Remove File and Song Duplicates from iTunes for Windows 10, 8.1 & 7

iTunes is a very cool media player and it can be easily compared with the Windows Media Player in just about every aspect. iTunes has been developed by Apple inc solely for their operating system known as OS X.

Even though iTunes can be used on Windows platform as well, but doing so means the user is missing out on some very key features of iTunes as this is how Apple has designed the Windows version for iTunes. Although the Windows version has surely has all the basic features required in a popular media player, it doesn’t have any function that helps to identify and remove duplicate files.

Duplicate Files is becoming a headache of late, and it must be dealt with in a speedy manner so as to prevent the system from being overburdened and also allow the user to make optimum usage of his system’s resources. This article talks about identifying and removing dupes, as well as cleaning all the items from the iTunes media library.

Symptoms

1. iTunes library is full of Duplicate Files
2. Hard Drive runs out of space very quickly

Solutions

Problem : iTunes Library is full of Duplicate Files

Solution 1 : Using A Third-Party Tool

As we mentioned in the introduction, many handy features aren’t available for a user when they use iTunes on Windows. Therefore, iTunes won’t be able to identify and remove dupes on it’s own in such a scenario and the user will have to find a way to do so. Using a reputed third-party tool is the easiest and most effective solution, as this will perform deep scan of the system and weed out all the trash. “Clone Files Checker” is one such piece of software that is fully up to the task and swiftly identifies any dupes (including audio, video file types). It then provides an option to the user to create a backup before the the dupes’ deletion commences.

1. Download Clone Files Checker (CFC) iTunes Duplicate Finder
2. Install it by executing the setup file
3. Once installation is complete, run Clone Files Checker in Administrator mode (Right Click -> Run as Administrator)
4. Add all the Locations where duplicate media files are to be searched for. By default, Audio/ Video media files are located in both the Music as well as Videos folders inside “This PC”.

   

   

   However, you can easily add up to as many folders from other locations as you want.

   

5. Select both “Music” and “Videos” and then click on “Start Search” to initiate the scan

   

6. If any duplicates are found during the scan, they will be displayed in the following results screen. Clicking on “Quick Fix” will commence the deletion process

   

7. You can choose to either keep new files or old ones. It’s however, strongly recommended to go through all files before deleting them

   

8. You can choose whether to delete all the duplicate files permanently or you can move them to a custom folder, just in case you may want to take a look

   

9. Once the process is successfully concluded, the following message will appear on the screen confirming it

   

Solution 2 : Remove All the items from the iTunes Library

1. Open iTunes
2. When it opens for the first time, it will ask the user to run a scan on the whole computer to search for media files. Allow that scan to take place. Once done, it will show all the media files (Audio / Video) in the library
3. Click on the Songs selection from the drop down box located on the left side of iTunes

   

4. Select all the items by pressing Ctrl + A simultaneously

   

5. Press the “Delete” button of the keyboard or right click on the selections -> Delete to remove all the selected items from the library