itunes,duplicate,track,remove
Duplicated Tracks
10/07/10 08:51
Spent a merry few hours on Friday sitting in front of a clients music library, yes, we’re the CD ripping service that does house calls. What a mess - virtually every track was there twice and many three times. Our brief was simply to reduce this mess to a sensible order. Remove the duplicates. If that hits you, what can you do?
Well, first, look at where the tracks are stored (Get Info). If you’re lucky the music will be in multiple locations which means you can delete the entire contents of the library then reload it from a single source. Hey presto, the duplicated tracks are no longer in the library. I was out of luck.
iTunes gives you some help, there’s a command to Show Duplicates. Compare the total number of tracks with the number of duplicated tracks and you’ll know where you stand, doing this showed me I had a lot of work to do on Friday.
Once you’ve bottomed out the scope of the task I’m afraid there’s no option but to go through the duplicates, one by one, removing exact copies. There’s a video here on RemoveDuplicates" rel="external">removing duplicates to help.
One thing you do need to decide on is what is a duplicate. For me the track name, the artist, the track length and the album all need to match. However this means if you have several compilation CDs when you play music by artist you will here the same track multiple times.
If you just want to ensure you only have a single copy of each track ignore the album name.
Benefits? A better quality library, reduced space which can be critical on your iPod, longer battery life. And you can sleep easier at night.
Well, first, look at where the tracks are stored (Get Info). If you’re lucky the music will be in multiple locations which means you can delete the entire contents of the library then reload it from a single source. Hey presto, the duplicated tracks are no longer in the library. I was out of luck.
iTunes gives you some help, there’s a command to Show Duplicates. Compare the total number of tracks with the number of duplicated tracks and you’ll know where you stand, doing this showed me I had a lot of work to do on Friday.
Once you’ve bottomed out the scope of the task I’m afraid there’s no option but to go through the duplicates, one by one, removing exact copies. There’s a video here on RemoveDuplicates" rel="external">removing duplicates to help.
One thing you do need to decide on is what is a duplicate. For me the track name, the artist, the track length and the album all need to match. However this means if you have several compilation CDs when you play music by artist you will here the same track multiple times.
If you just want to ensure you only have a single copy of each track ignore the album name.
Benefits? A better quality library, reduced space which can be critical on your iPod, longer battery life. And you can sleep easier at night.
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