Filed under: iTS, Software, iTunes
Eliminate iTunes duplicates with AppleScripts
You may find that you've got some duplicate tracks in your iTunes library (especially if you recently moved things to an external drive). You could fix things with iDupe by Wooden Brain (we looked at iDupe a while ago), or the new version of Dupin by Doug's AppleScripts. Dupin lets you find and eliminate duplicate tracks easily. Changes in version 1.0.3 include:- Filter processing speed increased;
- A "Clear" sub-menu has been added to the "Looking for..." search field
- The requisite "...tweaks and bug fixes."
[Via MacMinute]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark said 11:30AM on 10-10-2007
What's so wrong with going to iTunes and selecting "View"->"Show Duplicates" ??
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Joe said 11:41AM on 10-10-2007
Yeah...I don't understand why anyone would want to pay for something that's already included in iTunes.
The script may be more specific and have more variables to search for but...are duplicate songs really that big of a problem for people?
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Dale said 12:00PM on 10-10-2007
I would pay for something that can successfully determine that a live version is not a duplicate just because it has the same song title and artist name, and so on. I have several different versions of songs by some artists and iTunes is too stupid to tell the difference.
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Bruno said 12:04PM on 10-10-2007
Take a look at the screenshots for Dupin and you'll see why it's useful where iTunes isn't.
The biggest issue however is that neither of the tools mentioned, nor iTunes are any good at finding REAL file linking duplicates. That's the same file added multiple times to iTunes from the same location.
FIle linking duplication can happen when you drag or add music to iTunes that is already within its DB. When you're looking at an album you'll see the duplicate tracks listed one after the other.
Programmatically and conceptually this is the easiest duplicate to detect and eliminate since it doesn't require any fancy logic to pick which entry to remove nor would it require deleting anything on disk.
However none of these tools can handle this seemingly simple feat. This is the only duplication issue I've ever run into. All other track duplicates are simply because of the existence of the same song on multiple albums.
So while the tools are useful for some advanced track management and consolidating your library if you don't want multiple files of the same track, they're don't actually deal with real duplicate DB entries.
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Daniel D said 12:08PM on 10-10-2007
itunes doesnt have an option to delete all the duplicate tracks!
(a "delete all tracks that aren't in a playlist" option would be swell)
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MonkeyMan360 said 12:09PM on 10-10-2007
What we really need is to have symbolic links rather than remove the track completely.
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Doug Adams said 12:15PM on 10-10-2007
"The script may be more specific and have more variables to search for but...are duplicate songs really that big of a problem for people?"
Dupin is not a script, but a full application. Complaints about duplicate tracks in iTunes are by far the number one issue I receive email about, and has been since Day One.
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Galley said 1:38PM on 10-10-2007
I put [Live] at the end of all of my live tracks. It would be nice, if iTunes had a "Track Version" tag.
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tim said 2:10PM on 10-10-2007
for the sake of being free and getting to know your system a little (as well as getting to use more of tigers features), go to your itunes music folder and then in spotlight type in '1.m' and see what happens, then do it with 2.m and 3.m until you feel good about what you have done.
if you consolidate your library, especially if you do it often, youll appreciate this tip. it wont delete duplicate songs that arent the same file, but itll clean up your hard drive
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Cycomachead said 8:41PM on 10-10-2007
Wow they're charging for it? I could see making it free…
iTunes has this feature and when I'm deleting music I would rather do it manually anyway. I like my albums to be complete. (Ya' know 2 albums by the same artist and one's a greatest hits)
Oh and the new background is neat (but I will eventually want something brighter)
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Cycomachead said 8:41PM on 10-10-2007
Wow they're charging for it? I could see making it free…
iTunes has this feature and when I'm deleting music I would rather do it manually anyway. I like my albums to be complete. (Ya' know 2 albums by the same artist and one's a greatest hits)
Oh and the new background is neat (but I will eventually want something brighter)
Reply