Find and Remove Duplicate Songs in iTunes

Are you constantly filling up your iPod with multiple copies of the same track? When you hit Next, does the same song play again? If so, then you’ve got a duplicate file problem. Luckily, it’s a pretty easy one to fix. Follow this guide to delete duplicates from within iTunes, or use a third-party program or script to delete them automatically.

Steps

Using iTunes

  1. Open the Music library in iTunes. Press the Alt key(Windows 7 & 8),Shift key (Earlier versions of Windows) or the Option key (Mac) and click the View menu. Select “Display Exact Duplicate Items”. This will change your list of songs to all of the duplicate tracks on your computer. These are duplicates that share the same song name, artist, and album.
    • If you don't hold the Shift or Option key, you will get the standard “Display Duplicates” option. This will show duplicates based on song name, but doesn't differentiate between albums. This means that re-recordings and liver versions often show up as duplicates even though they aren't.
    • Make sure you are using the [Update-iTunes|latest version of iTunes]].
    • Older versions of iTunes may have the “Display Exact Duplicates” option in the File menu instead of the View menu.
  2. Sort your duplicate list. If you have a large list of duplicates, you’ll probably want to sort it before you start deleting. This will help you determine which of the duplicates you want to delete, and which you want to keep.
    • Sorting by Date Added will allow you to scroll down and delete your older versions while keeping the newer ones.
  3. Delete the duplicates. If you've sorted the list and can select a large chunk of songs at once, click the first one on the list, hold the Shift key, and then click the last one. The Entire range will be selected. Press the Delete key on your keyboard to remove them from your library.

Using a Third-Party Program

  1. Find a duplication removal script. There are several popular options for both Windows and Mac, but they may set you back a few dollars. The most popular ones are:
    • Dupin Lite (OS X)[1]
    • DeDuper (Windows)[2]
  2. Use DeDuper for Windows. Open the list of duplicate files in iTunes. If you are using DeDuper, you will need to first load all of the duplicate tracks into your iTunes window. You can do this by clicking View and then selecting “Show Duplicate Items”. Highlight the list of duplicates.
    • Run the script. Double-click the downloaded VBS file. All but one of the duplicate files will be removed. The Played and Skipped counts will be merged together, and the best rating is kept.
    • Removed files will be placed in the Recycle Bin in case you need to restore them.
    • The script may take a while to run, especially for larger libraries.
    • The largest-sized duplicate will be kept, so as to keep the highest-quality version.
  3. Use Dupin Lite for Mac OS X. Run the Dupin Lite program. In the upper-left corner, select the library that you want to search for duplicates.
    • Select the criteria that Dupin Lite will compare to determine if the songs are duplicates.
    • Click the Filter button to choose which copy will be kept on the computer. You can choose to keep the oldest, the most played, the highest quality, and more.
    • Click the Get Dupes button, a list will be returned of all of your duplicate tracks. The checked tracks will be kept, and were checked according to your Filter settings. The rest can be purged.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://dougscripts.com/apps/dupinliteapp.php
  2. ↑ http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/scripts.asp#DeDuper
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