Delete Duplicate Songs in iTunes for iPhone & iPod

With an extensive iTunes library, it can be easy to end up with duplicate copies of the same song accidentally. It can also be challenging to find those duplicates, especially if you collected different versions of a song, such as one from a CD and another from a live concert. Use a built-in feature in iTunes to identify duplicates.

How to Delete Duplicates on iPhone and iPod

There's no feature built into the iPhone or iPod that you can use to identify and delete duplicate songs. Instead, you have to locate and delete duplicates in iTunes on a computer and then sync the changes to your mobile device.

View and Delete iTunes Duplicates

The View Duplicates feature of iTunes shows all the songs that have the same song name and artist name. Here's how to use it:

1. Open iTunes on your computer.

2. Select File in the iTunes menu bar, select Library in the drop-down menu, then choose Show Duplicate Items.

3. iTunes shows a list of the songs it thinks are duplicates. The default view is All. To view the list grouped by album, select Same Album (it's located beneath the playback window at the top).

   The songs can be sorted by clicking the top of each column to view by Name, Artist, Date Added, and other parameters.

4. To delete a song from iTunes, right-click the song and choose Delete from Library or press the Delete key on your keyboard.

5. When you're finished, click Done in the upper-right corner to return to the iTunes normal view.

Toggle to Display Exact Duplicate Items

Display Duplicates is useful, but it's not always accurate. It only matches songs based on the name and artist, which means it may show songs that are similar but not identical. If an artist releases an acoustical version of one of their non-acoustical hits, for example, Display Duplicates thinks the songs are the same even though they're not, and you'll probably want to keep both versions.

In this case, you need a more accurate way to view duplicates. You need Display Exact Duplicate Items, which displays a list of songs that have the same song name, artist, and album. Since it's unlikely that more than one song on the same album has the same name, you can feel confident that these are true duplicates. Select File > Library, press and hold the Option key (on a Mac) or Shift key (on Windows), then select Display Exact Duplicate Items.

When Not to Delete Exact Duplicates

Even the songs that Display Exact Duplicate Items displays may be different kinds of files or saved at different quality settings. For example, two songs might be in different formats intentionally—AAC and FLAC, for example—where you want one for high-quality playback and the other for its small size to use on an iPod or iPhone.

To check for differences between the files, right-click the song and review the Song Info. From there you can identify the song's file type as well as other advanced features. With that information, you can decide whether you want to keep both or remove one.

Sync iPhone or iPod to iTunes

After you remove the duplicates in iTunes, sync your iPhone or iPod to iTunes on your computer. An alternative to deleting a song is to configure iTunes not to sync the individual song to your device, instead of deleting it.