Fed up with Duplicates!! WTH is going on?

[viper69]

I am having problems with duplicates and iTunes and syncing my recently purchased Nano.

I DON'T have any duplicate songs in my music folder on my HD.

Yet, I just synced my Nano, and for some reason I have duplicates of some songs, there appears to be no reason why some songs are duplicated, and others aren't.

I like parts of the iTunes software, but I think other parts are TERRIBLE.


How come I can't use the File>Display Duplicates features on my Nano, BUT I can use it on the music library (folder) on my hard drive??..this makes searching through for duplicates a ROYAL pain in the azz!


Maybe it's a tag issue? I noticed a pattern w/the duplicates. In iTunes, under the NAME column on the Nano

There are two versions of the songs w/different names

ex. Coldplay-Violet Hill
Violet Hill


I know when I click on my HD's music libary/playlists the songs look like Coldplay-Violet Hill, but when I click to play them from my PC's HD, the song NAME goes from Coldplay-Violet Hill to just Violet Hill. Why does this happen??

It drives me crazy! I wish the software would leave the name of the group AND song in the same NAME column. It makes it easier to find songs when I'm scrolling in my iPods.

I'd appreciate any help.

[cjmnews]

Well the changing name is due to the tags from iTunes not being written to the song file.

Update that song back to the tags you want to see.
Select the song (or multiple songs) right click, select Convert ID3 and use version 2.3.
Then when you play the song, it will not change.

If you remove the songs from the iPod and put them back you will have just the one copy from your iTunes. Fixing the tags will prevent the "duplicates" from showing up on the iPod again.

[viper69]

Originally Posted by cjmnews

Well the changing name is due to the tags from iTunes not being written to the song file.

Update that song back to the tags you want to see.
Select the song (or multiple songs) right click, select Convert ID3 and use version 2.3.
Then when you play the song, it will not change.

If you remove the songs from the iPod and put them back you will have just the one copy from your iTunes. Fixing the tags will prevent the "duplicates" from showing up on the iPod again.

I did a test with a fake playlist w/one song. The song name changing I described is in fact the problem generating duplicates. You are right. THANK YOU!

Question: So, in my iTunes music libary on my PC, in the NAME column, I want the songs to look have this format: Artist-Song Name.

Are you saying if I follow the instructions above you gave me, that iTunes will keep my Arist-Song Name format in the NAME column on both my iTunes library and the iPod, and thus preventing the name change.

Is that right?

[cjmnews]

Yes. Just set the name the way you want in iTunes. Then do the Convert ID3 to force the tags into the Mp3 file directly.

[viper69]

Originally Posted by cjmnews

Yes. Just set the name the way you want in iTunes. Then do the Convert ID3 to force the tags into the Mp3 file directly.

Thanks a lot! So I'm curious, why does the format I want appear as I described above in iTunes, but when I play the song, iTunes changes it to the song title only? I'm trying to understand the tags better.

[cjmnews]

iTunes keeps it's information in the iTunes Library.itl file. That is what shows when you see the song initially in iTunes.

When you play the song iTunes reads the tags from the file and updates the iTunes Library.itl file with the tag information.

[viper69]

Thanks! I keep most of my songs outside of the iTunes folder itself. I have a general Music folder, and iTunes is inside that if I recall correctly, followed by all of my songs in the same Music folder. I see how it works now a bit better.

I did this originally to manage my songs manually for some reason. I can't remember why, it had something to do with how iTunes managed songs itself back when I owned the first iPod. I've just kept that file storage ever since.

[neverscorn]

iTunes and ipods/iphones are rather capricious as far as mp3 tags are concerned. The duplicates may be caused by genre disparities, playlist files, artist/album mislabeling, etc.
There are a number of free utilities that you can use for batch tag correction prior to transfering your mp3 albums to itunes. tagscanner, for one, is a general purpose tagger that you can program to rid your tracks from those flaws. mp3tag is good, too. There are also taggers like taghycardia that specifically watch out for the tag faults causing those glitches in itunes/ipod, and correct everything automatically.

[viper69]

Originally Posted by neverscorn

iTunes and ipods/iphones are rather capricious as far as mp3 tags are concerned. The duplicates may be caused by genre disparities, playlist files, artist/album mislabeling, etc.
There are a number of free utilities that you can use for batch tag correction prior to transfering your mp3 albums to itunes. tagscanner, for one, is a general purpose tagger that you can program to rid your tracks from those flaws. mp3tag is good, too. There are also taggers like taghycardia that specifically watch out for the tag faults causing those glitches in itunes/ipod, and correct everything automatically.

Thanks a lot of the tag programs. I'll check them all out!