My ITunes Library has a Duplicate of every song

Trying to load music on a new IPod. Have discovered that My ITunes Library has a duplicate of every song. Makes it very difficult to transfer albums.

If the duplicate copies all have the same date then you could do show duplicates, then sort by date added, and delete those with the new date.

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After adding folders to iTunes library, now have duplicates of each song

I store all my music on a separate drive, M:\
I have a specific file structure setup that has worked for me for years, M:\Artist\Album
I recently received an iPod for my birthday, and started using iTunes. After adding my music drive (M:\) for inclusion into the library (without "keep..." and "copy..." selected, as to keep my current file structure intact), when selecting "File->Display Duplicates" just about every song in the library has a duplicate, one in the original folder "M:\Artist\Album", and another in "M:\Playlists\..\Artist\Album". I understand that basically somehow iTunes glitched and started in the "M:\Playlist" directory when adding to the library at some point, however I am at a loss as to how. In my actual folders I only have 1 copy of each song, so basically iTunes is making a symbolic link to each song and adding it into the library as a separate song.
I have over 9000 (must...resist...meme...) songs in my library, and removing and restoring takes quite a while. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do this at least once now, but any ideas as to why or advice on how to avoid this particular problem in the future?
I am pretty set in my ways of my current file structure, since I don't use iTunes as my primary media software, so I would prefer to not have to resort to succumbing to just letting iTunes handle everything the way it wants (I pretty much hate that).
Thank you for any suggestions you may have.
EDIT: Is there a way to have iTunes rename/move files when adding to its library to specific folders via custom rules based on ID3 information (i.e. WMP rip settings)?
Message was edited by: kaziekama

If you have "Keep..." and "Copy..." unchecked, iTunes will simply reference the existing file, and will not change your file structure, as you correctly note.
I'm fairly sure that some other program is operating on your files. The "Playlists" folder that you mention has nothing to do with iTunes. On my PC, only Windows Media and Roxio use it.
To your question +"Is there a way to have iTunes rename/move files when adding to its library to specific folders via custom rules based on ID3 information (i.e. WMP rip settings)?"+ the answer is no. When iTunes rips a CD, it names the files as track number and title, with no option to do differently. And as far as placing the ripped files, they go in Artist/Album, with no option to do differently. As full-featured ripping programs go, iTunes is not even in the race.

My entire itunes library has disappeared except 3 songs....how do I get it back?

MY itunes library has been deleted except three songs...how do I get my music back?

See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash.
tt2

My entire iTunes library has been duplicated. How can I delete all duplicates at once rather than each one individually?

My entire iTunes library has been duplicated. Is there any command that will let me delete all duplicates at once, rather than each individual song?

In particular:
Once you have used the Show Exact Duplicates feature* you can set about deleting all but one copy of each duplicate file. If all the duplicates have recently been added into your library then you could sort the list on the date added column, select a range of tracks with SHIFT-click and delete all the recent entries.
* On a Mac hold down Option, then click File > Show Exact Duplicates.
You could also check out Doug's Scripts for useful tools.
tt2

My itunes library has duplicated all of my music and would take me hours to delete one by one. What is a quick easy way to delete over 2,500 duplicates?

My itunes library has duplicated all of my music and would take me hours to delete one by one. What is a quick easy way to delete over 2,500 duplicates?

Apple's official advice 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 of identical tracks 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. This can happen, for example, if you start iTunes with a disconnected external drive, then connect it, reimport from your media folder, then restart iTunes.
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. Please take note of the warning to backup your library before deduping, whether you do so by hand or using my script, in case something goes wrong.
(If you don't see the menu bar press ALT to show it temporarily or CTRL+B to keep it displayed)
tt2

ITunes library has lost the past year's worth of content, but the files are still in the directory

Help! How do I restore the past 11.5 months' worth of content to my iTunes library?
Well this is weird. Suddenly my iTunes library has lost everything added since late January 2014 - almost a year's worth of content. Podcasts, audiobooks, iTunes purchases, MP3s bought elsewhere and imported, movies, TV shows - all gone. Apps added in the past year also seem to be gone, although apps acquired before then have the most current update. As far as I can tell, all of that content is in the file directory structure - it's just not in the iTunes library system.
Curiously, the "last played" data all seems current, except that many of the more recently played songs have gone missing; tracks that were modified in the past year, but were added in 2013 or before, are still listed as being modified in 2014. Anything changed in the past year remains changed; but anything added in the past year simply isn't there.
I have no idea what caused this. Earlier today iTunes crashed for random reasons, but that happens every week or two anyway; and for that matter this issue could have developed a couple of days ago, and I just didn't notice it. (I'm sure it can't be older than that - I would have noticed.)
I've got good Time Machine backups, but I'm not sure how to go about restoring this - I suspect that this help page tells me the steps I need to take, but I'd like to have some confirmation before going through those steps. (And that procedure doesn't involve Time Machine anyway, right?)
Theoretically I suppose I could also go through my directory and add the files to iTunes, one by one, but it would be extraordinarily complicated to figure out what needed to be added. I'd also like to get back all the metadata - played, unplayed, play count, last played, and so on.
Restoring the files from Time Machine doesn't seem to make sense to me, because the files aren't actually missing. Would restoring an iTunes Library.itl file help at all?
Thanks in advance!

Hm ... I guess I can't edit the post above. Anyway, I seem to have solved it by ...
Quitting iTunes.
Going into Home / Music / iTunes, and renaming the file "iTunes Library.itl" to "iTunes Library (corrupt).itl".
Entering Time Machine, and restoring the "iTunes Library.itl" file from a few days ago. I went back two days, which seemed far enough back to be "before" the problem but not far enough back to have trouble with recent acquisitions.
Re-opening iTunes - and everything seemed to be back in order.
So that's fine for now. We'll see if the solution is stable.
Very, very tentative assignment of blame: I believe iTunes crashed earlier today after I'd synced photos from my iPhone to iPhoto, and then iTunes crashed while iPhoto was closing (and taking its sweet time doing so). If that was indeed the case, that's at least the second time in the past couple of months that trying to sync iPhone photos to iPhoto has caused me significant problems. (The last time led to 80% of my iPhone suddenly being occupied by "Other", and a full restore of the darn thing.)

My itunes library has exclamation marks on the whole of my music collection I have to upload my CD's again! does anyone know why and what can I do?

Help, my itunes library has exclamation marks and will not play. Do I have to reload my cd's?

What do you mean by what audio/video formats are involved? These are all files from several digital cameras.
As previously stated, AVI is a file container. It is somewhat old and its originator, Microsoft, dropped official support of it over a decade ago. However, it remains popular with PC users since almost any valid audio and/or video compression format can be stuffed to the file which synchronizes the content by interleaving the individual audio and video frames. The compression format is the specific manner in which the audio and video data are encoded as it is placed in the AVI container. You can find the compression format by inspecting the file in the Finder "Info" window, or in the "Inspector" window of the QT player (or other media player) if the file can be opened.
For instance, one popular compression combination would be to place DivX encoded video and MP3 audio in an AVI file container. However, neither DivX nor MP3 is natively supported by the QT player. (Although iTunes will natively support the MP3 audio.) Therefore, people who wish to play such files in the QT 7 Player would normally install either the DivX component or Perian but not both. Either installation will independently play such files in the QT Player, but if both are installed, the file will usually stop working since these two codecs can create a playback conflict.
However, the AVI container could just as easily contain DV along with DV audio. In this case, the file should play correctly in QT since this compression format is natively supported by the basic component configuration that comes in every current OS installation. Therefore, if such files suddenly stopped playing, this could be an indication that a component has been moved or deleted or that your system or QT embedded structure has become corrupted.

I dragged my ext. HD iTunes backed up folder into my new mac. Now there are duplicates of every song!! The problem is both versions seem to actually BE there when I check the info. Now I have no idea if iTunes is playing the files in the trash or not

Hi. I'm in a situation here and would really welcome some guidance. I dragged my ext. HD iTunes backed up folder into my new mac. Now there are duplicates of every song. Both versions seem to actually BE there when I check the info. So, I moved what I thought were duplicates into the trash from iTunes, and resigned myself to the fact that I would have to do this manually for each album. I did this with about 10 albums. I emptied the trash and lost them even though they still LOOKED like they were in iTunes. I repeated the process tonight on a bunch of other albums not realizing yet that I had screwed up terribly the first time. This time I saw what had happened and pulled the files out of the trash, onto my desktop and dragged them back into iTunes, then deleted the duplicate files that had exclamation points next to them. Now I have no idea if iTunes is playing duplicate files from the trash or not, and am nervous about emptying the trash. Anyone dealt with this before? Thank you

Hi. I'm in a situation here and would really welcome some guidance. I dragged my ext. HD iTunes backed up folder into my new mac. Now there are duplicates of every song. Both versions seem to actually BE there when I check the info. So, I moved what I thought were duplicates into the trash from iTunes, and resigned myself to the fact that I would have to do this manually for each album. I did this with about 10 albums. I emptied the trash and lost them even though they still LOOKED like they were in iTunes. I repeated the process tonight on a bunch of other albums not realizing yet that I had screwed up terribly the first time. This time I saw what had happened and pulled the files out of the trash, onto my desktop and dragged them back into iTunes, then deleted the duplicate files that had exclamation points next to them. Now I have no idea if iTunes is playing duplicate files from the trash or not, and am nervous about emptying the trash. Anyone dealt with this before? Thank you

My iTunes Library has disappeared. Help!

My entire iTunes library has disappeared. From reading other posts I see that this has been an issue. I'm not sure if it's related to AVG antivirus (but I deleted it anyway) or due to iTunes update. I noticed a week or 2 ago but haven't been back in the library since and was hoping that it would correct itself.
I went into my iTunes library and see that all my music is still located there in iTunes Media and iTunes Music folders--neither folder has all music. The previous iTunes libraries are 4 months old and don't have about 70 new songs, apps, books etc. that were purchased. I know that my iPod Classic has all of the music library located on it but doesn't have the apps from iPad, iPods, and contacts from iPhone. What is the best way to restore this. Please help! I am not techy enough to figure it out.

Uninstalling AVG won't repair the damage, though hopefully it should stop it happening again. See this post for repair steps.
tt2

HT1391 All the music in my itunes library has vanished apart from the purchased items? why has this happened and where has it gone? It is no longer on my iphone or on my computer??

All my music in my itunes library has vanished apart from the purchased items! It is not in the music > itunes > itunes media folder, I've searched the entire system for mp3 and nothing. Why has this happened and where has it all gone?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

Itunes Library has deleted itself, is it possible to get songs off my phone back into the library as i don't know when my last back up was?.....please help.

SO MY ITUNES LIBRARY HAS DELETED ITSELF...
IM REALLY NOT VERY TECHY SO I REALLY COULD USE SOME HELP
IS IT BPOSSIBLE TO GET THE MUSIC OFF MY PHONE AND RE ADD IT TO THE LIBRARY THAT WAY?
OR COULD I DELETE ALL MY ITUNES SOFTWARE AND RE INSTALL IT AND THEN SYNC MY PHONE, WOULD IT COME BACK THEN?
SORRY IF THESE ARE REALLY STUPID QUESTIONS
ALSO DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY THIS MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED?
IVE READ SOME OTHER POSTS AND THEY SAY TO LOOK AT YOUR ITUNES FILE BUT THEY ARET VERY RECENT FOR SOME REASON AD I WILL HAVE LOST ALOT OF SONGS
ANY HELP GREATLY APPRECIATED

Hey bryce255,
Thanks for the question, that definitely sounds frustrating. Luckily, we have steps available that may be able to restore your previous library:
No content shows up in iTunes after updating
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967
Resolution
1. Quit iTunes.
2. Download and install the latest version of iTunes.
3. Use the Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (Windows) to go to the iTunes folder that contains the iTunes library files:
Mac OS X
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/
Microsoft Windows Windows XP and Windows 2000
\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\
Microsoft Windows Windows Vista and Windows 7
\Users\username\Music\iTunes\
4. Drag the iTunes Library file from the above location to the Desktop.
5. Open the Previous iTunes Libraries folder in the iTunes folder.
6. Locate the file named iTunes Library YYYY-MM-DD where YYYY-MM-DD is the date you upgraded iTunes (Year-Month-Day).
7. Drag this file to the iTunes folder (the enclosing folder).
8. Rename this file to iTunes Library.
9. Open iTunes.
You should now see your missing content in iTunes.
If the above does not resolve your issue, you can learn about re-creating your iTunes library:
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
Thanks,
Matt M.

HT1660 My itunes library has automatically started to list my songs alphabetically. I do not want this. How do I change it so that when albums come up, the songs are listed in the order of the imported album, NOT alphabetically.

My itunes library has automatically started to list my songs alphabetically. I do not want this. How do I change it so that when albums come up, the songs are listed in the order of the imported album, NOT alphabetically.

For the missing Artists on your iPod, make sure their tracks in iTunes are not marked as "Part of a compilation" in iTunes. You can do this by highlighting the track, right->clicking on them and choosing "Get Info" from the shortcut menu. When the window pops up, head over to the Info tab and make sure there is NO tick mark next to this option in the lower right hand corner. Lastly, sync the updated changes to your iPod.
B-rock

I have a 3GS. The iPod on the phone has made duplicates of some songs. I've tried using the "get info" dialog box to set all the information the same but the dups are still there. Even after erasing all music with iTunes they are still there.

I have a 3GS. The iPod on the phone has made duplicates of some songs. I’ve tried using the “get info” dialog box to set all the information the same but the dups are still there. Even after erasing all music with iTunes, iTunes is empty but they are still on the phone.

Some Users have reported that a Restore as New has Resolved Issues after the Upgrade...
Backup and Set Up as New Device
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4137

Some of the content in my Itunes library has the "!" next to them and is unable to play the songs as it says the source is no longer available

Some of the content in my Itunes library has the "!" next to them and is unable to play the songs as it says the source is no longer available, yet on an old Ipod the same tracks are available and play fine?
I would love to know how to consolidate all my music and be able to play it without one device saying they are unavailable yet another device says they are?
Also how obsurd is it for Apple to charge for supporting their devices! Or is that just me?

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Have you tried using spotlight.

All the music in my itunes library has disappeared any ideas how to get it back?

All the music in my itunes library has disappeared any ideas how to get it back?

Hi bjl1767,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
The tips in this article can help with locating your music files:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
If the music is in the iTunes Media folder on your computer, but not in your library, the iTunes library might need to be re-created:
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
Best Regards,
Jeremy

My ITunes Library has a Duplicate of every song

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