is no folder on my external drive names "iTunes".

I have itunes folder on Sony Vaio that has died. It has home sharing enabled.I need to transfer the library onto this new computer.I have i cloud but want the muin folder transferred to this computer. I have part of my i tunes folder on 2 back up drives.

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If the computer only starts in safte mode, it is highly unlikely that network functionality works.
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They are all using the library (and by that I specifically mean the library file, not just the media files) at the same time? Maybe when one is actively using the library file it prevents the others from using it or somehow interferes and makes them think the library on the external is not usuable and they revert to the internal one.
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As a best practice, you should move your content to an external drive and import references to into iTunes rather than moving the whole database and app files. In iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". This will keep all your music and movies on the external drive, but iTunes and all references to the content on your desktop.
I know that's not what you wanted to hear as a fix, but this is how I have my MacBook Air setup and it works fine with the iPad. My son tried to move the whole app and database to a hard drive and we had endless problems with it.

Moved iTunes folder to external hard drive, now what?

I spent a long time to download my CDs into my laptop's hardrive for use in iTunes.
Ran into trouble on laptop - To improve my old laptop's ability to function, I moved the entire iTunes folder to an external hardrive. I've changed the iTunes pathway to the new hardrive location, but iTunes is not reading the library.
What can I try?
I have checked blogs and haven't found a solution. Some recommend launching iTunes while holding down an Option key for the dialog box. I can't figure how to do that - maybe that's available key on an Apple laptop, but not on this ancient PC.
Any suggestions would be very helpful.
Thanks

Hi andrewfromwaunakee,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. If you would like to create a new iTunes library and add the media into it, follow this article:
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589
You might also try re-creating the library:
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
Cheers,
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Itunes folder on external: every song has a duplicate

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