duplicate songs, but not the same old question

[kavika411]

I need to delete duplicate songs for disk space reasons. I find it fairly easy to locate duplicate songs and erase them, but that is not my problem. My problem is that I want to have a single song file still show up under different albums. For example, I have "With Or Without You" both in The Joshua Tree album and U2's Greates Hits album. I want to erase one of those files to save space BUT I want it to appear - both in iTunes and on my iPod - that the song is still in both albums, so that I can find and play the song under either album title. Any ideas?

Thank you.

[Annihil8or]

not possible. to show up in both albums you're gonna have to have 2 files. for alot of greatest hits stuff I just un-synch all the stuff that I have in their full albums (like HIM's greatest hits album only sync's like 2 songs cause I have all their other cd's)

[kavika411]

Thanks, Annihil8or. I was afraid that may be the case. I guess I'm either going to have to try your un-synch trick or get a fatter iPod than my 40g.

[slashdot87]

is it not possible for this user to create separate playlists and include the song 2 times but only have the ONE flie?

[kavika411]

Thanks, slashdot, but I want to be able to reference the same song file in the library, not in playlists. I want two albums with the exact same song to pull up the song, but actually only have one copy of the song. I don't think it's possible, but I wanted to throw it out there in case someone had figured out a way to do this. I like playlists just fine, but I'm more interested in doing things in the actual library. Thanks, though.

[slashdot87]

I think I have your problem solved. BUT it would require you to have a copy of the song twice at first. For example: you need with or without you ripped as a song on both the Joshua Tree and the Greatest Hits cd. Then, delete one of the songs, but not the info from the library. Then, when you try to play the song, it will not find it, so you then tell iTunes the location of the song. You will point the program to the OTHER file... then, both songs will be able to play... perhaps...


not sure if it will work, but it is an idea..........

[kavika411]

You know, slashdot, I think I understand what you're saying and I think you are right. You're a total bad*ss if that works. I'm going to give it a shot. Thanks a lot.

[kavika411]

I tried it, slashdot, and sure enough it worked, but not without some effort. Here are the steps I followed, using "With or Without You" as an example.

Locate the folder for U2's Greatest Hits (in Explore - PC or Finder - Mac, which I have)
highlight and erase With or Without You from that album
empty trash can
open iTunes
Open U2's Greatest Hits
Click on With or Without You
It says, " can't find it; want to locat?" or something like that
select yes
it opens explore/finder
find and open Joshua Tree folder
highlight With or Without You and click 'select'
iTunes opens back automatically and "With or Without You" is playing

BUT

Joshua Tree now has two copies of With or Without You right next to each other, as if that album has back-to-back copies of that song; either will play just fine (they are the same file)

SO

click "Info" on one of them and change all of the information so that it will synch up with the Greatest Hits album; this meant I had to change it to "song 3 of 14", change the year and, obviously, change the name of the album

I do not yet know if this will work on my iPod after I synch - that on my iPod I'll be able to access this same track either through the Greatest Hits and through Joshua Tree, but we'll see.

I just thought of something; I can see now how you can create your own new albums. I'm not talking about a new playlist. For example, if you already own all of the songs which comprise the Greatest Hits, then you could build the Greatest Hits album. (You are probably thinking, why would I want to? or why not just build a playlist? And I don't have a good answer, other than I obsess over manipulating the albums - not playlists.) Find some old CD you don't care about that you haven't imported. Like some CD a friend burned for you that you don't care about, some sampler CD or anything you just don't care about, as long as it has a sufficient number of tracks, such as 14 tracks if you want to recreate U2's Greatest Hits. So, import the album you don't care about and immediately erase the individual tracks - but not the folder - from your explorer or finder (see above). Then try to play each song; when it asks you where the song is, you locate each song like we did above and voila, you've recreated the album. Again, this has no substantive purpose unless you obsess over getting albums the way you want them.

Thanks again, slashdot.

[slashdot87]

anytime

:-)

[SQWIB]

Kavika This might work

Delete the file in one of the albums under your iTunes folder then open up the iTunes software, click on the file you deleted and locate it to the identical song in the other album.

Let me know if this works


I have done this with all my Music Videos

[SQWIB]

sorry just read trhe rest of the thread, glad it worked