iTunes problem - HELP!

[proverbs]

i backed up all my files last week because i had to send in my PB in for repair. well i got my PB back an transfered all my mp3's to my PB. the problem was that the folders were sort of mess, so i just dragged some of the albums i had into iTunes individually. now i have a bunch of doubles in iTunes - and when i checked the iTunes folder, there are two different places where the exact same mp3's are. is there a way to eliminate the doubles - folder/files and in the iTunes library?

 

[proverbs]

maybe if i just delete them manually from my iTunes folder, is there a way to scan the iTunes library and get rid of the ones where the files don't exist?

 

[mkrishnan]

Can you use Edit -> Show Duplicate Songs within iTunes to help you in any way?

 

[homerjward]

is there anything that would set the two sets apart (ie one was added before 10/1, one was added after 10/1)? if so you could make a smart playlist of everthing that fits one of those (say, everything before 10/1) then select them all, get info, change artist to "________" then go into main view and select all _______and delete them (cant delete from smart playlists) i did this after i converted all my 192 mp3's to 128 aac's to save space and had like 3500 duplicates only i used bitrate as the smart playlist parameter.
hope that made sense

 

[proverbs]

yes, both your method's make sense. i think the edit>dup option will work for now. then i will weed out the other with the other opton, because i can get them all with the date option. thanks for the help.

 

[proverbs]

is there a way to organize everything? because in the Music folder, it has a bunch of single mp3's that i transfered over, but in the music>iTunes folder, they are all seperated by artist and album.

 

[Aliquis]

Also check Doug's Applescripts for iTunes to see if there is a simple script that will help you identify all the dupes. I think one's called wrangle duplicate tracks or something.

Just google Doug's Applescripts for iTunes to find his site.

 

[proverbs]

maybe if i just delete them manually from my iTunes folder, is there a way to scan the iTunes library and get rid of the ones where the files don't exist?

i did this, but i don't know which of the dupes are the ones i deleted, so i can't delete any of them from this method.

 

[Aliquis]

PM me and explain what you mean. If you're trying to remove your duplicate entries and get rid of the files at the same time, there is a script that will put all your duplicate entries into a playlist. You can then select one, hit cmd+r and that will open the file in your finder. From there you can trash it.

There are a couple more ways to do this as well. So PM me and I can give you some more info.

Also, if you have deleted songs from you iTunes library, but did not move the actual files to the trash, then you will need to re-add your library folder to your library list to make sure to get everything.