iTunes Phantom Duplicates

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First off I'd Like to say hello all, as this is the first time I've used this site....The name's Tim and although I've been using computers the best part of 20 years, I only discovered the virtues of Macs in 2011, so I'm a relative newb so please go easy on me if I appear ignorant 'cos I probably am : \

So to the question: after checking itunes for duplicates I found thousands of them, which in its self is bad enough, but when I tried to remove one of them I noticed it removed both files!.....on closer inspection I found that some of the duplicate listings where for the same file.

Is there any way to remove these phantom listings without removing the actual file?
Any and all help would be very much appreciated.

....btw, I'm using a 2011 macbook pro intel 64 that I restored to 10.6.8 yesterday if this helps.
 

Slydude

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Which version of iTunes are you running? In the last several versions of iTunes when you delete a duplicate file iTunes did not delete the actual file it deleted the pointer to the file and the file itself remained in place. I think holding down the Option key while deleting a file bypasses this dialog.

I would right-click a file and choose Reveal in Finder making note of where the file is located. Then do the same for one of the duplicates to that file to see if the multiple pointers are actually pointing to the same file or if they are pointing to actual duplicate files.

There are several apps to manage duplicates as well as a couple of ways within iTunes. I think before we delete anything we need to find out what these duplicates are pointing to. If the duplicate pointers are indeed pointing to the exact same file that needs to be handled a bit differently than if the pointers are pointing to multiple copies of the same file.
 
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Thanks for the response Slydude....the issue is I've got approx' 10,000 music files, a portion of which are duplicates and of the dupes, some are varying format, quality and source ( albums, compilation albums, live recordings etc.) .
Since I posted this I found a way to delete the phantoms without affecting the original file by right clicking the latest ( newest ) dupe and selecting to keep file. .....this removed the phantom and left the file in place to be referenced by the original listing: Result !, however, the prospect of going through this ten thousand times is not at all appealing.

Added to all of this I've just found that some of the itunes entries don't appear to exist at all; I get the message 'The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it? '
I'm using iTunes 11.4 (18). Would it be possible to somehow rebuild the library from the music folder in the iTunes media folder ?
 

Slydude

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Yes That's possible. I've done it before but I recommend you back up the media folder first. When I did this last I did the following:
1. Select all of the music in your iTunes library.
2. Delete the links in iTunes but do not delete the files.
3. Now choose "Add to Library" from the iTunes File menu.
4. ITunes will recreate the links to the current files.

My library is about the size of yours and it can take a while for it to finish. On my 2008 MB Pro it takes about two hours. Maybe a bit longer.

I don't remember if some things were in the wrong place. Videos importing as home video when they were actually music video clips saved from somewhere.
 
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Well, bit the bullet an' all's well in the itunes world again....got the majority of phantoms on the first pass, an' the rest of the true dupes I can handle as they become apparent so the 'job's a good 'un' as they say.

Big THANKS Slydude, you played the starring role in this perfect success. Top Man : )
 

Slydude

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You're welcome. Glad you've gotten that sorted out.

Unfortunately I've had more experience with this than I would like. Sometimes iTunes was a fault, sometimes a drive problem created issues, and I'm sure that once or twice the computer gods were getting even for all the bad Windoze jokes over theirs.
 

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