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Getting rid of duplicates

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icanrule:
There are many circumstances where I have duplicate songs.  You burn an artists cd and you have the music, then you burn a compilation and it has the same song that was on the original cd.  Then you burn another compilation and same thing happens.  Is there some way to join these so they are only stored on the hard drive once? 

This would solve 2 problems for me.  1.  It will save hard drive space for me.  2.  If I rate the song, classify a genre, get lyrics or do anything with the song it would be reflected in all the places where the file is located. 

Is there a solution to my problem that is built into jrivers?  Perhaps a way to create virtual shortcuts of files?  If there is a way then obviously this shortcut would also need to have it's only file properties for parameter like track #, Disk #, ect. 

JimH:
There is a smartlist that shows duplicates.

JimH:
Google is a good place to ask.  Try searching for duplicates jriver.

pfm555:
The smartlist that Jim is referencing is the easiest way to find your duplicates. Removing them, from my experience has to be done manually. If you have three copies of one song and your copies are in 24-96, 16-44 and mp3, JRiver has no way of knowing which copy you want to keep. Keep in mind that if you do delete songs, the albums will be incomplete meaning if you remove two songs from one album and they were #2 and 9 the album will reflect that those numbers are missing. I have a large collection over 2 TB of music. i  considered removing the duplicates but i collect music and one of the things i do in my collection is i  like to have entire discographies of artist(s). Removing duplicates is not an option for me. This option does not save you space on your hard drive but i use playlists and smarlists extensively. there are options in both to remove duplicates from these lists. They are removed from the list but not completely deleted from your database.

blgentry:
Duplicates, duplicate detection, and duplicate handling are more complex than it might appear.  The short answer to your question is:  I do not believe MC includes any ability to use "shortcuts" as you describe.  MC includes a minimal duplicate detection smartlist, which can get you started if you want to try to find them on your own.   Dealing with them, once you find them, is kinda the hard part.

The screen shot I've attached here is from my custom Duplicate Finder view that I built.  This is a representative sample of my collection, which shows numerous duplicates.... except most of them really aren't duplicates.  Let's look at some examples:

1.  Primary:  This is on two different albums.  The run time (3rd to last column) is only 5 seconds different.  But the dynamic range (next column over) is very different.  Indicating different mixes, which really are different songs.  Which makes sense because these songs are on an original album and a remastered one.

2.  Brothers in Arms (near the bottom of the list):  I have 3 copies of this.  The first two are within 1 second of run time, but again have different dynamic ranges.  Different mixes.  The 3rd copy is entirely different.  It's more than 2 minutes shorter than the others.  A very different song.

3.  I Can't Go For That:  This is on two different compilation albums.  One that's just Hall and Oates, the other on an 80s comp.  Run times are identical.  Dynamic Range is identical.  These are likely to be true duplicates.  But I won't delete either one because they are on different albums.

More importantly for me, these files are small.  Even though these are FLACs directly ripped from my CDs, "Can't Go For That" is only 23MB.  Disk space is cheap and getting cheaper.  No need for me to try to optimize anything in this way.  If I had two full copies of the same album, I'd delete one of them.  But songs from different albums that are *probably* the same?  No way.  I can't go for that.  (See what I did there?)

Notice that my duplicate finder has a Pane up above for file type.  This way, if you find two copies of the same album, but in different FORMATS, you can choose one or the other, examine them, and then delete one of them if you want. 

You can build a lot of functionality into a view like this if you want.  I've used it successfully to eliminate many, many real duplicates from a larger collection (not mine).  It can be useful if your collection is not well curated.  This is part of the power of MC:  You can build and use tools like this to really take control of your collection and become your own master digital librarian.

Good luck.

Brian.

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