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Question

Problem with Itunes Match, Iphone and Itunes

Apr 6, 2012 3:22AM PDT

I've got a problem that's driving me crazy. I have a library of about 2500 songs which uses about 10gb of memory. When I set up Match, for some reason it duplicated my whole library. Now, the same library is using 24gb of memory. This has wreaked havoc on my Iphone which is now maxed out. The situation gets stranger. Now, when I go to play music on my laptop, quite a few songs say the song can't be played because the original file can't be found. Yet all the songs play when I use my phone. What's more, the songs don't APPEAR to be duplicated on my phone, yet they must be there because it is using the memory. Also, although the songs that won't play on my laptop, they must still be on the computer somewhere, because it shows 24gb of memory used there as well. I'm perplexed and can really use some help. Thanks in advance!

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Is this that Apple product?
Apr 6, 2012 3:35AM PDT
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Clarification
Apr 7, 2012 11:40PM PDT

The issue involves an iPhone 3G and a pc. Now here's an update... After watching about a 1/3 of my music disappear, I found a file in my system that contained music files. I moved that folder to my desktop for easy access. Now get this, I went back to iTunes, and discovered that as I deleted the songs with an ! Next them, they started to reappear, and play correctly. So now I have all my songs back, but they are all duplicated. Now I need a way to get rid of the duplicates so it doesn't take up so much memory. Your thoughts?

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My first thought is backup.
Apr 8, 2012 6:04AM PDT

My second and third thoughts are to backup.

Only then would I look at duplicate finders which appear to be plentiful.
Bob

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iTunes can be problematic on a PC
Apr 8, 2012 1:47PM PDT

IME assisting users with iTunes issues on PCs, a good way to solve the problem is to buy a bigger hard drive if possible. (Can your laptop be upgraded?) iTunes is still a bit of an unwieldy beast.

Backups are always crucial, but that doesn't solve the underlying problem of corruption among the libraries that can lead to problems with duplication. I've yet to find a third party program that's always capable of fixing this issue. Some work, but they require some degree of trial and error. My own preference is to upgrade the drive after backing up/imaging everything well first. Second choice would be to re-build the iTunes library from scratch.

-Pedro

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Clarification
Apr 9, 2012 6:11AM PDT

I appreciate the ideas. My laptop has plenty of memory to handle to the load. The problem is my Iphone. I've got a total of 32gb of memory on my phone, and my music is using 28.5gb. Also, regarding back-up, everything is backed up on Carbonite, and tonight I'll back it up on a flash drive. Now that everything is playing again, I'd love to get rid of the duplicates, save what's left, and then delete all the music folders on my system and start fresh.

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Ahh, the light is now on.
Apr 9, 2012 7:38AM PDT

I find some folk want to carry EVERYTHING in the iPod, phone, thing.

Here I have one of the older 20GB iPods and learned to not pile it all on the pod.

You may also find out that the iThing slows down as we put it all on the device. No free space and it's going to drag a little more.

I can't guess if you are the type that must have it all on the portable.
Bob

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Bob, you missed my point
Apr 11, 2012 6:45AM PDT

I totally understand what you're saying. Having been in the radio biz many years, I have a collection of cds and records that number well over 10,000. I would never need all that in my system. I only had about 2500 songs (and really, probably closer to 1700). That should only take up about 10-12gb. The problem is that Itunes Match, has duplicated everything. That has doubled the size, and that's why I have problems.

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And why we get to look at backup then duplicate finders.
Apr 11, 2012 9:21AM PDT

Itune duplicate finder scripts and apps are too plentiful for me to point out any of them.
Bob

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Just be happy you don't have a *really* big library
Apr 11, 2012 11:46AM PDT

I've had to help folks with much larger libraries, and it can be messy sometimes Sad.

As a radio guy, at least you had the common sense to pare it down to a more manageable song list(!) My own library is a hot mess, at best, and it includes more and more lossless content.

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Definitely use a local backup ahead of Carbonite
Apr 10, 2012 1:41AM PDT

I suggest you use a local backup ahead of anything up to the cloud, such as Carbonite. It's a lot more reliable IME, and you can control the whole process if you need to. External hard disk space is so cheap now, along with the 16GB flash drives that are starting to flood the e-tailers, it makes little sense not to use that as a primary backup. FWIW, my experience with Carbonite is a mixed bag. YMMV.

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Definitely use a local backup ahead of Carbonite
Apr 22, 2012 12:03PM PDT

Learn from this, thanks!

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Answer
OK, start at this link.
Apr 11, 2012 12:02PM PDT
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This technology is definitely in it's infantile stage
Apr 12, 2012 12:51AM PDT

I have no doubt it will get better in the future. I won't count on Apple to be the one to fix it though, given their track record with the iTunes software alone(!) Wink