Over the years I've accumulated a fairly large iTunes library, with a number of duplicates (for instance, I have compilation CDs which have some songs I already had from the original CD, etc.).
Is there a good script that would let me automatically delete all the duplicates?
And no, I don't want the dysfunctional iTunes duplicate finder of which I am aware. To illustrate why not, check out this screenshot of two songs it thinks are duplicates (note the differences in length).
If you hold down the option key, you get “Check Exact Duplicate Items.”
The songs above would not have matched had you used that option. You’ll still need to do some manual parsing, but you probably want to do that anyway.
Dupin from Doug's Applescripts is an awesome duplicate finder. You can set what fields match and the selection of fields is extensive and it will run the deletion for you. Doug keeps this up to date with the latest changes whenever Apple updates iTunes.
This is not a free app, but it is pretty inexpensive at $15.
I was once annoyed with duplicate songs in my iTunes library. Luckily I found a professional tool to delete them all at a time. Here you can follow the steps below to achieve it:
Download Music Cleanup and run it on your computer. Click "Start Scan" and all music in your iTunes library will be loaded to the program.
Click "Duplicated Songs" and you will see all the repeated items.
3.Then choose one song in the file tray and all files of the same song will show up in the right column.
4.Check those you want to get rid of and click "Clear Duplicate". The duplicated item will then be cleared from your iTunes library or local music folder.To delete all duplicates at once, click "Clear all Duplicate".
Dupin is great; there is also Dupin Lite, for (I think) $8.
The problem with the iTunes duplicate feature is that it searches only by tags, not by duration. So the OP's example is a classic example of where it fails.
