What's the Best Way to Find Duplicate MP3/WMA files?

[Jason Dunn]

I'm looking for some advice here: I have many audio files, but some are duplicates from back when I ripped only a few tracks from each CD I have, then later went back and re-ripped the whole thing. I'm looking for a tool that's capable of scanning 13,000 or so audio files and finding duplicates based on file name. It should also make it easy for me to tell which one I want to delete (most of the dupes will be on their own, outside of an album folder). Any recommended solutions? Most of the tools I've tried have either crashed upon trying to index that number of songs, or have been utterly useless at seeing the duplicates.

[Filip Norrgard]

Duplicate Finder 2.0 (http://www.ashisoft.com/duplicates.htm) is one way to find duplicate WMA and MP3 files. Cnet Download.com (http://www.download.com/Duplicate-Finder/3000-2248-10362557.html#cnetReview) gave it 4 out of 5 in their review and it might be something to look into for your needs.

Anyone know of any better software out there? :)

[MyquiH]

As sick and twisted as this might sound, Windows Media Player 10 works well for this, provided you've ID tagged everything correctly. (And if not, let me plug Tag & Rename -- the BEST retagger/renamer ever -- I was able to uniformly name and tag all 20,000 of my songs in about 2.5 hours... http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/Tag-Rename/3000-2141_2-10303224.html?tag=lst-0-1)

Once your library is in WMP, it's easy to sort by artist/song name and then look at dups -- you can easily see in columns what the bitrate is, track play time, etc.. When you find the one you want, you right-click on the one you don't and choose "Delete" and WMP will prompt as to whether you want to remove from your library, or from library AND disk.

Just a thought...
Mike

[Jason Dunn]

As sick and twisted as this might sound, Windows Media Player 10 works well for this, provided you've ID tagged everything correctly.

Yeah, I've tried that method but it's a bit of a mess because not all my songs have correct metadata. That's my OTHER problem. ;-)

[MyquiH]

Yeah, I've tried that method but it's a bit of a mess because not all my songs have correct metadata. That's my OTHER problem. ;-)

Well, to reiterate -- and this is a completely unsolicited plug -- give Tag & Rename a try. I find it incredibly quick and powerful to use. It's UI is more for old-skool command line types like me (e.g. plugging in "%1-%2" in the edit boxes), but it's quite efficient.

Good luck!
Mike

[DSpencer]

Duplicate Finder 2.0 is one way to find duplicate WMA and MP3 files. gave it 4 out of 5 in their review and it might be something to look into for your needs.

Anyone know of any better software out there? :)

Download.com reviews means nothing. It only depends from the money that paid developer !

There are more better tool for the mp3 files - Abee Mp3 Duplicates Finder.
http://abeetech.com/mp3-duplicates-finder/
This program compare mp3 files by its tags and allows to find a lot of duplicates, similar songs and remixes. I have bought it one week ago and I think that this is the best software. This is a new software and developers promised me that very soon the program will be able to work with ogg files and wma files.

[Jason Dunn]

This is a new software and developers promised me that very soon the program will be able to work with ogg files and wma files.

That does look slick - but I need the WMA support, so perhaps you can post again in this thread when WMA support is added and I can take a look at it? Thanks. :-)

[que_hay]

Hey Jason heres one way. Run a search on your computer for .mp3 or .wma files and then when it is finished searching you can arrange them by name, file size, folder, ectcetera. the select the ones that are duplicates and click delete. Wa la the old school version of doing it.

[DSpencer]

This is a new software and developers promised me that very soon the program will be able to work with ogg files and wma files.

That does look slick - but I need the WMA support, so perhaps you can post again in this thread when WMA support is added and I can take a look at it? Thanks. :-)

I am glad to tell you that the new version was released.
And it supports WMA and OGG !
Enjoy. :)

[DSpencer]

test

[Jason Dunn]

test

What excatly are you testing? Come on, this isn't UseNet... :wink: