Evening all

 

My itunes has decided to duplicate all my songs so when i synced my iphone it has now has two of every song!! I tried to delete all the doubles from my itunes library which looked liked it had done but when i resynced the phone some albums had only a few songs in them and some had none even though they were showing in itunes as full albums!! Does anyone have a real way of dealing with this? Ive tried scouring the tinterweb but everything seems so complicated!! But do remember that i'm a bit dim with this sort of stuff!!!

 

Cheers

 

Kit

Have you been playing with the settings?

 

I once had this, because i've asked itunes to change all my music from AAC Lossless, to AAC 256kb. But this took hours, so i'm sure you'd have noticed if you triggered this.

 

I think there's an option to re-download everything, but again, would take hours.

Havent done anything only update itunes!!! From what ive read on the tinterweb the only way seems to delete them one at a time!!!...theres only1800 songs to go through!!!

Is it a Mac or a Windows PC you have kit?

Its a PC running windows 7 Seaweasel

 

K:)

There's a "show duplicates" option in one of the menus.

and on the latest version you can then select either "show duplicates" which just works by artist and title (meaning if you have a song on the artists album and a compilation album it'll show up) or something like "show duplicates in same album" which will show you exactly that thus highlighting any that are in your library twice.

 

you do then have to plough on through and delete every other song though which is a ball ache.

 

I have ITunes automatically organise the files on my NAS drive and I've been known to delete the library (but not the files themselves!) and import it all over again; so I knew exactly what was on there and what wasn't.

 

I did then (kind of OCD) go through and download high res album artwork for everything and sort out titles artists, delete comments (always get them when using torrents) have a look at track numbers etc etc

Not so familiar with fixing this on Windows, but there are a few ways to do it. First off, make sure you've backed up, Windows 7 has a feature built in to do this if you have a spare external hard drive and haven't done this already.

 

There are some scripts around that will automate this, such as this:

 

http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/scripts.asp#DeDupe

 

This would seem the quickest way and should be safe enough if you've backed up and follow the instructions (note that I haven't used this myself before, just a suggestion).

 

There is a function built in to iTunes that will detect duplicates:

 

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2905

 

As you mention though, you still need to delete them, and if it's your whole library then it could be tedious as mentioned.

 

The other way to do it which I noticed PastyBoy just suggested as well, is to delete the library and start again. If the FILES haven't been duplicated and it's just the listings in your iTunes library, then you can ditch the library file (or at least rename/move it temporarily) and add your files to a new library that iTunes will create when it starts up. This is easy enough, but the downside is that you'd lose any playlists etc you have unless you export/import these manually. It also wouldn't help if the files themselves had been duplicated, but hopefully this is less likely like SnailUK mentioned.

 

Hope you get it sorted.

Just cant get anything to work!! Each time i delete them they keep coming back!!! Can i delete the whole library and and use the iphone back up to put them back on again?

 

K:)

The windows version of iTunes is so full of bugs. Are you deleting in the iTunes console, or using windows explorer.

 

You could try the latter, look in c:\users\username\music\itunes....

It'll depend on what your library options are I think.

 

I've set mine to never sync and itunes to automatically orgaise the files in a single location on my NAS.

I think it's possible to have music all over the place and linked to a single iTune library.

 

When i re-did mine I literally did sort by album -> select all -> delete

Then file -> add folder to library -> located the music folder on the NAS and clicked ok.

 

It then added all the files back to the library creating new artist/album folders etc as required.

so mines set up like this

 

 

All iTunes media goes in that folder on my NAS

ITunes is checked to automatically organise it meaning that folder has a folder per artist, then a folder per album then track numbers in the files names etc

and it's also set to copy the media to that folder on the NAS before organising it.

 

That means i can set torrents to download to a downloads folder and then add them one a time to the library via itunes.

That automatically copies the stuff to the necessary directory and i can then delete the media from the downloads folder safe in the knowledge that iTunes has already formatted in the correct way etc during the adding process

Can someone remind me how to transfer my purchased stuff to a new computer?

Or if I revoke all previous computers will it download them for me?

You need to unauthorise the old computer, then authorise the new one. Then go to purchases, and you can download the content.

 

If you cannot unauthorise the old computer, then its fine to do them all and just add in the one you want.

I now have a double of everything on my phone!!!! No matter what i do i just cant get it sorted!!! :( Should i just copy all of my music on to an external drive then delete all the music in the itunes library folder then put them back on once ive done it?

Are they duplicated in your library or just on your phone?

 

I duplicated an ever expanding chart music "album" on to Mrs Pasty's ipod which them meant 8GB used up instead of 4GB

Reckon in copied it over, then changed it in itunes (essentially giving it all new references) and then added it again 

Only realised when we plugged it in to itunes to further up date it and it had no space.

 

I'd get the library correct in itunes with nothing plugged in.

 

Make sure itunes is organising and copying as per my earlier post and it'll consolidate everything in to one place.

Delete the library and then add the nominated library folder to the library and it'll update everthing to exactly waht you have allowing you to identify and correct duplicates

 

then plug the iphone in, delete all the music off it and start again from scratch copying over the bits you want

Cheers pasty I'll give that a go, is there a way to delete the tunes on the iPhone easily? Or do I have to sync the phone when I've deleted the iTunes library so it thinks there's no tunes in the library and therefore will delete what's on the fone ?

Cheers

Kit

There's a setting when you plug a device in that says "manually manage music and video"

 

That essentially turns syncing off and allows you to drag and drop media on to device as you see fit 

I have to have that turned on as we've got 16GB ipods but 90GB of music.

A sync would quickly run out of space.

 

Once connected you can just select the "music" option on your phone in the side bar which'll display all the tracks and then select all - delete

Okeydokey....right ive copied itunes library to my external drive and deleted the old itunes library folder from my PC and then deleted my music on my iphone. Ive checked all the music in the copied itunes folder for any doubles and cant see any. Ive then put the contents of the itunes folder back on the PC and added the albums i wanted to my iphone....all sounds good but some albums are still showing doubles now they are back on the fone!!!!...Why in fecks name can this not be easy!!!...Where am i going wrong?...Again?!!!! 

 

Cheers folks

 

K:)

If you copied the library off, deleted, then put the library back on, it's gunna be the same surely?

I'd copy all the music to the external drive, delete all the tracks from iTunes, iPhone and PC, turn on automatic organisation, turn on file copying, then do file add folder to library and select the folder on your external drive.

That'll copy all the files to the specified library folder and add them all to iTunes.

Delete them from the external.

Turn off automatic syncing, Plug in phone. Copy across as required.

If I still got duplicates I'd go buy a Sony Walkman

One off my biggest frustrations is not being able option automatically delete straight off the ipod.

I copy across loads of compilations or albums and often get a crap mix or poo album track. It'd be great to be able to hit delete and get rid of it there and then (as you need to with the duplicates) but you can't so I try to remember to delete it next time I'm updating but I forget and without fail I hear the song again and the cycle repeats.

Some of want apple does is amazing but some if frustrating as hell!

I did then (kind of OCD) go through and download high res album artwork for everything and sort out titles artists, delete comments (always get them when using torrents) have a look at track numbers etc etc

 

 

I also suffer from this affliction! I need to sort my head out ha ha!

If you copied the library off, deleted, then put the library back on, it's gunna be the same surely?

I'd copy all the music to the external drive, delete all the tracks from iTunes, iPhone and PC, turn on automatic organisation, turn on file copying, then do file add folder to library and select the folder on your external drive.

That'll copy all the files to the specified library folder and add them all to iTunes.

Delete them from the external.

Turn off automatic syncing, Plug in phone. Copy across as required.

If I still got duplicates I'd go buy a Sony Walkman

One off my biggest frustrations is not being able option automatically delete straight off the ipod.

I copy across loads of compilations or albums and often get a crap mix or poo album track. It'd be great to be able to hit delete and get rid of it there and then (as you need to with the duplicates) but you can't so I try to remember to delete it next time I'm updating but I forget and without fail I hear the song again and the cycle repeats.

Some of want apple does is amazing but some if frustrating as hell!

 

Thats what i did Pasty!!....Will redo the whole thing again today and see if i can get it work this time!!......When i go to show duplicates in the library it says there arent any but when i move everything back to the phone some are then duplicated!!!...heed wrecking jaysus feckin thing!!!

 

Kit

Is it "no duplicates" at all or "no dupliates within albums"?

As said there will probably always be some duplciate if you have artist album and a compilation etc

 

are the albums/songs shown twice in the library? maybe under a slightly different name which woudl mean they don't come up as a duplicate?

 

or maybe your phone is broke!

Google says it may also be to do with iCloud

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/18usij/solution_for_duplicate_songs_when_syncing_up_with/

are the duplicates stored on your cloud? and as such syncing from itunes and syncing from the cloud hence being there twice

didn't think of it before cos i don't use the iCould

 

or it may be something to do with different formats

http://ipod.about.com/od/advanceditunesuse/qt/Deleting-Itunes-Duplicates.htm

again woudl be a cause of them not showing up in the duplicate list

Google says it may also be to do with iCloud

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/18usij/solution_for_duplicate_songs_when_syncing_up_with/

are the duplicates stored on your cloud? and as such syncing from itunes and syncing from the cloud hence being there twice

didn't think of it before cos i don't use the iCould

 

or it may be something to do with different formats

http://ipod.about.com/od/advanceditunesuse/qt/Deleting-Itunes-Duplicates.htm

again woudl be a cause of them not showing up in the duplicate list

 

 

That could be it Pasty as some are showing the wee cloud symbol next to them!!.....Any idea where i turn the dont sync from icloud tab will be?

 

Cheers for all your help its been much appreciated

 

K:)

Feckin bollix thing!!! Im at the of my feckin tether with this poxy thing!!! Ive redone the whole thing and from what i can see ive done all the right steps and still its duplicting songs!!! :( Its now not showing the cloud songs just duplicates!!! I cant see where they are coming from!!!! Ive put the itunes library back together album by album from my external hard drive and made sure theres no duplicates in any of the albums and still its doing it!!!

 

K :(