I am not tech savvy enough to go through all the steps mentioned above
The above posts are addressing one user's particular method for managing duplicates. Generally, it's very easy to identify duplicates using a
Smartlist. For example, a list I might use is...
[Media Type]=[Audio] [Filename (path)]=[D:\Audio" ~dup=[Artist],[Name] ~sort=[Name],[Artist]
That may look complicated, but I created it in seconds using the standard controls on the
Edit Smartlist dialog.
I have also been using iTunes for just this very reason...there is a very easy "remove duplicates" option there.
The thought of using
iTunes makes me queasy, but a quick Google of the matter suggests "duplicates" in
iTunes means something quite different. Your "remove duplicates" option seems to be for removing duplicates
in the database. It's not possible for such duplicates to exist in an MC database (because every entry in the database is for one and only one media file in the file system). A "duplicate" in MC is an
apparent duplication of a track
as another physical file. This situation, of course, can exist regardless of what you use to manage your media. The difference is, MC offers lots of powerful tools for managing such things, while iTune (I'll take a wild guess) offers none.
There will never be a simple way to remove duplicates. It's not always clear which file—if any—should be removed, and there's normally a significant element of personal choice involved. For example, I have lots of duplicates—mainly tracks that exist in both an original album and one or more compilation albums. I don't want to delete either because I want both albums to be complete. If that's not the situation, then I still want to be sure I'm not deleting something that just looks like a duplicate—like a live version I've failed to tag a such. Finally, if I have identified a true duplicate, I would want to be sure to keep the one of better quality.
BTW, "intentional duplicates" are easily excluded from any playlist (using the button provided) or smartlist (by adding a "remove duplicates of..." modifier).