How to Solve Duplicate File Problem on iTunes


I find that I have three or four copies show up in my itunes folder for just about every album I have. Itransferred all my CDs to itunes (Apple Lossless format) a couple of years ago. The only exceptions are recent files I added (new CDs). Is there a way to remove these duplicate references? I'm not sure why they're showing up. I have had one or two harddrive fails, and I created a backup directory for music at one point, which have have had something to do with it - but it should be a backup, not a duplicate.

Any help would be apprecaited in knowing how to remove these dupes, and on keeping proper backup going forwrd.

Am using a PC, iTunes, all Apple Lossless files. Am also open to changing to another interface as long as it's convenient. I do like the itunes remote access via iphone though..
128x128outlier
Just to add to my previous comment, the duplicate files are referencing the same location, so there do not appear to be actual multiple files.
I have had the same problem. Some of the duplicates were caused by what others have posted, but many of the duplicates are just unexplained. I gave up trying to figure it out.
I have also experienced some songs of a copied CD not showing up. Yet when I try to down load the CD again, I get the message "replace the duplicates”?

I think it's a conspiracy...
Albert, have you compared Audirvana to Pure Music or Amarra?
Maybe you could update us on a new thread when you figure this all out. I'm anxious to get on with it, but the tinkering is daunting.

So far, all I've tried, in addition to playing iTunes through my Squeezebox 3 to my DAC, is playing the HDTracks FLAC samples from a folder separate from iTunes. But, I have to change the library in the SB program to access it, then switch back to choose iTunes.

I was thinking of using the Squeezebox Touch as an interface, but, as Jax2 notes, it won't pass higher than 24/96.

Needless to say . . . I'm a bit confused.

Outlier,

I may have found a way out of this mess. I used Mackeeper (which I downloaded) to scan my external hard drive for duplicates, and then simply removed the duplicates there. Then I wiped out everything from iTunes and started over from scratch. Finally, I pointed iTunes to the external hard drive through Preferences, and when the playlist repopulated, it showed only one file per song, as it should. So far, so good...

I hope you get it worked out soon.