Will MusicBee Find and Remove Duplicate Songs?

/ Removing Duplicates, Solutions / By

MusicBee is a feature-rich freeware music player and music organizer for Windows. It contains plenty of features, and a duplicate music finder, among others. MusicBee lets you find duplicate music using music tags (such as artist, album, title, etc).

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MusicBee Features

Skins

MusicBee comes with a variety of skins to choose from. You can select your favorite skin from the Add-on section to get the best experience. Not just that, you can create your own custom skin and share it with the community.

 

Synchronization

Syncing is a crucial feature in today’s time. MusicBee, like any other music player, lets you synchronize music, music playlists, audiobooks and podcasts with all other devices at home. MusicBee also supports syncing your content with Android and Windows Phone devices.

 

File Conversion

There are times when we need to convert a music file to another format. If a file won’t open on another device, you may convert it using the in-house audio conversion feature. There’s no more need to purchase a file conversion app!

 

Compatibility

MusicBee makes maximum use of your computer’s hardware such as high-end sound cards.

 

Streaming

You can also stream your media using SoundCloud and Last.fm services.

 

Import Music from Other Players

You can also import music from Windows Media Player and iTunes.

 

Auto-fill Missing Metadata

Sometimes, the website from which you downloaded your music may not have filled up the metadata information such as artist, album, bit rate, album art, lyrics, etc. If this information is missing, you can auto-fill it using industry-standard formats.

 

Find & Remove Duplicate Songs in MusicBee

1) Manual Methods

 

Method 1: Using File Explorer

  1. Open File Explorer.
  2. Go to the Music folder from the left-hand side panel.
  3. Click on the View icon and select the List mode. A list of all files and folders in the Music folder will appear.
  4. Click on the Name column-head. Your list of music files will be re-ordered based on their names in alphabetical order.
  5. Look for common name patterns to identify the duplicates. For example: Duplicates of alanwalker.mp3 will appear with some suffix text such as alanwalker – Copy.mp3, alanwalker – Copy (2).mp3, etc.

 

Drawback:

  • The major drawback of using the manual method to identify duplicates is false positives. Some file names may be the same but the actual content might be different. When this happens, there is a risk of accidental data loss. To avoid that, consider moving all of the filtered duplicate music to a new temporary folder for reviewing them in detail.
  • If your music collection is too large, this method is not feasible. It will require a very long time to go through each file (depending on the size of your collection). For a large music collection, the second automated method is recommended.

 

Method 2: Using the MusicBee Application

  1. Open MusicBee.
  2. Press and hold the Ctrl + A keys simultaneously.
  3. Click on the Music tab.
  4. Your music files will be listed along with basic details such as artist, title, album, year, genre, rating, etc.
  5. Click on the Title column-head to reorder them in alphabetical order.
  6. Now, you can identify your duplicate music using  a common name pattern and file name suffixes.

 

Drawbacks:

The drawbacks are the same as in the File Explorer method.

 

Automated Methods

Method 1: Automatically Identify & Delete Duplicate Music (Recommended)

This is the recommended method if you’ve got a large music collection, or if you don’t want to do the job manually.

You may use a specialized software Clone Files Checker to de-dupe your MusicBee collection. Clone Files Checker lets you find and remove duplicate music using various ID3 tags such as album, artist, title, and content (if the tags are missing).

Once the results are displayed, you can automatically mark/ unmark them in a batch using a pattern of your choice. For example: You can mark music files stored in a specific sub-folder. Or you may mark only the newest/ oldest music files, etc.

After selecting the files, you can either delete them permanently or move them to a separate folder for reviewing at a later time.

 

Clone Files Checker Other Features:

  • iTunes Scan: Find and delete duplicate songs in your iTunes library.
  • Cloud Scan: When you purchase a CFC license, you get free access to Cloud Duplicate Finder, a web-based duplicate files finder. You can find and remove duplicates on OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and Box Cloud without needing to download a single file.
  • Remove Empty Folders: Automatically find and eliminate empty folders to organize your files.
  • Export to CSV: You can export the list of the dupes to a CSV file for your reference.
  • Backup: You may also activate the backup feature to avoid potential data loss.

 

Drawbacks:

  • CFC is not a free application. You’d need a license to delete duplicates beyond 10 duplicate groups.

 

Method 2: Using the MusicBee Application

Step 1: Fix Missing Tags

If your music tags are missing, you’d need to first insert music tags. To do so, MusicBee has a Tag Manager feature. MusicBee will automatically show up files with missing tags and let you add them.

  1. Click on Tools > Tagging Tools > Show files with missing tags.
  2. Select the range of music files to add tags and then use the Tag Manager feature from the Tools menu to add missing music tags automatically.

 

Step 2: Find and Remove Duplicates

  1. Open MusicBee.
  2. Click on the MusicBee main menu.
  3. Select Tools, followed by Manage Duplicates.
  4. A new window will open up.
  5. In the new window, you’ll find the Filter files where the selected tags are duplicated option. Choose the tags that you want to be compared while finding duplicates. For example: Title, album, artist, etc.
  6. MusicBee will display a list of all duplicates meeting your criteria.
  7. Choose the duplicate music that you want to keep.
  8. Select one of the following options:If the music tags are incorrect, there is a possibility of false positives. 
    1. Hide duplicates
    2. Delete
    3. Replace with reference to the kept file
    4. Save to Playlist

 

Drawbacks:

  • This feature compares your music files by their tags. The duplicate results might be incorrect.
  • No export to CSV option to export dupes list.
  • No advanced auto file selection options. You’ll need to manually select your files.

Raza Ali Kazmi
Website

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Raza Ali Kazmi works as an editor and technology content writer at Sorcim Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. He loves to pen down articles on a wide array of technology related topics and has also been diligently testing software solutions on Windows & Mac platforms. If you have any question about the content, you can message me or the company's support team.