Whether you're using iTunes or the new Mac Music app to manage your tunes on your Mac, PC, iPad or iPhone i problem persists: that of duplicated music and other audio files. Sometimes iTunes and the Music app end upward with multiple copies of the same song, or even 2 copies of an unabridged album. This might be because yous have imported an album from a CD and too bought a greatest hits anthology from the iTunes Shop. Or perhaps you have downloaded a version of the runway from the Apple Music subscription service despite already owning the track.

You might want these indistinguishable files: perhaps you accept an acoustic version and an album version, or even a concert recording. Just sometimes information technology'due south exactly the same runway and duplicated files are annoying because they waste product space, make searching more complicated, and sometimes you finish up playing the aforementioned song repeatedly. In this feature, nosotros show you an easy way to delete unwanted extra copies of songs and albums from your music library.

Before you start deleting there are a few things to be aware of: The tracks might not really be taking up whatsoever space on your reckoner, iPhone or iPad: If you subscribe to iTunes Match or Apple tree Music your entire music drove could be stored in the cloud thanks to iCloud Music Library. In that case only tracks that yous choose to download (perchance so you could play them offline) will exist stored on your Mac, iPad or iPhone. If y'all were to delete those tracks they'd be deleted from the deject - which would hateful you wouldn't be able to play them on any of your devices. If you are trying to save space and then right click on one of these downloaded tracks and choose Remove Download, that manner y'all won't be removing the rails from iCloud Music Library.

If you lot want to but come across the tracks that are really stored on your Mac get to View > Only Downloaded Music. Alternatively, when you lot look at the All Music view y'all'll encounter a deject icon beside any tracks that are in the cloud.

Show downloaded tracks mac

Yous may also desire to be cautious about deleting what might really be two different tracks. As we said above, you could own an audio-visual version too every bit the album and want to go on both. In that case. If you lot follow our steps beneath for identifying duplicates you should be able to avert this. However, because mistakes happen information technology would be wise to back up your library before you starting time. Hither's how to back up your Mac.

For more than full general deletion communication, take a expect at How to find and delete duplicate files on Mac and How to salvage space on a Mac.

How to delete duplicated music on a Mac

The skillful news is it's really easy to delete duplicated music on your Mac. We'll show you how to place the duplicated tracks in iTunes and in the Music app besides as how to make sure that they really are the same and so that you don't accidentally delete something you lot want to go along.

If you are enlightened that a particular track is duplicated you lot could follow these steps:

  1. Click on the search field and type in the runway name.
  2. Click on Your Library to run into all the tracks that fit that search term and are stored on your Mac.

Withal, the problem with this method is you can't see enough information almost the tracks to know if they are actually the same. Luckily at that place is a manner to become your Mac to place actual duplicates.

Using 'Bear witness Duplicate Items' in Music or iTunes

If you have updated your Mac to Catalina your iTunes app will have been replaced past the Music app. There's not actually a huge difference between the ii apps just you tin can read about how to employ the Music app here.

  1. Open the Music or iTunes app on your Mac.
  2. Click on any of the options under Library in the left-mitt column. e.thou. Recently Added, Artist of Songs.
  3. Click on File > Library.
  4. Click on Prove Duplicate items. This will testify up every instance of a recording of a song by the same artist. Show Duplicate Items
  5. Make sure that you are sorting the columns by Proper noun so that you can see which tracks are duplicated. However, if you think you have imported an album twice you might similar to sort by Album so you can quickly spot a duplicate.

You'll run across all the duplicated tracks, even so there are a few things to note:

  • Two songs with the same name by different people won't prove up hither.
  • Tracks can be identified as duplicates merely they might not be the aforementioned: check for the length of the track and the album name. For example we accept two versions of Give It Away by the Scarlet Hot Chilli Peppers. One is from the Greatest Hits and one from Alive at Hyde Park. The latter is over 13 minutes long.
  • Don't select the lot and delete everything - that will delete every instance of that track. Y'all need to select each track you want to delete individually (we'll show you a unproblematic style to do that below).
  • Also beware of deleting a version of a track that yous might have added to a playlist or one your have a rating attributed to.

The large problem with this method of identifying a indistinguishable is that if tin can show you duplicates that aren't truthful duplicates. For example, there might be two versions of the same track but they might be quite different versions that came with dissimilar albums. Luckily there is a elementary way to avert this as we'll explain adjacent.

Using 'Show exact duplicates' in Music or iTunes

What if you lot don't desire to delete tracks that aren't really the same. There is a unproblematic manner to get iTunes and Music to just show the tracks that actually are identical but you need to press an extra key.

  1. As higher up click on File > Library.
  2. Choose Show All Items (yous need to practice this first if you have already chosen to Evidence Indistinguishable Items).
  3. Now when you click on File > Library press the Alt/Selection key and yous will run across a new option: Show Verbal Duplicates.
  4. Press and concord the Alt/Pick key and click on Show Exact Duplicates and yous will come across only verbal duplicates.

This will still show you lot two versions of a rail on two different albums, only it should avoid the result where ii very different tracks are incorrectly identified as the aforementioned (such as the concert version of the Ruby Hot Chilli Peppers track mentioned above.)

Prove Exact Duplicates returned 87 items on verbal duplicates and Show Duplicate Items returned 685 items for us, so it'southward probably wise to start here if yous are pushed for time.

Show exact duplicates

How to decide what to delete

Don't just delete everything you see. Apple's non showing you the duplicates you can safely delete. It's showing the duplicates and letting you choose which ones to go rid of.

Here are a few tips to help you decide what to delete:

  • Check how many plays you take associated with the runway - if you don't have a plays cavalcade correct click on the columns header and cull Plays. This style you tin delete the version you take played less, which is less likely to be associated with a Playlist or take other information attributed to information technology.
  • Check to meet if y'all have Loved or Rated a rail (equally above right click on the column header and cull the relevant view).
  • Wondering if the track is in any of your Playlists? Correct click on the track and cull Evidence in Playlist. You'll encounter if it's in any of your favourite playlists.
  • Wait in the Time column to see if one version is longer than the other. If in that location are more a few seconds divergence the 2 tracks are probably slightly different and you may want to keep both. We have two tracks from The Hitchhikers Guide To the Milky way coming up every bit the aforementioned and all the same 1 is iii minutes the other 1.41 mins. And so they aren't the same even though both are showing as played twice.
  • Another skilful thought is to sort by bitrate, which could help yous avert deleting a higher quality version by blow. Add a Bit Charge per unit column by right clicking on the column header.

How to delete music

So, now yous have identified your exact duplicates how can you lot remove them from your library?

As we mentioned to a higher place these tracks volition non be taking up space on your Mac (or iPhone or iPad) if they take an iCloud icon beside them, so if your motive for doing this is to save space and then you won't be helping yourself much by deleting them.

Also remember what we said about beingness careful near which tracks y'all delete - yous might too be removing so from playlists, or you might have a rating or other information associated with a runway.

Deleting is simple though: You lot can delete one track at a time past clicking on the track and and so pressing the Delete key on your keyboard.

If the song is stored in your Cloud Music Library y'all'll run into a alarm that "Are you certain you want to delete this song from your Cloud Music Library?" Which will mean y'all volition no longer be able to access it on any of your devices.

If the song is stored on your Mac you'll meet a similar alert: "Are you sure you want to delete this song from your music library?"

Do you want to delete

This could exist a pretty time consuming process if you lot had to delete each runway individually. Luckily there is a simple mode to delete more than than ane track at a time:

  1. On a Mac concord downward the Command cardinal and click on each vocal you want to get rid of. (On Windows yous can concur down Shift for the aforementioned effect).
  2. In one case the multiple items are selected but printing Delete.
  3. Click Delete Songs or Movement To Trash/Bin if the latter is an choice for you. You may also have a Keep File option that will let you to remove a track from iTunes simply proceed the original file on your Mac.
  4. When y'all've finished, click Done (either in the bottom right or the top-correct corner) to render to your normal iTunes view mode. You will now see your entire iTunes library (hopefully) free from duplicated tracks.

If the music is housed on your Mac rather than in iCloud you will nevertheless be able to recover it from the Trash/Bin, only if your music is stored in the Cloud then it volition be deleted - and so beware.

If you lot have music stored on your Mac and too have iCloud Music Library then you can remove the download from your Mac to costless up infinite. Merely right click on the downloaded track and choose Remove Download. The track will stay just yous'll see a download icon beside it.

If you do delete something by accident that you bought from Apple tree iTunes Store or downloaded from Apple Music you lot volition easily be able to download it again without paying anything.

How to delete duplicated music on an iPhone & iPad

iphone

There is no equivalent to Bear witness Verbal Duplicates or Show Duplicate Items on iPhone or iPad just yous can nonetheless clean up your library on your device. Still, we'd advice that, assuming you lot sync your library between all your devices, you use your Mac or PC to delete items because it will exist simpler.

Having deleted the tracks on your Mac or PC the music library will either sync automatically with your iOS devices (if you have iCloud Music Library turned on) or you can sync with your iPhone or iPad over Wi-Fi or your USB cable.

However, if you want to delete music from your device, possibly to make some space there are two ways:

  1. Open the Music app
  2. Tap on Library.
  3. Tap Songs. Any songs that are stored in the cloud rather than downloaded on your device will take a download icon beside them.
  4. If y'all want to remove a rail that is on your iPhone or iPad tap on the track and then that it appears at the bottom of the screen.
  5. Tap on the proper name of the track so that information technology opens with the lyrics.
  6. Tap on the … to open up more options.
  7. Now tap on Remove.
  8. Finally Remove Download to merely remove it from your device rather than from your lIbrary.

The other style to delete music from your library on your iPhone or iPad is via Settings:

  1. Open Settings
  2. Scroll to and tap Music.
  3. Underneath Downloads tap on Downloaded Music.
  4. You can quickly remove any artist with a swipe left, or tap on the creative person to meet if there is more than 1 song, in which case you lot can swipe left on each song to delete.

Best third party options for deleting duplicates

While iTunes and Music both offering a simple way to locate the duplicates yous however need to delete them manually. Are there solutions that can practice the hard work for you?

Luckily there are and we have listed a few options below.

Gemini 2: The Duplicate Finder
This utility from MacPaw will practise more than remove duplicate tracks. It will locate whatever similar or indistinguishable files on your Mac and remove them safely. The tool costs £18.49 a twelvemonth subscription (or £19.99 as a one off) here.

TuneUp
TuneUp from GMGP is a £19.99 app that does a lot more than than delete duplicate tracks. It fixes miss-labelling information, adds missing cover art and more. The latest version is a couple of years quondam now though so it may not work with new versions of iTunes and Music. It's available here.

Tune Sweeper
This £fifteen.99 app states that it will "Clean yo your music library". It does more than locate duplicates. It will as well get missing artwork and track details and more than. In that location is a Mac and Windows version. It'southward available here.

Tidy Up
Hyperbolic Software's Tidy Upwards app will locate any duplicates across your system including music, images, PDFs and more. It costs £33.99 from the Mac App Store hither.