iTunes nightmare

[djr7572]

Not sure if this is in the right forum section or not ...

I just got off the phone with Apple Care, resolving a firewall issue within iTunes. That particular problem got resolved, but as a result, iTunes created a duplicate file for every single song in my iTunes library - something to the tune of 53GB worth of music (which is now about 97GB with all the duplicates). My first instinct was to start going through and deleting the dupes one by one - which is insane, because I'll be here for the next week if I keep going. I started doing it this way because I thought I could exercise a little more control over the process instead of using a third party program to sort it out. But this is insane, trying to do this "line by line".

Does anyone have any suggestions an efficient way of handling this? If you suggest a program to use, can you recommend a reputable one that won't completely destroy my iTunes library?

It's frustrating that iTunes can't resolve this issue on it's own ....

Thanks

 

[Partron22]

Select the Music playlist so it'll show all your songs.
View by Songs.
Right click on column bar to get view options popup.
Check Date added and date Modified.
Sorting by one of these two (click on the column header) should put all your new copies at one end of the list, and all your older originals at the other.
Find the point in the music list where New and older tracks meet.
Select, shift-click, all the new tracks.
If iTunes really duplicated everything you should have n/2 tracks selected. If not, check to see why not. Even if so, take a little time to look around and make sure you've got the right selection.
If so, right click for contextual menu, then select delete.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Not sure if this is in the right forum section or not ...

I just got off the phone with Apple Care, resolving a firewall issue within iTunes. That particular problem got resolved, but as a result, iTunes created a duplicate file for every single song in my iTunes library - something to the tune of 53GB worth of music (which is now about 97GB with all the duplicates). My first instinct was to start going through and deleting the dupes one by one - which is insane, because I'll be here for the next week if I keep going. I started doing it this way because I thought I could exercise a little more control over the process instead of using a third party program to sort it out. But this is insane, trying to do this "line by line".

Does anyone have any suggestions an efficient way of handling this? If you suggest a program to use, can you recommend a reputable one that won't completely destroy my iTunes library?

It's frustrating that iTunes can't resolve this issue on it's own ....

Thanks

See if this helps: http://www.imore.com/how-find-and-delete-duplicate-songs-itunes

 

[djr7572]

Thank you both. I ended up reverting back to yesterday's backup via AirPort Time Capsule/Time Machine and that seemed to solve the problem. Apple Care advisor made that suggestion - I totally forgot I have Time Machine at my disposal for when things like this happen.

Thanks again