Delete Duplicate Files Mac Free

Easily find out all unnecessary duplicate files. Group duplicate files into different categories: Documents, Images, Music, Videos, Archive, Packages, etc., display duplicates by name, size, count or type, show what duplicates take up the most space, find specific files with built-in search tool and auto mark duplicates basing on your selection rules for easy removal.

  • Verdict: It is a multifunctional Mac duplicates finder designed to reveal and remove unwanted images. It will provide you with a great variety of tools to remove copies of different types, such as videos, photos and other multimedia files. With Duplicate Files Fixer, you will identify and remove unnecessary files easily.
  • Find and delete duplicate files on Mac for free with all-new Disk Drill 4. Get the app for free: Disk Dril.

Duplicate-file-finding programs expect you to manually check each file for deletion. That’s not practical for Edward Derbyshire, who has “121,000 duplicates” to delete.

Before I tell you how to delete all of your duplicate files automatically–without checking each one first–let me give you a warning: Doing so requires you to let software make decisions best left to you. Are the files really duplicates? Is there a good reason for that file to be in two different locations? And if not, in what folder should the file reside?

[Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com or post them on the PCW Answer Line forum.]

So before you go the automated route, consider a safer option: Set your duplicate file finder to ignore files smaller than 20MB. That way, you’ll have far fewer files to worry about, yet still free up a lot of space.

If you use Digital Volcano’s Duplicate Cleaner Free (the program I recommended in How to find and remove duplicate files), you’ll find that option under File Sizes on the Search Criteria tab. Uncheck Any Size and enter 20000 in Minimum File Size field.

If you still want the program to automatically select files to delete, use your duplicate file finder’s automatic selection tool. Here’s how to do that in Duplicate Cleaner–Free or Pro:

First, make sure you only get true duplicates. In the Search Criteria tab, check both Same Content and Same File Name.

And make sure that Don’t Scan System Files/Folders is checked. In fact, you may want to click the Scan Location tab and explicitly tell the program only to look in the folders where you keep your documents, photos, and so on.

When you’re ready, click the Scan Now button.

After the scan to complete, go to the Duplicate Files tab and click the Selection Assistant icon (it’s the one with the magic wand) and select Mark>Select by Group>All but one file in each group.

Once the program has made all of the selections, click the File Removal button and decide how you want the files disposed.

Find and Remove Duplicates

Find out the best iTunes duplicate removers, free and not free, to help you get rid of duplicates in your iTunes library.

An iTunes user asked this question in Apple Community – “How do I easily delete thousands of duplicates in my iTunes library?” This iTunes user is not alone at all. Duplicates in iTunes are very common and can be caused by quite a few things such as buying certain songs without realizing that you’ve already have them in your iTunes, importing songs from sources where duplicates already exist, iTunes glitches, etc.

iTunes duplicates are useless if not annoying. They take up precious hard drive space and make it less easy to organize iTunes music library. The best solution is to use an iTunes duplicate remover to find and delete the duplicates. What is the best iTunes duplicate remover available? Are there any iTunes duplicate remover free tools for easy and effective duplicate removal? Let’s find out.

The Best iTunes Duplicate Remover for Mac

  • Find and mass eliminate duplicates in iTunes
  • Also support Music, Photos and iPhoto
  • Find duplicate audios, videos, photos, documents and other duplicate files
  • Identify true duplicate files based on content
  • Work with Mac’s internal drive, external hard drive, SD card, etc.
  • Automatically select all duplicates for a one-click removal
  • Also let you select or deselect by hand
Microsoft duplicate file remover softwareFree Download

iTunes has a built-in feature to find duplicates

Apple is considerate enough to provide an easy-to-use feature in iTunes that helps users identify duplicate songs. It’s available for free for both iTunes for Mac (replaced by Music in macOS Catalina, macOS Big Sur or later) and iTunes for Windows.

1. In iTunes, from the pop-up menu in the top left, choose Music.

2. From the top menu bar, choose File > Library > Show Duplicate Items.

Now iTunes will identify duplicates according to the song name and artist and display them for you to deal with. Note that 'Show Duplicate Items' will find the following types of duplicates.

  • Exact duplicate songs: They have the same song name, artist and album name.
  • Different versions of the same song by the same artist from different albums: For example, there can be studio, single and live versions.

To find only exact duplicates in iTunes, when in Step 2, press and hold the Option or Alt key (on a Mac) or the Shift key (on a Windows PC) and choose Show Exact Duplicate Items.

By the way, if you want to remove iTunes duplicate playlists, you need to manually identify and remove them one by one.

Free

You need a 3rd-party iTunes duplicate remover to mass delete duplicates in iTunes

With the built-in feature described above, to remove duplicates in iTunes on Windows 10 or macOS, you need to manually select unwanted duplicates (by clicking them one by one), press the Delete key and then confirm the deletion. If there are only a few duplicates, you can clean up your iTunes library in this way.

What if you have a large iTunes library with hundreds if not thousands (or even more) of duplicates songs in it? It’s not a mission impossible to get rid of them by hand one by one. But, believe me, you won’t want to try.

This is when you need a third-party iTunes duplicate remover. Such iTunes cleanup software can find and bulk remove duplicates in iTunes automatically, saving you from tedious and time-consuming manual work.

Review: the best iTunes duplicate removers

#1 Cisdem Duplicate Finder | Mac

Cisdem Duplicate Finder is a powerful and easy-to-use duplicate file finder for Mac to detect and clean up duplicate music files, videos, photos, documents, archives and other duplicate files. Safely support iTunes, it can be an excellent iTunes duplicate finder and remover.

  • Quickly scan your iTunes library for duplicate songs
  • Let you easily preview duplicates with its built-in media player
  • Let you mass select duplicates in iTunes to delete with a single click
  • Provide three removal methods
  • Also work if you have multiple iTunes libraries
  • Also search for and erase duplicate music files outside of iTunes

How to use the best iTunes duplicate remover to mass remove iTunes duplicates

1. In iTunes app, go to Preferences > Advanced. Find the location of your iTunes Media folder.

To open the folder, in Finder, from the menu bar, choose Go > Go to Folder, paste the location and click Go.

2. Download Cisdem Duplicate Finder and install it. Open the software.

3. Drag iTunes Media folder into the software. Click Scan.

4. Once the scan is done, you can find all the duplicate iTunes songs under the Music tab and duplicate iTunes videos or movies (if any) under the Videos tab.

There are three preview modes. You can switch to the second one to play a song.

5. This iTunes duplicate cleaner already automatically selects all duplicate copies for you to delete with one click.

If not satisfied with it, you can highlight all items under the All tab with Command-A, click the list icon and choose a desired selection rule.

6. Make sure the unwanted duplicates are selected. Click Delete.

Pros

  1. Identify and mass erase duplicate items in iTunes
  2. Automate the identification and deletion of iTunes duplicates
  3. Find duplicate audios, videos, movies, images and other types of duplicates
  4. Remove duplicates from Mac, external hard drive, SD card, etc.
  5. Also support Music, Photos and iPhoto
  6. Offer 3 preview modes
  7. Provide 3 removal methods (e.g. moving to Trash)
  8. Allow 1-click restoring from Trash
  9. Support macOS 10.10 or later

#2 Tune Sweeper 4 | Windows & Mac

Tune Sweeper 4 is primarily an iTunes cleanup app and enables you to quickly find and remove duplicates songs in your iTunes library. It searches for iTunes duplicate tracks based on your preferred search criteria, such as matching track names, artist and so on. In the latest version, version 4.41 for PC and version 4.25 for Mac, the search speed is improved.

This iTunes duplicate remover will list the duplicates found in your iTunes library in groups, suggest which tracks to keep based on your preference and then remove unwanted duplicates from iTunes library. Optionally, tracks removed from iTunes are backed up for safekeeping.

New users may get a bit overwhelmed by the interface and the array of features and options provided. When you open the app, you need to click Duplicates in the toolbar to access the deduplication feature.

Pros

  1. Can do a decent job of finding dupes in iTunes
  2. Provide a number of duplicate search criteria
  3. Allow mass selection and mass deletion
  4. Provide a preview feature
  5. Also offer other features like Missing Artwork
  6. Available for macOS and Windows
Mac

Cons

  1. Can find duplicates that don’t even exist in your iTunes library

#3 iTunes Duplicates Cleaner | Windows & Mac

As one of the best iTunes duplicate remover software, iTunes Duplicates Cleaner is made for cleaning up your iTunes library by finding and eliminating the duplicated tracks in it.

It received several updates in December 2020 to the improve accuracy when finding duplicates. The improved accuracy helps this iTunes duplicate deleter become one of the best among its kind.

It sorts duplicated tracks into groups according to user defined various conditions and checks which tracks should be deleted smartly. With iTunes Duplicates Cleaner, you can delete and remove all of the thousands of duplicates from your iTunes library in less than one minute.

Pros

  1. Help users easily get rid of duplicates in iTunes
  2. Display the found duplicates with detailed song info
  3. Automatically mark duplicates for users to delete
  4. Lightweight and cross-platform
  5. Display how-to instructions at application startup

Cons

  1. Sometimes detect non-existing duplicates
  2. No preview

#4 TuneUp | Windows & Mac

TuneUp is one of the best iTunes duplicate remover tools. It can also repair mislabeled songs and add missing cover art. It’s versatile and costly. The $39.95 price tag is why it’s ranked a bit low on our list. A free trial is available though.

The iTunes duplicate finder utterly cleans up your iTunes library. It helps you save time by automating the otherwise time-taking manual removal. In this iTunes cleanup software's DeDuper tool, once you click the Finding Duplicate Songs button, the tool will start looking for the duplicated tracks right away.

When it finishes, you will be presented with a list of the detected duplicates with basic info such as song name, artist and bit rate. The duplicate copies are automatically marked so that you can mass delete them with a click of the Dedupe All button. You can find your deletion history by going to the Files tab.

Files

Pros

  1. Can work as a great iTunes duplicate remover
  2. Use acoustic fingerprinting technology to bring high accuracy
  3. Offer an auto-mark feature
  4. Allow mass removal
  5. Also offer other features like fixing missing artwork

#5 Dupe Away | Windows & Mac

Delete duplicate files mac free online

Designed to be a dedicated iTunes duplicate remover, Dupe Away is available for Mac and Windows PC. It comes with four features: Dupe Files, Playlist Dupes, Missing Files, and Abandoned Files.

Every time you open the app, it will automatically start analyzing your iTunes for duplicate songs, which is convenient. It identifies duplicates based on the default or custom attributes. You can do the customization in Preferences. You are also able to custom the removal. In addition, it will go through your iTunes playlists and display the found duplicates for removal. Note that it was able to find only some of the duplicates in the tests.

You can find the found iTunes duplicates in the results window. The duplicates will be automatically marked as Delete. Clicking the Delete Tracks button will eliminate them in one go.

Pros

  1. Automatically start finding duplicate tracks in iTunes upon opening
  2. Also clean up duplicate playlist entries
  3. Highly customizable
  4. Can also scan iTunes for missing files

Cons

Delete Duplicate Files Mac Free Downloads

  1. Can find only some of the existing duplicates in an iTunes library

iTunes duplicate remover free

#1 ManyProg iTunes Duplicate Remover Free | Windows

This iTunes duplicate remover freeware is designed exclusively for PC. As one of the best iTunes duplicate remover software for Windows, it allows you to identify duplicates in iTunes using different comparison types and then delete them.

Before you use iTunes Duplicate Remover Free, allow this best iTunes cleanup software program to connect to your iTunes library. And it will automatically locate the library and build a connection to it.

Select a comparison type, say, Music tag, and then Press Start. The process to find duplicates songs will start immediately. The results will be displayed once this process finishes. Remove the duplicates and leave only the original files. By doing so, you can make your iTunes clean and more convenient to manage. This free remover fully supports Windows 10, 8, 7 and even XP.

Pros

  1. Completely free to use
  2. Provide multiple comparison types
  3. Help get rid of duplicate songs in iTunes and outside of it

#2 AllDup | Windows

AllDup is another freeware tool that can find and eliminate iTunes duplicate tracks on Windows. It also supports various types of files including audios, videos, documents and pictures. It does a decent job of searching for the double, triple (or even more) tracks in iTunes. However, the interface is not as user-friendly as the ones recommended above.

When using AllDup, you will be impressed by the customizability it has to offer. For example, it offers an array of comparison criteria, which can be used for comparing duplicates. It may require a bit configuration and testing until you find the best criterion or criteria to check for the duplicate songs in your iTunes.

Pros

  1. Completely free to use
  2. Offer multiple search methods and criteria
  3. Support all common types of files
  4. Display a quick start guide on its interface

Comparison: Which iTunes duplicate remover suits you best?

iTunes duplicate removerOSSupported iTunes versionsRemove iTunes dupesRemove duplicate photos, videos, etc.Price
Cisdem Duplicate FinderMac12 or earlierYesYes$29.99, with free lifetime upgrades
Tune SweeperWindows & MaciTunes 10, 11 or 12YesNo$25.00
iTunes Duplicates CleanerWindows & MacNot specifiedYesNo$14.95
Dupe AwayWindows & MacNot specifiedYesNo$19.99
TuneUpWindows & Mac10.7 or laterYesNo$39.95/year
ManyProg iTunes Duplicate Remover FreeWindowsNot specifiedYesNoFree
AllDupWindowsNot specifiedYesYesFree

Wrapping up

If there are only a few, say ten or less, duplicates in your iTunes library, it’s recommended to use iTunes’ Show Duplicate Items feature. Why not? It’s handy. If you have a big iTunes library, the best iTunes duplicate remover software recommended above can do a good job of searching for duplicates and removing them all at once.

Remove Duplicate Files Windows 10

You can choose the iTunes duplicate remover suits you best according to the review and the comparison table. If you need to get rid of tons of duplicate songs in iTunes and also want to locate and delete duplicate photos, documents and other duplicate files scattered all over your Mac to free up space, you can use Cisdem Duplicate Finder which can fast find and eliminate duplicates regardless of file type and location.

Do you find this article helpful? Is there another best iTunes duplicate remover that you’d like to recommend? Welcome to leave a comment and share your thoughts and opinions.

How Do I Delete Duplicate Files On My Mac For Free

Which iTunes duplicate remover you use to get rid of duplicates in iTunes?