Whether you’re a music enthusiast, podcast producer or a DJ, you might have run into the problem of growing iTunes library at some point of time.
SSDs these days come with huge storage capacity. You’re not required to fit your entire music library into some limited space. However, as your iTunes Library becomes large in size, not only does it impact your system performance, but also causes problems with integrating Apple Music Library. Regardless of whether you have sufficient storage available to store newly downloaded music, a growing iTunes Library can still impact your experience. Fortunately, there are simple ways to fix this issue. Keep on reading.
Method 1: Easily Fix iTunes Library is Too Large
Using a specialized iTunes duplicate media finding program Clone Files Checker, you can declutter your entire iTunes library within minutes.
- Download CFC from it’s official website and install it.
- Click on the iTunes Search icon on the top.
- CFC will display a pop-up indicating that duplicate files are identified based on their music tags. If two or more music files share the same tags, they are considered duplicates. Click on OK.
- Click the Start Search button to initiate the scan.
- Once the duplicates have been identified, the program will list them up on your screen. You can use the checkboxes to mark or unmark the duplicates.
- A more easier method is to use the Select Duplicates button to mark or unmark your files automatically. It makes your job simple.
- Click Select Action and choose if you want to delete the duplicate files or move them to a folder.
Clone Files Checker Features:
- Easy Interface: CFC has a simple interface that makes finding duplicates a lot easier.
- 100% accuracy: CFC scans your files using various file hashing mechanisms to ensure the results are accurate.
- Automatic selection tools: CFC provides various options to quickly mark or unmark your files. This means that you don’t need to sit back for hours marking, un-marking files individually.
- Safety: CFC provides an option to delete your files permanently. However, you always have an option to automatically create a backup of your files before deleting so you can restore them if anything goes wrong. (The backup option can be enabled from the program settings). Not just that, you can move duplicate files to another folder.
What do I do if I have empty or misplaced music tags?
When you purchase music online, the music provider uses metadata and album artwork to help you organize music files. However, if you’re downloading music from unofficial websites, the music tags might be wrong or they might not be there at all. In such cases, finding duplicate iTunes music files can become a hurdle. You can use a software like Easy File Renamer to quickly fill-up the missing metadata before running a duplicate scan. More information here.
Why Do I Get the iTunes Library is Inaccessible Error?
While using Clone Files Checker, sometimes you may get the iTunes library is inaccessible error. This error may occur when your iTunes library is not shared with third-party applications. You can get rid of this error by applying a minor change as shown below:
- Open iTunes.
- Click on the Edit menu.
- Select Preferences.
- Click on the Advanced tab in the new dialog.
- Select the checkbox for Share iTunes Library XML with other applications.
- Click on OK and re-open Clone Files Checker.
Method 2: Find Duplicate iTunes Songs Using In-House Method
iTunes also displays duplicate tracks without using any third-party application.
- Open up iTunes.
- Click on the Music tab to only display songs or the Movie tab to only display videos.
- Select an item in the playlist.
- Click on the File menu, select Library | Show Exact Duplicate Items. This will show up the exact matching duplicates. To show every instance of the item, use the Show Duplicate Items option instead.
Disadvantages:
The in-house duplicate finding method in iTunes requires you to manually delete every instance of the duplicate media. It can sometimes result in accidental deletion of original media. Use it with caution.
