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

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My itunes library has duplicated "ALL" my files with thier individual iclouds. How do i delete them all sa one group than rather to delete each individual file?

My itunes library has duplicated "ALL" my files with their individual iclouds. How do I delete them all in one single swipe rather than delete each one individually?

Try Edit > Preferences > Store and untick Show iTunes in the Cloud Purchases. With luck it should be OK if you turn it on again.
tt2

HT1386 I have a new computer and when I tried to sync my iPod Touch with the new iTunes, it has lost all of my music and videos from my iPod/old iTunes library: including all but 4 songs of my bought songs, videos and audeobooks!

I have recently updated my computer since my old one broke and therefore had to download a new iTunes. When I came to add my iPod to this new iTunes, I was given no option to transfer the contents of my iPod library to this new iTunes and was forced to try 'sync'; when my old computer was repaired once we lost all of our data so I had to download a new iTunes then,all of my iPod downloads were transferred and I could easily reburn my CDs so I didn't think the wiping of my iPod would be a problem. When I clicked 'sync' it warned me that it would replace the contents of my iPod with the new iTunes library, as I said I didn't think this would be a problembut then it asked if it should transfer my recent iTunes downloads so I said 'yes'. The sync was completed but now I only have 4 downloaded songs and 5 albums which I burned to my new iTunes! I have lost all the music I bought, all the videos I bought and all the audiobooks I bought! (Luckily I still have my apps.) I tried to restore backup but realised that only covers calendars, contacts E.T.C and I checked my iTunes account and that shows all my downloads but I can't see a way to restore them or anything like that!
Please help! I am in despair as you can imagine how much moneys worth I have lost and am losing faith in Apple

Correct. When you update via iTunes all synced media that is not in your iTunes library will be lost.
As IO said before:
You can redownload most iTunes pruchases by:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
I do not think it included audio books.

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.

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I just transferred all my files to a new hard drive . How do I sync all my files with my itunes library without losing all my playlists etc and keep everything intact?

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I just transferred all my files to a new hard drive . How do I sync all my files with my itunes library without losing all my playlists etc and keep everything intact?

Launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and specify it. If the external drive doesn't contain the iTunes database files, create a new library there and import that music.
If the library contains any rented movies, they won't play on a different computer.
(109334)

My iTunes account says error 13019 after it has recognized all of the music and I have tried everything that is on this website and everything i can find about how to fix it; I even created in under a new administrator. Any suggestions how to fix it?

My iTunes account says "The iPod "Madison " cannot be synced. An unknown error has occured (13019)" after it has recognized all of the music and has went through every song and it said "Copying (song) to "Madison"....." and then after it has went through all of my songs (492) it says the error message. I have tried everything that is on the Apple iTunes website about it, I have created the music account under a new administrator, I've tried everything. What do i do?

I found something that worked. I had never come across "recovery mode," but found reference to it, how to do it. http://www.ichilton.co.uk/blog/iphone/getting-the-iphone-ipod-touch-into-recover y-mode-48.html
Put the ipod touch in recovery mode and then restored it, setting it up as a new Ipod, rather than restoring from the backup. Given how much trouble I'd had, I suspected that the backup might be corrupted anyway.
That seems to have resolved everything completely.

HT2905 itunes has duplicated all my imported songs and not the albums so cannot use your solution

Itunes has duplicated all the songs of my library; how can you get rid of duplicates the quickest way possible knowing that I can't use
the suggestion to delete albums as they are the songs and not the albums which have been duplicated.

The script still works as intended whether you can pre-filter for duplicates or not. As of right now there may be an issue with some of my scripts if the library is displaying available iCloud purchases. Untick Edit > Preferences > Store > Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases if the script bombs complaining of missing object properites.
tt2

Is there a quick, easy way to delete all the "lost" songs from my Library?

OK, I'm storing all my music in my iTunes folder, which I moved to an external HD. In my iTunes Library (within the application itself), there must be thousands of MP3s listed that I no longer have the MP3 files for. Is there a quick way to update the library so that it only lists what music I actually have on my HD? Basically, I want to get rid of all the songs that show up in my library which I no longer have on my HD. Is there any way to do that?
thanks!

Thank you for your reply Diane. I'll look into that site. I probably did delete all the files through the finder, but to be honest, I don't know how they all got into my Library to begin with. Is there a way to erase my whole list and then rebuild it based on what files are contained in my iTunes folder? that might be easier.

My Ipod has lost all my play list and when I press a app icon it does not register it., My Ipod has lost all my play list and when I press a app icon it does not register it.

My son's Ipod touch has lost all it's music and when he selects a app this does not register and it returns to the main screen.
It is a year old.
We tried to restore all his music on the I Tunes libary but this also did not work.
Can anyone one put us on the right track and restore his songs and save him moaning

- First try resetting the iPod.
Reset iPod touch: Press and hold the On/Off Sleep/Wake button and the Home
button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
- If still problem restore the iPod from backup via iTunes on the computer
- If still problems restore the iPod to factory defaults/new iPod since there may be some corruption that is also in the backup.

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

HT4527 My home computer with my iTunes library has crashed. How can I transfer all my music from my iPhone to my new computer

My home computer which has my iTunes library on it how can I transfer all of my music from my iPhone to my new computer

The sync is one way - computer to iphone. The exception is itunes purchases: File>Transfer Purchases.
It has always been very basic to always maintan a backup copy of your computer for this very occasion. Use your backup copy of your computer to put everything back.

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

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 organically grown from more than one itunes account but all now on a separate computer. If I upgrade to iTunes match will I have to pay for each account?

My itunes library has organically grown from more than one itunes account (all paid for by me) but all now on a separate computer. If I upgrade to iTunes match will I have to pay for each account or just once, for the computer?

No. Provided the computer that you use to upload / match your Songs is authorised to play all of the Songs all works well - once complete you can download Song files that will play on your libraries / other computers without each computer having to be authorised.

My itunes library has gone following a laptop rebuild. I do have my iPod which is up to date - can I transfer from the iPod to the library or will the iPod lose all its data if I snyc?

My itunes library has gone and is empty following a laptop rebuild. I do have my iPod which is up to date with music, photos, apps etc - can I transfer from the iPod Touch to the library or will the iPod lose all its data if I sync to the laptop? PLEASE HELP!

I'm guessing you've got iPod touch 2nd generation
iPod touch 2nd generation only goes up to 4.2.1, so you'll need a newer generation...
iPod touch 3rd generation only goes up to 5.1.1
4th and 5th generation both go up to iOS 6.1.3, wich is the current latest version.
Hope this helps
Stijn

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?

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