Multiple copies of songs on iPod

I have several playlists in iTunes. Many songs are present in multiple playlists. When I copy the playlists to the iPod I end with multiple copies of the same songs. Is there any way to avoid this? It would seem that it should be smart enough to index a song already present so that only one physical copy would be needed. Is there some setting I'm missing?

Yes, it is the same song in different playlists. I was expecting the iPod to behave like iTunes and the hard-drive. The song is included in multiple playlists in iTunes but it is only stored once on the hard-drive. However, when I copy the playlists from iTunes to the iPod I end up with an actual copy of the song for each playlist it is in. So if I have the same song in three playlists there are three copies of the song on the iPod.

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Multiple copies of songs. How do I change my settings?

Ok I'm having a serious issue. I have multiple copies of songs in Itunes. So I ran a duplicate killer program to get rid of them from my my music folder. Good. Then went thru Itunes and deleted duplicates. Good. I think I also ran a program to rename/organize. SO - here's the issue: Itunes shows a lot of songs have the ! exclamation to show they've moved. Can I somehow clean out my library and start over without losing my purchased stuff? Most of my music is from my own collection - mp3 format, in my my music folder. How should I have the settings so that it automatically puts new songs into Itunes so I don't have to import everything again and end up with multiples again? And if I delete all the files out of Itunes, will it still keep my purchased music. It's a mess and I need help... and apple doesn't make it easy to get help. I can't even figure out how to update my email address on this stupid forums page - my new email is [email protected]

Under Security & Privacy under System Preferences, check to see what settings you have for "Allow Applications downloaded from..." to select your safest settings. I have mine checked for App Store and Identified developers. You can change it to "Anywhere" to be able to access anything. You should be able to install even with these settings: you'll just have to authenticate with an admin password.
Clinton

How do I delete multiple copies of songs on my iPhone when my laptop's iTunes only has one copy of each?

Hi, everyone.
I've seen many versions of this question, but mine has some key differences.
The problem is that my iPhone 4S has multiple copies of almost every song that I've selected to copy from iTunes. The easy answer is to delete all the music from the phone and then re-sync from the iTunes library, except that I don't sync, I manually manage, because I have a 9000 song iTunes library. According to iTunes on my laptop, I have 835 songs on my phone, but there are actually over 2000 on the phone due to the duplicates. The fact that the duplicates do not show up in the iTunes library means I also cannot use the "Show Duplicate Items" tool.
I'm thinking that the only two solutions are:
1. Manually slide and delete all 1200+ dupes on the phone
2. Delete all music from the phone and then go back through the library and cherry pick what I want on the phone. This seems okay, but I don't know why this happened, so I'm afraid it will happen again.
I'd be thankful for any advice!

The cause was probably a USB glitch during a sync or when copying. The music resides on the phone in separate files. A master file contains a database with an index to the music, an entry for each track and a "pointer" to the file containing the track. Somehow the index got corrupted with duplicate entries. It's likely that the music itself wasn't duplicated, but some tracks had more than one entry in the database. I've seen this happen when syncing (rather than manually managing) also. In my case deleting the track from the Music tab in iTunes, syncing, then adding it back fixed it.
A related problem I've seen is an album may be split, with some tracks in each of 2 or more album entries in the listing. Fixed the same way.

Multiple Copies of Songs on Iphone

I searched the boards and couldn't find a solution. I recently got an Iphone 4S and have several playlists set to automatically sync to my phone. When they sync a copy of the same song that is on multiple playlist is copied there for each playlist that the song is found on. I've tried to remove all playlist then set the automatically sync but it still copies the songs multiple times taking up unnececcary space on my phone. Any tips that or links that can help would be appreciated.

I don't know what happens but it stopped putting multiple copies on the iphone. Yesterday when i expanded the iphone and clicked on music and looked at the songs only one copy of the songs where on there instead of it being 3 or 4.

Need help deleting copies of songs from ipod.

I have copies of songs on my ipod, I would just go to my itunes libary on my computer but I only have one copy in my libary. So I went to playlists(recently added) and found the copies, but I can't delete them from the playlist. Any help would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

Go to your favorite download site and search for 'iPod'. You'll find lots of 3rd party programs to do what you want.

Multiple copies of songs after transfer to new computer

This is really annoying me.
I bought a new laptop and I want to transfer all my music from the old to the new. The new laptop has beatsmusic on it (factory installed).
So first I downloaded iTunes. Immediately after loading ITunes I had access to all my music I purchases through the iTunes store. So far so good.
BUT, 95% of my music is CDs that I burned one at a time into my iTunes library. So that transfer is critical. I have an external hard-drive I use to backup all my music. So I transferred the entire library to my new laptop from the external hard drive.
All the music transferred - but not as iTunes MP4 files. Nope - they all became beatsmusic files. I don't want that. Frustrating that computers have to force people to have what they don't want.
I am also dealing with windows 8 - so accessing music library is no longer easy like it used to be.
Anyway - I tried converting all the beats files back to iTunes music files (like they were originally!) Now I have 2 and 3 copies of every song in my library.
The whole thing really irritates me.
Why can't consumers have what they want? Do I start over now? Delete the entire library off the new computer?
I am not going to delete 20,000 songs manually one at a time so forget that suggestion. And the darned beats music is still the default music player.
Considering throwing away all computers and becoming a survivalist in the woods.

Apple's official advice on duplicates is here... HT2905: How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library. It is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls.
Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates 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, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created. 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)
Alternativey see this migrate iTunes library post, you may want to revisit the transfer method. If you get it right you don't import anything or create duplicates in the process.
tt2

Single copies of songs in iTunes library/double copies of songs on iPod.

I bought an album from the iTunes Store. A friend later gave me the same album in CD form, so I ripped the disc onto my computer so that I could have non-DRM protected files of the music. Now my iTunes library included both the DRM protected files from the iTunes Store as well as the non-DRM protected files from the CD.
At first, I did not bother to trash the files from the iTunes Store. But then it began to bug me that there were 2 versions of the same songs for the entire album that got put on my iPod/iPhone when I performed a sync.
So I went into my iTunes library on my computer, deleted the DRM protected files from the iTunes Store leaving only the non-DRM protected files from the CD and synced my iPhone.
So why is it that my iPod/iPhone still has both version of the songs even though my iTunes library only shows the non-DRM protected version from the CD that I ripped?

Click here for information.
(34535)

New Windows install and now I have multiple copies of songs on my iPhone

Can anyone help me out? My solid state hard drive died a few weeks ago and I finally got a replacement yesterday. I installed iTunes and was lucky to have my old iTunes library.xml file backed up, which let me quickly get back up and running with all my music and metadata like play count. However, when attempting to sync my iPhone, it seems like the music that had been on it after the last pre-crash sync is considered part of a different library? Not only did none of the play count numbers for those songs update in iTunes for the weeks I had been listening to the same few songs over an over, but now I have two copies of all of them on the phone. These duplicates do not show up in iTunes. Is there any way to consolidate these songs? Thanks!

The cause was probably a USB glitch during a sync or when copying. The music resides on the phone in separate files. A master file contains a database with an index to the music, an entry for each track and a "pointer" to the file containing the track. Somehow the index got corrupted with duplicate entries. It's likely that the music itself wasn't duplicated, but some tracks had more than one entry in the database. I've seen this happen when syncing (rather than manually managing) also. In my case deleting the track from the Music tab in iTunes, syncing, then adding it back fixed it.
A related problem I've seen is an album may be split, with some tracks in each of 2 or more album entries in the listing. Fixed the same way.

Lost ability to add multiple copies of a song to Shuffle

I lost the ability to add multiple copies of the same song to my iPod Shuffle since updating my software.
Since updating my software, I lost the ability to add multiple copies of a song to the shuffle. Before the updates, I could add as many copies as I wanted. I liked having multiple copies of my favorite songs, so that I could hear certain songs over and over again when I was in the linear play mode.
I also don't have a manual update option on my shuffle. I actually dont know if I ever had this option. I just noticed others were talking about it and that your site mentioned the option, so I was trying to use the function to avoid the automatic updating and inadvertent loss of songs that may no longer be in my library. I guess I have to live with the auto-update feature, since I think the Shuffle is simply lacking this feature that is found in the more expensive iPODs.
I just updated to iTunes 6.0, hoping that this latest update would fix my problems, but there was no change. I still have the problem with not being able to ad multiple copies of the same song.
Any ideas?

Thank you for the tip about renaming the song. I will try it, although I think it may not help since I don't have any way to uncheck the autofill option. As it turns out, the Shuffles don't have the option for a manual update. If I change the name of the songs, it will simply erase the original song, since it will no longer be in the library. I think there is a chance it will work, until I reinsert the Shuffle to make changes. That would be OK, if it worked temporarily, so I am hopeful that it might work. I may also be able to trick the Shuffle by adding the song from a playlist, in which I have renamed the song only on the list, not in the library.
This just bugs me, since I could add multiple copies before the updates.
I just tried to change the name of a song on a playlist, but shuffle changed the name everywhere in the iTunes application. It looks like iTunes may be a little like Microsoft Word, in that it starts making corrections all by itself. In general, I dont like it when things start changing all by themselves.
I may try to ditch the updates and go back to the original software.

How can you delete multiple copies of the same songs without deleting one at a time?

I have multiple copies of most of the songes in Itunes. How can I delete multiple copies without doing it one at a time?

Select/highlight more than one at a time followed by selecting Delete.

Multiple copies of music on iPad, and some songs play as a different song

Hi,
I've been having this weird problem that I have been looking into for many times and never have found a straight answer.
I've been finding that I have multiple copies of the same song on my Music (built-in) app on the iPad 2. I don't know why it's been doing this. Yesterday, I finally got a chance to restore my iPad 2. After the restore, the same problem consisted. Not only has that been happening, but I also have been having another weird problem with the music app too. I have a song that I want to play , but it ends up playing a different song. For example, choose the song "we are the champions" or some song, and then it plays a different song like "We will rock you" or some other song. (it's not these songs, I don't have them in my library. They are just examples) but it keeps the name. So when the iPad "says" it's playing "we are the champions" it is actually playing "we will rock you" or any other song.
Sorry if I haven't made this clear enough. I tried the best I could. I have never had this problem until I updated to iOS 5. I am currently running iOS 5.0.1
Is there any way I can fix this problem I have been having? I already tried the restore. I don't know what else to do.

I'm not sure about the playing a different song when you choose a nother, but I Just figured out the multiple copies issue.I had been having the same problem and realize that some of the songs in that album were marked as "part of a compilation." SO i went to each individual song in that album and unchecked the box (when you go to th e"get info" screen) Hope that helps.

How can I remove multiple copies of the same song from the iTunes listing?

How can I remove multiple copies of the same song from the iTunes listing. The program seems to be picking up the same songs from, for example, my user area and my public area in the C drive

As above, Apple's official advice is here... HT2905 - How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library, however it is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls.
Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates 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, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created. 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/merge 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)
tt2

How do I manging multiple copies of movies for AppleTV and iPod in iTunes?

I do not have an AppleTV yet, but I am considering getting one. I was wondering how those who have both an iPod and ATV manage the syncing of Movies that may have different resolutions?
If I want to have the same movie on ATV and my iPod I would need two copies in iTunes at different resolutions, correct? At least when I look at the iTunes export in iMovie it shows I can have a higher resolution for the ATV than the iPod.
So, how do you manage the auto syncing of these multiple copies so that they aren't all copied to both devices? iTunes doesn't have good Movie management as far as sub-folders, etc. I would like iTunes to treat these copies as one movie and only sync the appropriate resolution for the device.
I also notice that multiple copies then show up in FrontRow as well. It would be nice if only the highest resolution would show up.
Thanks,
Scott

Just create 2 different playlists like
Movie-ATV
Movie-iPod
Put those video files with higher resolution on playlist Movie-ATV
Put those video files with lower resolution on playlist Movie-iPod
in iTunes Preferences choose your ATV only to sync the 1st movie playlist - and your iPod only to sync the 2nd one.

Multiple copies of same songs in itunes

i-tunes is showing multiple copies of the same songs in the library....any ideas why? Not all songs have multiple copies, which is even stranger!
Also, other than working through manually and deleting the duplicates (2,500!), is there a way I can delete them with a simple command?
The song files are held on an external drive, to free up space on the c.
Any ideas.....?
Windows XP Pro

First in iTunes select the main library list on the left side in the source list. Now goto Edit menu and select "Show DUplicate songs".
Now if you have ! marks beside songs, then these songs are dead/broken links and there are scripts you can run to auto remove them. SOmetimes the mark will not show til you try to play it.
If theres no marks, It'll be hard. These alot of scripts to remove duplicates in the Mac version of iTunes but none I personally know of for the windows version, you have to manually go thru it all.
Rictclick each dup and hit "Get Info" to see there location, you may have multiple copys of the same song in different locations. The Location of the songs will be listed on the summery tab.

Can I purchase multiple copies of the same song

I want to purchase multiple copies of the same song to avoid copyright issues if I make a mixed cd and give it away.

As above, Apple's official advice is here... HT2905 - How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library, however it is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls.
Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates 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, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created. 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/merge 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)
tt2

Multiple copies of songs on iPod

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