Delete iTunes duplicates without losing playlist data?

March 23, 2008 12:12 PM

How can I get rid of duplicate tracks in my iTunes library without wrecking all my playlists? (On a Mac, if that matters.)

My music library has gotten to be kind of a mess over the years. I've got multiple copies of a bunch of songs, and I'd like to delete the excess copies. Problem is, I've often used different copies of a song in different playlists. I'd like to be able to merge all my duplicates and be left with one copy of a song, appearing in all the playlists where I had it before. Unfortunately, none of the tools I've looked at can deal with this: deleted copies of a song are also removed from all the playlists where they appeared, and the remaining copy only shows up on the playlists where that particular copy was listed before. This seems like it shouldn't be a very hard problem--is there really nothing out there that does it?

posted by moss to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

This is going to sound complicated, but it's what occurs to me. Please note that I'd never do this myself because I value the integrity of albums over playlists and will happily retain multiple copies of a track just to keep albums intact. Also, I have many different versions of the same songs, and this would not work for those. If you do too, check the time to ensure that they really are dupes, and not two versions with the same name. That said, here's what you might try:

• Find an iTunes data field that you don't use for information. You're going to make this the "in a playlist" flag. You're probably not using the BPM field, but if you are, pick something else like Comments or Grouping if those are unused.

• Select all tracks in the playlists you care about and Get Info on them. Then set a value of "1" in the BPM field (or whatever you chose). Save the changes. Wait for iTunes to finish processing 'em.

• View your Music library in List mode. If the BPM column isn't already displayed, enable it from View > View Options.

• Choose View > Show Duplicates.

• Delete the tracks that don't have a 1 in the BPM column. This may or may not amount to everything without a "1"
posted by mumkin at 12:44 PM on March 23, 2008

There's a lot of decisions that need to be made around which version to keep, so I doubt a fully automated solution would work. When I've removed duplicate songs, I "uncheck" the tracks to delete first, and then go through each playlist quickly looking for any unchecked songs. If the track is unchecked, add the replacement. And then really delete the unchecked duplicates.
posted by kamelhoecker at 1:07 PM on March 23, 2008

It seems like it shouldn't be a hard prblem, because to you they're the same song, but to iTunes they're individual database entries. There's not really any elegant way to (automatically) convince iTunes that one song is actually another.
posted by pupdog at 1:11 PM on March 23, 2008

Response by poster: To clarify, the part I think should be easy is: given a group of songs I know are duplicates, keep one version (that I select, even), put it in any playlists where the others were used, and delete the others. I understand that recognizing duplicates is never going to be completely automatic.

I'm tempted to try and write it myself, except I can't believe it hasn't been done.
posted by moss at 2:28 PM on March 23, 2008

Maybe the OP can clarify: are you talking about multiple copies of the same song or about multiple versions of the same song? Copies would mean they are all the same song from the same album. Versions would mean they just have the same name, but could come from different albums. I think the solutions could be different depending on what you mean.
posted by lionelhutz5 at 2:38 PM on March 23, 2008

Response by poster: Multiple copies of the same song. If I have different versions, I usually want them all. Sorry for the confusion.
posted by moss at 3:44 PM on March 23, 2008

From your duplicates view, you can right-click (or ctrl-click on one-button mice) and the "show in playlist" menu item will quickly show you which playlists contain your song. It doesn't automate the clean up, but it saves you from having to comb through all your playlists. And from the duplicates view, it should be easy to drag the version you're keeping into the relevant playlist before deleting the dupe...
posted by alb at 12:59 PM on March 31, 2008