Hi Amber, FIrst of all, how many duplicate albums are we talking about here? If you have lots of duplicates of all sorts -- not just from some albums that you added to iTunes more than once, then I'd recommend you get a commercial product like Dupin LIte from the Mac App Store for $7.99. If you've only added half a dozen or a dozen albums to iTunes multiple times, then I would just try to identify these using features that already exist in iTunes -- like the feature to identify duplicates, or smart playlists.
Let me describe the limitation of the duplicates menu option in iTunes, so you can decide when it is worthwhile to get a program like Dupin Lite. First of all, as you've discovered, the duplicates menu option works on a track by track level. It identifies duplicates, but you still have to decide what to do with the information. This is where Dupin excels, because you can then set criteria for what to delete and what to keep without going through your whole list of duplicate entries track by track. It's also smarter about distinguishing the kinds of duplicates it may find in your library -- maybe there's one version of a track in a compendium album, and another in a separate release album, and you don't want to eliminate the track in the compendium album. Those are just a few examples, because you stated your specific problem is to identify albums you've added multiple times. OK, this is how I would proceed. Start with the list of duplicate tracks that iTunes found. Either go to the "View" menu on the iTunes menu bar and select "View Options" or use the Command-J shortcut to bring up the "View Options" menu. Then check the box for "Date Added" and press return to dismiss the "View Options" menu. Now your table of duplicate tracks should have a "Date added" column. Navigate to this column and use the sort command: Command-Shift-Backslash for an English language keyboard. Your tracks should show up sorted by date, and if you added albums at different times, the tracks in each album will be grouped according to the date they were added. Now, you can simply select a block of tracks associated with a duplicated album. Navigate to the first one (I hope you have list view enabled), then press your Shift key and arrow down to select the other tracks in the album. You should be able to identify the albums, because that should be one of the columns displayed by default. If album isn't diplayed, bring up the view menu again with Command-J and check the album box before dismissing the menu by pressing return. When you've selected a block of duplicate tracks this way, you can just press the delete button. iTunes will give you a warning prompt asking whether you are sure you want to delete. Just go ahead. I think you see that you can quickly separate all your duplicate albums this way. Write back if this doesn't work, or if you have more questions. HTH. Cheers, Esther On 16 Apr 2013, at 01:26, Donna Goodin wrote: > Hmm. there's still got to be a way to do this, but I need more coffee first. > :) I'll think on it and d get back to you if no one else does first. > Donna > On Apr 16, 2013, at 6:17 AM, Amber Wallenstein <amber.wall...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> I have it set so that it does not save a copy in my ITunes folder, since all >> of my music is on an external drive. Therefore, there are no album folders >> in the ITunes folder. >> Amber >> >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On Apr 16, 2013, at 7:12 AM, Donna Goodin <doniado...@me.com> wrote: >> >>> Oops, sorry, I hadn't meant to hit send yet. :) >>> >>> As I said, go in to Macintosh HD, then users, then your user folder, then >>> iTunes, then Music. You'll see a different folder for each artist, and >>> within the artist folder, different folders for each album. Just delete >>> one of the album folders. >>> >>> It'll depend on how many albums you've duplicated, but if there are a lot, >>> I would think this would be faster. >>> HTH, >>> Donna >>> On Apr 16, 2013, at 5:27 AM, Amber Wallenstein <amber.wall...@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Good day, all: >>>> In my zest to add all of my music to ITunes, I seem to have added some >>>> albums twice. >>>> I want to delete the duplicate albums. >>>> I go to the view menu in ITunes and go to "show duplications". However, I >>>> can only seem to get it to show me duplicate songs, not albums. When I >>>> click the albums button, it takes me back to the "all items" table. >>>> Can I get ITunes to show me my duplicate items by album, not by song? If >>>> so, can I delete whole albums? >>>> any help you could offer would be great. >>>> Amber >>>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
