During my recent Windows 7 rebuild, I made a number of strategic errors.
Nothing devastating, unless you include the mess I seem to have got my once pristine iTunes library in.
I’ve ended up with everything I need" and more.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Remove Duplicates from iTunes - Before we start
We’ve talked about iTunes before.
How did this happen?
If only I knew.
That’s ancient history, and there are many paths to this place.
Doubtless, you took a different one.
First, the warning.
like, like ensure you have backups in place in case any of this goes wrong.
We ware here to removeactualduplicates.
verify the file names are at least a little bit different, or deleting one will delete both.
In my case I have anAfrica.mp3and anAfrica(1).mp3, for example.
The other thing to watch for is that the tracks are notnear-duplicates.
You know the stuff.
Oh, lose the dance one.
If you have a small library, perhaps that’s all the help you need.
It’s not going to work for me.
I’ll still be working on it next year.
The first level of assistance is to ask iTunes to show you the duplicates.
With your library still sorted byTitle, click onFile | Display Duplicates.
This was when I started to get concerned.
That’s a LOT of duplicate tracks.
Unfortunately, it won’t then remove all the duplicates automatically.
I can understand that though, because why else would you purchase the full version?
You Apple folk also have a whole stack ofApple Scriptoptions, but I can’t get near those.
My next option was a free piece of software called Duplicate Music File Finder.
This one works outside iTunes, so there’s a need to clean up the resulting dead links afterwards.
Just before we go further, a reminder.
I’m trying to help, but the risk is yours.
you gotta have backed up all your music before you kick off.
In my case it took around ten minutes and correctly removed nearly two thousand links.
Give yourself a pat on the back.
