Why are there Duplicates in the Library and how to Fix

When MediaMonkey scans a folder, it only adds files if they don’t match an existing filename, otherwise it just updates the files with any changes to the file properties that exist in the tags. Under certain scenarios you can end up with duplicates in the MediaMonkey library:

  • Your PC actually has multiple copies of the file stored
    • You’ll need to select which duplicates copies you want to remove from your PC. There is no automatic method that will remove duplicates from the PC for you as there’s no way to guarantee that the best copy is kept or that slightly different version you meant to keep aren’t removed. Though time-consuming, it is the safest way to ensure that you don’t delete tracks that you actually wanted to keep.
    • In the Collection (like Music) > Files to Edit node in the Media Tree you can use the:
      • Duplicate Titles node which will list all files with the same Title (MediaMonkey 5), the same Title and Artist (MediaMonkey 4).
      • Duplicate Content node which will list all files with the same audio content. For Duplicate Content to work, you must have the option Analyze files for duplicates (takes extra time) enabled under Tools > Options > Library. Then when you do a rescan of the files a hash will be generated for each one, which is used for the determine duplicate content.
      • Duplicate Titles/Artists (MediaMonkey 5) node which will list all files with the same Title and Artist.
    • MediaMonkey 4 has the following popular Addons to help with duplicate management: Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix by Bex and Duplicate Report by Trixmoto. Consult their documentation on how to use these.
  • Files were moved/renamed outside of MediaMonkey and then scanned into the library. MediaMonkey will see them as a separate new files.
    • To prevent this use MediaMonkey to move/rename the files or use Folder Monitoring while moving/renaming files outside of MediaMonkey.
    • Dead Links will show the old copies of the moved/renamed files. They can be deleted from there, but this removes the files from any Playlists they’re associated with as well as removing their Play History.
  • The hard drive containing the files was replaced or moved to a new PC and the files were scanned on the new drive/PC.
    • MediaMonkey uses DriveID to determine on what drive files are located. This is different for each hard drive even if the same Drive Letter is used.
    • To fix in MediaMonkey 5, right click on the drive in the Collection (like Music) > Location node in the Media Tree and select Media Properties to connect it to the correct drive on your PC. In MediaMonkey 5 and 4 you can also use Locate Moved/Missing Files. MediaMonkey 4 also can also use the Update Location of Files in Database Addon.
    • To prevent duplicates make sure no scanning (including Folder Monitoring) is done before fixing the driveID.
    • If you do have duplicates from the old drive and new drive you can remove the new drive from the library from the Collection (like Music) > Location node and then fix the old drive.
  • The Update Location of Files in Database Addon was used in MediaMonkey 4, but scanned files in their new location before using the Addon
    • If you use this Addon, make sure you have Folder Monitoring disabled before you update the location of files in the library. Otherwise MediaMonkey ends up scanning the files from the working location and then the Addon fixes the non-working files resulting in 2 entries for each file in the library.
    • If this happened you can remove the files from the new location (make sure Folder Monitoring is disabled) from the library and then use the Addon to fix the old files.
  • Files on a network share/NAS are located on a Mapped Drive and the files were rescanned after the DriveID changed
    • Windows is known to occasionally change the DriveID for Mapped Drives. We recommend using the UNC Path for the network Location instead of a Mapped Drive to prevent this. See above for getting the files connected to the new driveID.
  • A location that includes the trashcan was scanned
    • This can happen for NAS devices which can end up with files in the recycle bin when they’re edited. To prevent this make sure the media files are not in a location that includes the trashcan (which often is in the root). A sub-folder, and only selecting it for scanning, for your media files will solve this.

Applies to: ,

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