How to Remove Apple Music Duplicates Individually or in Bulk

Replacing iTunes for Mac, Apple’s Music is now the app to manage the songs in your iTunes library. Duplicate songs have been a common issue with iTunes. The issue persists with the Music app. Duplicate songs in Music can be unnecessary, storage wasting and even annoying. This article shows you how to remove duplicate songs from Apple Music so as to keep your music library tidy.

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Method 1. How to remove duplicates from Apple Music with the built-in solution

Like iTunes, the Music app on your Mac provides a built-in solution to automatically find duplicate songs. It offers two features: Show Duplicate Items and Show Exact Duplicate Items.

How to use “Show Duplicate Items” to find duplicates in Music

This feature will find both the exactly matched duplicate songs and the roughly matched ones in Apple Music.

The exact duplicates in Music are songs that are completely the same, from the same artist and album and of the same version and length. Importing a song twice (or more) is a common cause of such duplicates.

In your Music app, if you have two versions of the same song by the same artist, they are called the roughly matched duplicates. One could be from the studio album, and the other could be a live version. They could be different in length and other ways.

1. On your Mac, open Apple’s Music app.
2. Click Songs in the sidebar.
3. Go to the menu bar. Select View > Only Downloaded Music.
4. In the menu bar, select File > Library > Show Duplicate Items.

How to use “Show Exact Duplicate Items” to find duplicates in Music

This feature will only identify the exact duplicate songs in your Music app.

1. Open the Music app. Go to the sidebar and click Songs.
2. Select Views > Only Downloaded Music.
3. Press and hold the Option key and then select File > Library > Show Exact Duplicate Items.

How to remove the found duplicates in Music manually

Now it’s time to get rid of the duplicate songs that have been found. The most important thing is to decide which songs to remove.

The Music app only shows the duplicates it has detected. It doesn’t select tracks for you to delete. You need to do it manually, one by one.

Apple’s Music app shows columns that display the information of the songs in it, such as Name, Size, Artist, Album and Date Added. The information can help you decide which duplicate tracks to delete.

When it comes to the roughly matched duplicate songs, you can use information such as Album, Time and Size to easily differentiate between versions of the same song. It’s easier to handle exact duplicate songs because they are all the same.

1. Highlight one or multiple unwanted duplicate tracks. Do a control-click.
2. Choose Delete from Library.
3. Click Delete Song(s).
4. Click Move to Trash or Keep File.

If you choose Keep File, the track will only be removed from the Music app but will remain on your Mac.

Method 2. How to mass delete duplicates in Music with a third-party app

It’s a good idea to use the first-party solution if there are only a few Apple Music duplicates to handle. But the deletion process will be long and tedious if there are lots of them. Luckily, there is a great third-party duplicate music remover app to help.

Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Mac is a powerful, easy to use app. It is designed to identify and safely delete the exact duplicate tracks in the Music app as well as iTunes. Below are its main features:

• Mass delete exact duplicate tracks in Music and iTunes on Mac
• Also mass remove duplicates from Photos and iPhoto
• Find and delete duplicate audios, videos, pictures and other duplicate files in Mac’s internal storage and external devices
• Allow you to preview songs before deletion
• Help declutter your music library
• Help free up storage space
• Support macOS 10.11 or later
• Available for Windows PC too

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How to batch remove duplicates in Apple Music automatically

1. Open the Music app on your Mac. Open Preferences.
2. Go to Files and check the Music Media folder location.
3. Download Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Mac and install it.
4. Click the settings icon in the corner. Make sure the location displayed matches the location in Step 2.
5. Add the Music Media folder. Click Scan.
6. In the dialog box that appears, click Open to continue..
7. Go to the Music tab, view and preview the duplicates found in Apple Music.
8. Stick to the auto-selection or select a desired selection rule.
9. Once all the unwanted duplicates are selected, click Delete.
10. Go to the Music app, find the Cisdem Duplicate Media, select all items in it and delete them from Library.
    

Bonus tip: How to avoid Apple Music duplicate playlists

Duplicate playlists in Apple Music can be annoying. They often occur with playlists updating and syncing between Mac and iPhone. Below is how to delete an unwanted duplicate playlist in Music on Mac.

1. In your Music app, find the playlist that you want to get rid of.
2. Control-click it.
3. Choose Delete from Library.

However, in many cases, deletion is no enough. Duplicate playlists may reappear. Here are some brief tips to help avoid them.

• Try to close the Music app on your iPhone or iPad before syncing.
• Try to always update a playlist on your Mac/iPhone only, not both.
• If you have updated the problematic playlist in the Music app on your iPhone rather than Mac, try to delete the playlist on your Mac and then sync from iPhone again. And vice versa.

Conclusion

Thanks to the Show Duplicate Items feature that comes with macOS itself, it’s possible to quickly identify duplicates from Apple Music without seeking outside help. However, if you have tons of tracks in Music including many duplicates scattered among them, then a dedicated duplicate music remover will be far more efficient. Keeping your music library duplicate-free can help bring a better music experience.