When you insert the CD, iTunes will ask whether you would like to import the tracks. There's a simple way to avoid having to link tracks so they play in the appropriate sequence: tell iTunes to join the cuts before you rip them from the CD. Unless you're listening on shuffle, most contiguous tracks will play as intended without having to enable gaplessness. Make sure connected tracks play in sequence by checking "Part of a gapless album" in the track's Options dialog box.Īs the Apple support site indicates, gapless playback is on by default in many iPods and iPhones, unless their audio-crossfade feature is enabled (crossfade is off by default). There are two ways to ensure separate album cuts play in sequence: right-click each track separately and choose Get Info > Options > Part of a gapless album > OK or select all the tracks at once, right-click the selection, choose Get Info > Yes (at the warning about editing information about multiple files at once) > Options, choose Yes in the drop-down menu next to "Gapless album," and click OK.
You can tie together separate tracks of a single piece of music or the cuts from one side of an LP (think Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon") if the track numbers are sequential, and the tracks have the same album name. (If I had followed the steps below to join CD tracks when I ripped the disc, I wouldn't need to connect the tracks after the fact.) I'm a fan of shuffling the songs I listen to from my library, until the third movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony plays without being preceded by movements one and two and followed by movements four and five. Still, the semi-automatic dupe-deletion method shrank my library by more than 15 percent. It took another pass through my library to find the few dozen duplicates that iTunes failed to spot. (iCloud subscribers are given the option to delete the file from their iCloud library.) When you delete duplicate files from your iTunes library you can keep them in your media library or send them to the Trash (or Recycle Bin in Windows).ĭepending on your media collection, you may have duplicates remaining after you delete the files iTunes identified as duplicates. You're then told the files will be removed from you media player on the next sync, and you're given the option to keep the files in your iTunes Media library or placing them in the Recycle Bin or Trash. Select the duplicates you want to remove by Ctrl-clicking, Command-clicking, or Shift-clicking them, as the case may be. If you're an iCloud subscriber, click the iCloud Status column to list all the duplicate files together. If you want to delete the older of the duplicates, sort by the Date Added column (if the column isn't visible, click View > View Options, check Date Added, and click OK).
Show the Bit Rate column in iTunes' duplicate-file list to ensure you're deleting the file with the lowest playback quality. To ensure you're deleting the lowest-quality duplicate, show the Bit Rate column in the file list: click View > View Options, check Bit Rate in the Show Columns list, click OK, and then drag the Bit Rate column to the left so it's visible next to the song name, artist, and album.
Press the Shift key in Windows or the Alt or Option key on a Mac and then click File > Display Exact Duplicates to view files with the same name, artist, and album.
To see a list of files with the same name and artist, choose the library in the left pane and click File > Display Duplicates. ITunes provides two options for identifying duplicate files: one based on the song name and artist, and another "exact" method based on the song name, artist, and album. The semi-automatic way to remove duplicate media files Now I'm spending more time listening to the tracks in my iTunes library and less time skipping, scrolling, and searching.
While I was at it, I adjusted the volume on some tracks that I had converted from audio cassettes, made sure joined tracks play in sequence, set iTunes to fill my iPod automatically, and learned some handy playback-control keyboard shortcuts. About the time my iTunes music library reached 5,000 tracks I knew it was time for a cleanup.