I know tt2 has developed a program to do this but when I tried it a few years ago I got an exception and didn't follow up. I'm ready to try again, just need to find it to download. Anyone have a pointer?
Windows, Windows 6
Hello again.
See Duplicate songs in iTunes - Apple Community.
Hopefully I've fixed the issue you were having. If not we can try to remedy that this time.
tt2
Hello again.
See Duplicate songs in iTunes - Apple Community.
Hopefully I've fixed the issue you were having. If not we can try to remedy that this time.
tt2
Hi tt2, I'm approaching this very carefully. I found some missing songs on an old backup disk and have reimported. I notice the supposed ability to select Display Exact Duplicates but I only see Display Duplicates although holding down Shift while selecting that seems to accomplish it. I'm told I have the latest version of iTunes in update: 12.12.7.1.
When I have the exact duplicates listed, how will the DeDuper script know to act on those files? Will it be obvious when I start the script?
While preparing to run your DeDuper script, I tried manually deleting a duplicate song and it wouldn't delete. Neither copy would and neither would they play. This was the U2 album that was auto downloaded without asking years ago so there may be something strange with it. I deleted the album and reimported from backup and it plays now (no duplicates so didn't need to delete). I'm not sure I understand how to disable iCloud songs. I'll look into it further and may have specific questions.
Thanks for your help. My goal is to have a complete, clean library even if it has taken me years. I was not able to import Mudcrutch from my ancient iPod - it crashed the iPod although after banging it and using a heat gun on it, I got it working again. I found the album in that old backup so didn't need to import from the iPod. I have an old 2006 Scion with a Pioneer system that manages the iPod from the radio so even though the center button on the iPod doesn't work, I can still use it ;-)
After using Display Exact Duplicates (or Same Album Duplicates) you can use Ctrl+A to select the tracks that are displayed. Deduper scans every track in the current selection, or the current view, looking for duplicates that fall into various categories. The first phase will check the track to be kept and uncheck the matching duplicate which is scheduled for deletion from the library, but won't actually remove anything. In the case of missing duplicates these are only scheduled for removal when there is a matching keeper. The second phase, which you can abort, does the actual removals. Backup the library before you start. Test with a limited selection so you can assure yourself that the script makes sensible choices. Note that matches are based on metadata, not audio sampling, so if you have duplicates that have slight differences you may need to standardize the metadata first.
View > Only Downloaded Music will hide cloud content.
tt2
Dear Turingtest2,
Thanks so much for your help! De Duper worked great! Thanks for your patience during my slow work to reassemble my iTunes library and the huge time saver of deleting many duplicates.
I can't thank you enough!
Regards,
Dave
You're welcome. 🙂
tt2
Eliminating iTunes duplicates
