A Guide to Removing Duplicate Music Tracks from Your Library

Listening to your favorite Music can become quite a pain if the same tracks keep shuffling all the time. You can accumulate thousands of duplicate tracks when you download or purchase music online, or synchronize it from your smartphone and other devices. While it is true that duplicate files are almost inevitable, there are ways to control them.

Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t make it easy for its users to identify and delete duplicate music. Going through your entire music library is simply impractical. Worry not, we’ll discuss a couple of workarounds today to identify duplicates. The results will range from moderately helpful to helpful beyond words.

Method 1: Sort Music Library Alphabetically & Identify Duplicate Songs

The first approach is to use Windows Media Player and sort your music files by their name. Remember, Windows Media Player does NOT contain any duplicate finding functionality, so you will have to do it on your own by the Title or other parameters.

1. Open up the Windows Media Player.
2. Make sure that you are in the Library Mode. If you aren’t, click on the Switch to Library icon on the top right corner of the screen.
   
   
3. You will now be able to see all the library contents on the left-hand side panel of your screen. Select the Music option.
   

   

4. Do you see any music files? If yes, skip to step # 6. If you don’t see any music, continue to step # 5.
5. Click the Organize menu and select Manage libraries, followed by Music.
   
   The default Music folder will be automatically added. Click on Add, and select all other folders that may contain your music files.
   
   
   Click OK to confirm. Windows Media Player might take a while to update your music library and add new files.
6. Now that you have all the music in the Music library, sort them in an orderly manner by clicking the Title column head on the top.
   

   

7. It will now be easier to identify the duplicates from the originals. Duplicate files may contain additional names to the original file names (such as – Copy(1), – Copy(2), etc).
8. You can also preview your files before deciding to delete them. (Right-click > Play).
9. Right-click a file you want to delete and select Open file location and then delete it manually.
   

   

 

Drawbacks

• Windows Media Player does not support all music file formats. You might need additional codecs to play unsupported files.
• Files with identical names won’t necessarily be identical in all cases. There may be two or more songs with the same title, yet different music. Therefore, there are maximum chances of false positives.
• This process might require you to invest a lot of time and energy if the number of music files is very high.

 

Method 2: Instantly & Securely Fix Duplicate Music Using Clone Files Checker (Recommended)

Clone Files Checker is a third-party duplicate file finding software with loads of features, performance improvements, powerful algorithms and user-friendly interface.

The quick fix wizard walks you through the entire deletion process. You can automatically select hundreds of duplicate files in each group, choose an action of your choice with a series of prompts. CFC allows you to backup and delete files so that you won’t have to worry about accidentally deleting any important file. Or you may simply move the cloned copies somewhere else on a removable drive or just another folder on your laptop.

If you rather wish to preview the detected files, go with the Review and Fix option. You will be able to see the contents of each file within the software interface as you can easily play music within Clone Files Checker. Also, CFC allows users to open the file, open the folder containing your file, load the Properties dialogue, to analyze the results independently.

Securely Identify Duplicate Music By ID3 Tags

Clone Files Checker uses ID3 Tags to identify duplicates by different parameters- Album, Track, Title, Artist, Duration, Bit Rate and File Content. You can use one or a combination of multiple tags to identify duplicates. Thanks to the developers, the user interface is neatly organized and not cluttered with too many confusing options for beginners.

1. Download the setup file and double-click it to install Clone Files Checker.
2. Click on the System Scan header at the top of the user interface.
3. Head to the Music Search section.
   
   
4. Click the Add button on the left, and select your Music folder (C:\Users\%username%\Music).
   

   

5. Add more folder(s) or drive(s) that may contain your music files.
6. Now, set the Music Tag preferences in place. As a default, CFC takes into consideration the music title in addition to the file content.
   
   
7. If you ever need to ignore large files, check the Ignore files larger than option and specify the file size in Bytes, Kb, MB or GB. Follow a similar pattern to ignore smaller files.
8. Click on Start Search and wait for some time while CFC accumulates the results.
   

   

   
   
9. Review the results carefully. The reason why you should be extra careful in reviewing the results is that sometimes the music tags are misplaced when you download music online. Misplaced music tags can result in false positives.
10. Use the checkboxes to mark or unmark your files.
    
    
    
11. To automate the task, click on Select Duplicates and select a file selection pattern of your choice.
    

    

12. Click on Select Action and choose the Permanent Delete or Move to Folder option depending on your choice.
    

    

 

Didn’t free up a significant portion of your disk space yet? Here are some tips that may be helpful:

• Add multiple directories to scan. It is possible that the directory you have added doesn’t contain many duplicate songs at all. Try adding more directories or drives.
• If you’re using the File Search mode, make sure there isn’t any directory in the Exclude Folders listbox. Make sure you don’t limit the scope of your scan to fewer directories
• Switch off the file size settings, and set the Scan Type to All Files instead of the Custom option
• Download the latest updates from the Clone Files Checker website for added benefits and features.