How do I Delete Duplicates Without Deleting Originals?

[utrvp]

I have about 1200 songs that are duplicates for a total of over 2400 songs in my iTunes library. Is there a way to delete only the duplicate without deleting deleting everything? I though about just backing up everything and reloading but figure the backup will back up the duplicates as well and I'll be right back where I started. Any help will be appreciated!

[rockmyplimsoul]

Duplicates are often, but not always, created at the same time by something you did, so look at the "Date Added" field in the list of duplicates to see if there was a particular date that you did something.

Specifically, bring the "Date Added" field into view for your entire library, then run the "Display Exact Duplicates" command (Shift/File/Display Exact Duplicates). Does there appear to be a consistent pattern of "Date Added" for all duplicates, or at least blocks of duplicates? If so, then you can do the following:

1- Create a regular (not smart) playlist. Drag the results of the "Display Exact Duplicates" into this playlist. This will add the originals and duplicates, that's OK.

2- Create a smart playlist defined as "Playlist Is (playlist name from above)" AND "Date Added is (date that duplicates were added)". This will pick out just the duplicates.

3- At this point, you can delete all the songs in the smart playlist from step 2 (hold the Shift key as you delete) and then send all the native files to your Recycle Bin. But before doing that, to play it safe you may want to open Windows Explorer and create a folder to back these files up, in case you make a mistake somewhere in this process. If you have Explorer and iTunes open, select all the songs in the playlist from step 2 and drag them out of iTunes and drop them into the folder you created in Explorer. This will copy (not move) the native files of the duplicates into this folder. You can then delete the duplicates as described at the beginning of this step.

If there is no pattern to your duplicates, then there's really nothing you can do but select and delete every-other track in your list of duplicates. Or, look for a 3rd party solution that might do the clean-up for you.