subject: Organize iTunes: Delete Duplicate Tracks, Fill in Missing Track Information and Add Album Art [print this page] Organize iTunes: Delete Duplicate Tracks, Fill in Missing Track Information and Add Album Art
If you have a large amount of music in your iTunes library I expect it is in a similar condition to how mine used to be. I had hundreds of duplicate songs, missing track and album titles plus much of the album art was missing. If you have tried going through your library manually to sort it out you will know it is seemingly impossible task. The answer is to use an Mp3 tagger editor.
So lets look at the main problems of a disorganized iTunes library.
Duplicate Tracks
Duplicate tracks are a major problem with iTunes libraries. You have acquired music from various sources and end up with multiple copies of many tracks. Trying to identify them all and delete them is extremely difficult because despite them being the same track they are incorrectly labelled so you don't know what they are. One track could be called 'track one', one called be called 'unknown track', another one 'Hey Jude' and finally 'He Jude'. They are actually four copies of the exact same track! Having this many duplicates seriously clogs up your hard drive and makes iTunes a real pain to use.
Album Art
When album art is missing from your iTunes library it really spoils it. It is very hard to add it in manually - tracking down the album covers and uploading them is very time consuming. However, when your iTunes library does include all the album art it is a real pleasure. Album art always havs great meaning and memories for me. it is a shame to miss out on it because of the digital revolution.
Missing Information
Most iTunes collections are plagued by this problem. When tracks have information missing and are replaced with the default 'unknown artist ' or 'unknown track' it makes your iTunes virtually useless. It makes it very difficult to find the song you are looking for. Sometimes you will only remember the name of the album the song you want to listen to comes from. If the name of the album is missing you wont be able to find it at all.
Missing information also further compounds the other two problems of duplicate tracks and album art. If the information isn't accurate how will you spot duplicates? Likewise if you don't know what album a track has come from how will you look for its album art?
Fixing all the above problems manually is probably possible if you have a small music collection of say two or three gigabytes. However If you have an extensive collection I strongly recommend using an mp3 tagger editor. A good one will fix duplicate tracks leaving you with only the best quality copy. It will also add in all the missing track information automatically and find all the album art for your music.
When your iTunes is perfectly organized it is such a joy - like having your own private jukebox.
