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[crisp]

Hi. I've started seeing random duplicate files. The filenames are identical. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it: sometimes it's a whole album, sometimes a handful of tracks within an album. It occurs across two separate external hard drives.

One thing I have noticed is that when I highlight a file and its duplicate, the tag File > Filename shows as "varies". But toggling between them reveals no difference to my eye.

I'm aware that I can manually remove duplicates, but this would involve picking through a large database and I'd like to identify the source of the problem rather than embark on a time-consuming exercise. Besides, I can't tell which is the duplicate and which is the original.

I'm using MC32.

[crisp]

PS these are not multiple albums (eg Beatles in Mono and Beatles in Stereo). They are duplicate tracks in MC occurring in single unique albums.

EDIT: The only tag difference I can see is between import dates, eg on one example we have:
1st one: Date Imported 06/04/2025 15:40:19
2nd one: 23/04/2025 09:55:49

[JimH]

Check the location tag.

[zybex]

Could be decomposed vs precomposed UTF-8 character handling. There are some threads in this forum about that, I think there's a fix tool somewhere to fix/convert all filenames in your disks.

[crisp]

Could be decomposed vs precomposed UTF-8 character handling. There are some threads in this forum about that, I think there's a fix tool somewhere to fix/convert all filenames in your disks.

Thanks but I can't find any thread that might relate to my issue and I don't want to dive into areas I don't understand.

I can't find the "location tag" in tags.

[crisp]

Update: as a test, I launched an older version (MC26), imported the files into the same library and the problem didn't occur.

[crisp]

OK so as an experiment I backed up my library from MC26, then bought an upgrade to MC33, then restored the library from the M26 backup.

EDIT Did "Run Auto-Import Now" and the doubles all appeared, import date now 01/05/2025

So I don't know what to do

[crisp]

I've done some more research on yabb and think I've made a bad mistake. Several weeks before this issue occurred I moved my audio files from a single EHD to two, which of course meant changing the file path. I have just read this thread:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=134520.0

I realise I should have followed these instructions when I did the move. All I did was auto-import. Now all my files (including the duplicates) have the new filepath.

However, I have the library backup from before I moved the audio files. Can I revert to that library and follow the "Rename, Move, and Copy Files" from there? Do you think that would work?

[JimH]

Sure.