Deleting Non-Library iTunes Music

[ethanjl91]

Hi, not sure this is the right forum for this question but here it goes

A While ago, I had plenty of duplicates in my iTunes library from ripping cd's with the same track on it. In iTune's, I deleted the duplicates from the library but not from the computer so I could always have it as a backup in case I wanted to replace them. Eventually these duplicates have begun to take up a lot of space, so I would like to know if there is an easy way for my computer (like through automator) to find all the files that are in my iTunes music file but not in my iTunes library and delete them.

A second question to prevent having for me to go through duplicates myself, is there a way for my computer to delete all the duplicates on its own. Say, if you were to look at the duplicate list, it would delete the duplicate that is most recent?

Thank you very much,
Ethan

 

[GGJstudios]

There are most likely several methods for deleting your files. One is this:

1. Create a Smart Playlist of all checked items in your library
2. Add all those items to a regular playlist called "mychecked"
3. Uncheck all songs in your iTunes library
4. File > Add to Library and add the entire folder where all your music is stored
5. This will add all the items to your library that aren't already there and will also check the newly added files. It will not add or check items already in your library.
6. Go to the Smart Playlist of checked items and change the Genre of all items to XXXXX
7. Go back to your full music collection and sort by Genre
8. Highlight all the XXXXX files and delete, selecting the "Move to Trash" option.
9. Uncheck all songs in your iTunes library (they should all be unchecked already, since the checked ones were deleted.)
10. Go to your "mychecked" playlist and check all items in the playlist
11. Done!

As far as duplicates, any automated process would be undesirable, since you could have a studio and a live version of the same song and want to keep them both. Duplicate matching also doesn't take into consideration bitrates (you may prefer to keep the 192kbps version and delete the 128kbps version), song length (extended version of the same song), or file types (you may want to keep the .mp3 and not the .aac). I find that duplicate deletion is best handled manually, to give you more control. I have 4,675 duplicates in my library by choice, because I want to keep albums intact. A song may appear on 3 different albums. I don't want to have some albums incomplete because I didn't want duplicates, so I just live with them.

 

[ethanjl91]

Do you have a different method? I also have some songs unchecked for other reasons (like the don't play well and I should go find my backup) and there are quite a bit of them. Anyway to do it without check/unchecking?

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[GGJstudios]

Do you have a different method? I also have some songs unchecked for other reasons (like the don't play well and I should go find my backup) and there are quite a bit of them. Anyway to do it without check/unchecking?

Thanks for the quick reply.

You can still use the same process.

Edit: I modified the process steps to accomodate this. Refer to my first post.

 

[ethanjl91]

For the second question, maybe there is a way that if all 3 criteria are met for a duplicate (for example, the song is longer, .mp3, and high bit rate) that it could sort for those?

Thanks

 

[ethanjl91]

Not at my computer now, but it sounds like it should work. Thank you very much!

Ethan

 

[GGJstudios]

For the second question, maybe there is a way that if all 3 criteria are met for a duplicate (for example, the song is longer, .mp3, and high bit rate) that it could sort for those?

Thanks

Actually, for something automated, I would want criteria such as: if bitrates match, song duration matches within 5-10 seconds, album matches, track number matches. There are instances where the same song appears twice on the same album as two different tracks (such as one being an acoustic version). I still wouldn't trust any automated method of deleting what iTunes considers to be duplicates. Too much of a chance of deleting something you really wanted to keep. How many duplicates do you have?