Report Your Issues

Bug reports, questions, comments can be emailed to support AT dougscripts DOT com. Include "Dupin" in your subject line. A response will be sent ASAP. Before emailing, be sure your topic is not already covered here or in the Complete Documentation in Dupin's Help Menu.

In the interest of expediency, bug reports should contain precise details. If possible check Console.app for any Dupin-related error messages. In case you don't know, Console.app is located in Applications/Utilities/. Launch Console.app and make sure the left column "Log List" is displayed. Select "All Messages" in the list. If nothing Dupin-related is immediately visible, try typing "Dupin" in the search field of Console's toolbar. You may see some "helpful" log entries indicating progress, but error messages will be of significant interest.

Lost Your Registration Code?

Email support AT dougscripts DOT com. Be sure to include the name and email address you used to purchase your code.

Dupin Lite

Some issues presented here are also applicable to Dupin Lite. Also see Dupin Lite's FAQ page which describes the differences between Dupin and Dupin Lite.

OS X Lion

Will Dupin run on Lion?

Yes. Version 2.3 and better runs on Lion.

Why won't Dupin delete/Trash iTunes Match tracks during Purge—why are tracks copied to a playlist instead?

This issue only affects the way Dupin handles track and file removal if you are using iTunes Match.

You may have noticed that when you delete an iTunes Match track, iTunes presents an alert that requires you to acknowledge that you actually intend to delete the track, and/or Trash the file, and/or remove the track from the cloud. Unlike other alerts in iTunes this alert cannot be suppressed by checkmarking a "Do not ask me again" option. If Dupin were to delete a number of tracks you would have to acknowledge this alert for each track. Not fun if you are Purging hundreds of tracks.

The issue is that there is no way to delete a file in the cloud programmatically—presumably for security reasons. Thus, iTunes is obliged to present the delete alert.

UPDATE: iTunes 10.5.2 will not elicit the delete alert when a third-party app attempts to delete an iTunes Match track. However, third-party apps cannot remove an iTunes Match track from iTunes. This must be initiated by the user.

To workaround this issue, during the Purge operation Dupin (v2.4 and better) copies the iTunes Match tracks you have designated to be removed to a new discrete playlist in iTunes. You just simply Option-Delete this playlist after the Purge (Option-Delete is the shortcut to delete a selected playlist and its contents from the iTunes library). When tracks are deleted this way, you only have to acknowledge a single set of delete alerts.

Dupin Help contains more information about using Dupin when iTunes Match is enabled.

General Questions

After Dupin finds and then Filters my duplicate tracks, don't I still have to select each track I want to Purge?

No. Purging a batch selection of tracks in Dupin is an option. But it is not at all necessary to select tracks in Dupin before Purging them. Any Purge operation will only remove tracks designated as non-Keepers. (The term "Purge" is used instead of "Delete" to avoid confusion with how one selects and deletes tracks in iTunes.)

Why does Dupin show the original track with the duplicates? Isn't that sort of like iTunes' "Show Duplicates"?

Dupin (and iTunes, for that matter) doesn't know what you think the "original" track is and what you think the "duplicates" are and so it displays all occurrences of tracks which meet your Criteria settings. However, Dupin does know which tracks are duplicates of each other (according to your Critera settings) and sorts them into "Dupe Groups". Then you can decide which is the "Keeper" in each of the Dupe Groups either manually or by using Dupin's Filter Controls.

Why isn't there a Purge icon in the toolbar?

So that users won't inadvertently activate a Purge. You can add the Purge icon if you want. Like all Mac applications, Dupin's toolbar is customizable by right-clicking the toolbar or choosing "Customize Toolbar..." from its View menu.

My media files are located on a wireless Time Capsule/NAS and Purge doesn't move files to the Trash.

Mac OS X doesn't support Trash on network volumes. In such cases use Dupin's preference to "Delete Files At Once", which invokes the UNIX "rm" command to delete the files immediately (and unrecoverably).

Dupin isn't purging.

See the note above about NAS files.

See the notes below about Purge time and trouble factors.

The latest version of Dupin doesn't run on my Tiger/Leopard system.

Version 2.0.5 is still available for download here for these systems.

Could Dupin somehow automatically delete tracks from iTunes without me knowing about it?

No. It is impossible for Dupin to delete tracks or files unless you use its Purge function, and even in that case there are "Are you sure...?" warnings and options displayed before anything is actually deleted.

You are given several opportunities to examine the tracks that Dupin has determined are duplicates and which have been designated as Keepers and non-Keepers before even running Purge.

Dupin uses file location information from the iTunes database. Presumably this information is accurate and up-to-date. Dupin does not in any way try to examine your "iTunes Music" or "iTunes Media" folder for files.

Why does Dupin show fewer/more results than iTunes' "Show Duplicates" or "Show Exact Duplicates" commands?

iTunes uses fewer criteria for exact duplicates, pretty much just Name, Album, and Artist. Dupin's Criteria settings can be more (or less) specific so that comparing its results to iTunes isn't very telling.

Filtering is slow.

"Slow" meaning "not instantaneous" or "it takes three hours"? Any number of factors can affect the speed of a Filter. Filtering should be brisk, but may take longer if you are filtering tens of thousands of tracks. Try "Limiting Dupe Groups" and do fewer at a time. If Filtering is still slow on a smaller number of Dupe Groups, then it is possible that Dupin is having trouble reading data from your iTunes database, which can be caused by anything from bad Unicode text to corrupted data. Insufficient memory is a possibility here also. See "Possible trouble factors" in the section below.

I have a lot of Dupes to Purge from a large library (50,000 tracks is the low end of large). How long will it take Dupin to finish the Purge operation?

Purge times can range from several minutes to as much as an hour or more, but longer times are suspiciously unusual. The time it takes to Purge a number of tracks and files can also vary depending on a number of factors. First, it is important to realise that iTunes is obliged to perform quite a bit of housekeeping when you delete a track: iTunes' database has to be updated, one or more playlists may need to be updated (this information is in the database also), Smart Playlists with live updating will need to be updated, artwork files may have to be deleted or re-arranged, the iTunes Media folder may have some re-organizing to do, and so on. In addition, iTunes periodically exports an XML copy of the database and the larger the library the longer it takes to export. These tasks take time for iTunes to perform—not to mention the tasks any iTunes-related third-party background apps or plug-ins may need to do. You may not notice the time it takes when you delete an album's worth of tracks. But if you are removing hundreds or thousands of tracks at a time (and Trashing their files) iTunes will be doing a lot in the background. This can not only simply add time to the Purge process, but it can also slow down iTunes' performance and, as a result, slow down the efficiency of a Purge. There isn't much Dupin can do under such circumstances except to wait for iTunes to do its housekeeping.

Some things you can try: disable "Live Updating" for any Smart Playlists that use it, turn off "Genius", prevent any devices from syncing, turn-off third-party apps and plug-ins. Don't play any tracks during a Purge since iTunes will be obliged to update play counts and such which affects the database.

I also encourage users to break up the tracks of the Main window into smaller bits using the Selection Window (select a large batch of tracks and use "New Window" in the toolbar). The entire process will actually take less time if done in chunks rather than all at once since iTunes will have less work to do when a smaller batch of tracks (and files) are removed.

Another option is to use Dupin's "Limit Dupe Groups to..." setting. This will return a limited number of Dupe Groups at a time. A smaller number of Dupe Groups can be Purged quite quickly. You can also set Dupin's Preferences to delete files immediately (using "rm" to delete a file) rather than moving them to the Trash. Although deleting immediately is not as safe as moving files to the Trash—since you can't recover the files—it can be somewhat faster.

My recipe for determining how to proceed: if "Get Duplicates" takes more than two or three minutes to complete, consider using a "smaller batch" strategy.

Other possible trouble factors causing slow-downs:

Other software. Any software that may regularly access iTunes' database files. Scrobblers, music servers, auto-taggers, and so on may be involved with conflicts and, in some cases, iTunes database corruption.

Your music files are located on a Time Capsule or on a hard drive attached to a Time Capsule. Moving files to the Trash may not be supported. In such cases use Dupin's preference to "Delete Files At Once".

Another user is logged in on your machine and their iTunes is running. Just log out the user.

Your music files are on a NAS. Not always a problem, but some NAS configurations can prohibit file deletion.

Dupin cannot locate your media files because your system is experiencing multiple library confusion. If you selected the current iTunes library using the Option-launch method this is a distinct possibility.

Why aren't other tags—like Grouping and Composer, for instance—included in the Criteria settings?

It is unlikely that these tags provide much additional bearing on whether or not two tracks are legitimate duplicates.

The tags and data of the duplicate tracks I have are exactly the same. How can I Filter for a Keeper?

iTunes will add a number to the end of a filename in such cases (eg: "In The Air Tonight.mp3" and "In The Air Tonight 1.mp3"). Thus, all other thiings being equal, the only difference among exact duplicates will be the length of the filename. The Filter Controls provides a "Shortest Filename" filter which will find the one track that has not had a number added to its filename.

I'm afraid to Purge so many music files from my external drive—I don't think there's enough room on my local drive's Trash.

Don't worry, trash all you want. When you send a file located on an external drive into the Trash, the file does not move from the external drive to your local drive. The external drive actually has its own invisible Trash folder. The Trash in the Dock/on the desktop displays items from all the Trashes on your system.

Why can't I Purge duplicate tracks found using the "Get Dupes in Other Library" command?

The "Get Dupes in Other Library" command let's you examine duplicate tracks in non-loaded libraries, such as those created with iTunes' multiple library feature or iTunes Library Manager. Technically, Dupin is reading their XML files. You might think that it would just be a matter of deleting the entries in the XML file. However, iTunes does not read the XML file. It just periodically writes to it (for the convenience of other apps). In order to Purge those tracks they would have to be added to the current iTunes library and I presume you don't really want to do that.

It seems counter-intuitive to use checkmarks to indicate tracks you don't want Purged.

While a user's ultimate goal using Dupin may be to delete unwanted tracks and files, Dupin does perform other duplicate management tasks. During initial development it made more intuitive sense under most circumstances to indicate Keepers with a checkmark. For example, if you are filtering Dupe Groups to determine only Oldest Added AAC tracks in order to copy them to a new iTunes playlist, it is sensible that the Keeper is checkmarked. On the other hand, it does seem counter-intuitive to Purge un-checkmarked tracks. However, Dupin v1.2 added a Preference setting to toggle the Keeper designation as either checkmarked or un-checkmarked, whichever configuration makes more sense to you during a particular task.

Why are you no longer developing Dupin for Tiger and Leopard?

1.) Dupin v2.0.5 works fine for these operating systems and is readily available. 2.) Improvements that I was able to make for the Snow Leopard incarnation of Dupin simply cannot be replicated under earlier systems. 3.) Developing a single app to cover three operating systems and two processor platforms and making it work great for everybody is not fair to the majority of users who want modern features without compromise (nevermind the support issues). Thanks for understanding.

Problems?

I'm only seeing one iTunes Match track in the Purge playlist.

This issue has been fixed in version 2.4.1 of Dupin.

After engaging Purge, no confirmation dialogs appear and Dupin hangs (no tracks or files are ever Purged).

Caused by an unusual bug which prevented Purge from working if a playlist—rather than "Library" or "Music"—was selected. Fixed in v2.3.3.

Dupin won't automatically Filter after Getting Dupes, even though it is set to in Preferences.

Fixed in v2.3.2.

Consolidate History doesn't work with a selection of tracks.

Fixed in v2.3.1.

When I enter my new upgrade code I get a -10006 error and/or Dupin crashes.

This issue appears to be resolved.

Sorry for this inconvenience. I am aware of this issue and am tracking it. However, I cannot replicate it here on the workbench; I can only assume some unusual combination of events is causing the crash. v2.0.4 addresses this issue, but not entirely. I recommend that you try Trashing Dupin's preferences file. You will need to re-enter your upgrade code(s) afterwards, so be sure to have this information in hand.

Quit Dupin. Navigate to your [username]/Library/Preferences/ folder and locate the file named "com.dougscripts.Dupin.plist". Move this file to the Trash. Re-start Dupin. Re-enter your registration code(s). Try operating Dupin as usual.

Dupin doesn't seem to see some new files I just added to iTunes and/or Dupin is still finding tracks I know I deleted. It's as if Dupin can only see a version of my iTunes from the past...weird!

Not so weird, really. This could indicate either a corrupted database library or XML file. Run "Library Profile" from Dupin's Help menu and see if the modification date squares with the last time you added a file or even played a track. In any case, see this post, iTunes Music Library.xml not updating when adding new songs at Apple Discussions.

Dupin successfully does a "Get Duplicates" and Filter. But when I Purge it locks up and I have to force-quit.

See the tips about Purge time above.

1.) Because of some yet-to-be-resolved threading issues it is possible for Dupin to appear frozen during especially lengthy tasks—you may get anxious if you see the "spinning beach ball". This may just mean that Dupin is preoccupied with what it is supposed to be doing and access to its interface via mouse-click or key press is inhibited. This a normal Mac-thing. When Dupin finishes its current task it will become responsive again. Even so, it may really be frozen. Before performing a Force-Quit, launch your Activity Monitor app (in /Applications/Utilities/). If Dupin's CPU and Memory values are fluctuating, then Dupin is active. If it is really frozen, these values will lessen and lessen.

2.) It is possible that the track and file information obtained by Dupin, particularly the file location information, is erroneous, or at the very least, not up-to-date. Thus, Dupin is unable to locate and delete a file correctly. If this happens with many files then Dupin can become unresponsive and crash. This may be caused by confusion over the location of the iTunes database file. If you have ever used iTunes' multiple library feature, make sure that the current library's location is the same as listed in your [username]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iApps.plist file. I have found that frequently unmounting and mounting an external drive containing a multiple library folder—such as a notebook user may do—could create this confusion, and cause this plist file to not get updated correctly.

For further information on this phenomenon, see Multiple Library Confusion.

Future Development

I would like to see more options for "fuzzy" matching to account for slight variations in similar spellings, times, and sizes.

Approximate time matching is available for the Time Criteria as of v2.1. Additional approximate matching may be included in a future release.

Will Dupin find duplicates on my iPod?

It is unlikely that Dupin will support iPods (or iPhones) anytime in the near future.

Can I access shared playlists with Dupin?

Currently, no. Under consideration for a future release.

Is there a WIndows version of Dupin?

Not yet ;)

Back to the Dupin product page...

Version History

v2.4.2 (dec 28 '11 - current):
- Fixes obscure issue with unresponsive behavior after using Re-Playlist when iTunes Match enabled

v2.4.1 (dec 3 '11):
- Fixes issue where only a single iTunes Match track appears in final Purge playlist

v2.4 (november 28 '11):
- Can detect if iTunes Match is enabled
- Addresses issue of having to individually acknowledge deletion of each track during Purge when iTunes Match is enabled
- Can identify iTunes Match "cloud tracks"
- Adds column header contextual menu to show/hide columns
- Fixes text coloring issue when window not frontmost
- Updates names of columns for parity with modern iTunes
- Other minor enhancements

v2.3.3 (july 2 '11):
- Fixes unusual bug when Purge is run on a selected playlist and app freezes
- Fixes non-fatal error when checkbox column header is clicked

v2.3.2 (june 29 '11):
- Fixes error when "Automatically Filter..." is set in Preferences

v2.3.1 (june 27 '11):
- Fixes bug in Consolidate History when working with selection
- Fixes bug showing/hiding some Help buttons
- Fixes Filter Controls memory leak
- Fixes bug that prevented Open panel from closing immediately
- Other non-critical minor bug fixes

v2.3 (june 24 '11):
- Compatible with OS X Lion
- Fixed issue with delays caused by slow screen redrawing. Most operations will be noticably more responsive.
- Most operations can now be performed on discrete Search results (eg, Filter just the Search results).
- No longer necessary to confirm changes when closing Selection Window as these changes now happen "live".
- Minor enhancements to improve overall performance.

v2.2.5 (april 8 '11):
- Improves parsing when "fuzzy" Time criteria is in effect
- Fixes rare glitch when sorting playlists

v2.2.4 (march 4 '11):
- Fixed rare bug when selecting playlist folders
- Fixed issue with "non-sticky" contextual menu

v2.2.3 (march 1 '11):
- Additiional flexibility in column width resizing
- Minor stability fixes

v2.2.2 (november 15 '10):
- Fixes Show in iTunes bug
- Fixes Application Support folder bug which inhibited Re-Playlist behavior
- Adds Sparkle framework for updates notification

v2.2.1 (october 19 '10):
- Fixes error with update check
- Fixes Library Profile glitch

v2.2 (october 15 '10):
- Added preference to set small/large text-size
- Text color of track rows designated as non-Keepers will be displayed lighter than text of Keeper track rows
- Some of the GUI now rendered with WebKit
- Updated playlist and library icons to iTunes 10 monochrome-look
- Fixed a bug that might prevent Filter Controls window from staying frontmost (when preferred)
- Fixed an issue that might cause the Time column to mis-sort very short tracks
- Fixed an issue that prevented newly added toolbar icons from becoming enabled right away

v2.1.1 (march 26 '10):
- fixed problem adjusting columns
- fixed issue whereby Re-Playlist would not complete
- fixed benign GUI glitches

v2.1 (jan 26 '10):
- runs under Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or better only
- adds aproximate time matching for Time Criteria (settable to :01 ≤ n ≤ :10 seconds)
- adds File Path column to main table
- made task additions to contextual menus
- some warning dialogs now have suppression/reset options
- "Search" configurable with categories, re-located to toolbar
- other minor GUI improvements and alterations
- speed enhancements
- addresses toolbar customization issue
- addresses threading issue
- addresses memory leak issue

v2.0.6 (oct 4 '09):
- runs under Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or better only
- addresses reported issues affecting performance in Snow Leopard
- fixes startup issue verifying Folder Location setting in Filter Controls
- fixes Get Info error after Purge
- fixes error with search
- some GUI updates
- "Mark as Keeper/non-Keeper" included in Select menu
- displays Time rounding to whole second
- added "Toggle all" button in Re-Playlist window

v2.0.5 (aug 17 '09):
- Last version developed for Mac OS 10.4.11/10.5.8 - Fixes selection bug in Re-Playlist routine
- Encourages iTunes to update faster after Purge and Re-Playlist
- Fixed minor Tiger GUI conflict with Column Sort popup
- Fixed delay when updating from Selection Window
- Addressed purge log location bug
- Addressed internet connection bug at startup

v2.0.4 (aug 6 '09):
- Fixes "Selection to iTunes Playlist..." fail
- Fixes error issue when upgrading

v2.0.3 (jul 21 '09):
- Fixes rare filename issue with files imported from non-Mac OS
- Fixes rare disappearing column bug
- Fixes benign XML pretty-print issue with Re-Playlist

v2.0.2 (mar 18 '09):
- Fixed retro-syntax issues for Tiger systems

v2.0.1 (mar 16 '09):
- Fixed errant button positioning in "Re-Playlist" window

v2.0 (mar 14 '09):
- New "Consolidate History" tool can consolidate the play, skip, and ratings information from all tracks in a Dupe Group to the single "Keeper" track
- New "Re-Playlist" tool can re-populate iTunes playlists replacing "non-Keeper" tracks with "Keeper" tracks
- Added "Track Number" and "Disc Number" to "Get Duplicates" Criteria
- "Library Matrix" replaced with Playlist Popup
- Many GUI enhancements
- Main window now smaller minimum size
- Safely interupt and/or cancel most routines
- "Filter Controls" setting "Volume Location" replaced with "Folder Location", "Protected" kind with "Purchased" kind
- Main Menu re-organized
- Many speed and efficiency enhancements
- Fixed error when trying to parse track while being downloaded, sync'd, or is otherwise "location-less"
- "Get Info" displays Sample Rate appropriately when information is not available (usually for videos)
- Addresses issue with malformed file paths
- New "Library Profile" tool can list information about current iTunes library for diagnostic purposes
- Video tutorials via website

v1.4.2 (oct 15 '08):
- Fixes rare crash at startup issue
- Fixes minor issue when selected "Volume Location" is not mounted

v1.4.1 (oct 3 '08):
- Fixes looping error during "Delete"
- Fixes issue when toggling checkbox of a selected item

v1.4 (sept 24 '08):
- Recognizes Genius Playlists
- Adds "Refresh Playlist Popup" toolbar button and menu option to View menu
- Adds Preference to limit number of Dupe Groups fetched during "Get Duplicates"
- Adds Preference to toggle between deleting files immediately or moving them to Trash during Purge
- Trash alert sound muted
- Fixes a minor date formatting issue
- GUI updated
- Speed and performance enhancements

v1.3.4 (aug 1 '08):
- Compatibility with iTunes 7.7.1
- Minor performance enhancements

v1.3.3 (apr 3 '08):
- Fixed error with file sizes filtering
- Minor performance enhancements

v1.3.2 (feb 22 '08):
- Fixed problem with file sizes larger than 1GB
- Fixed error involving "filterFileKindLabels"

v1.3.1 (feb 22 '08):
- Fixed issue with automatic filtering preference which errored when getting dupes

v1.3 (feb 21 '08):
- Adds Newest/Oldest Date Modified options to Filter Controls
- Adds Largest/Smallest File Size options to Filter Controls
- Displays Bit Rate Rounding status in Filter Controls window
- Bit Rate Rounding is applicable to bit rate options in Filter Controls
- Provides workaround for iTunes 7.6 AppleScript "delete bug" (whereby files chosen to be preserved during Purge are errantly moved to Trash—fixed in iTunes 7.6.1)
- Fixed a problem with bit rate filtering
- Updated Help pages
- Minor performance enhancements

v1.2 (dec 3 '07):
- Added Preference to toggle Keeper designation as checkmarked (default) or un-checkmarked
- Added Preference to use bit rate rounding to account for ABR-encoded AAC files
- Added "Customize Toolbar..." menu command in View Menu; moved "Show/Hide Toolbar" to View Menu
- Added notification when updating Playlists popup
- Added bytes-size to Size display in Get Info window
- Corrected error thrown by .MID files
- Revised code syntax interpreted ambiguously under OS 10.4 (Tiger)
- Revised label text in Filter Controls window
- Fixed problem during Purge if source Playlist had been re-selected
- Fixed rare problem causing hang-up while switching Spaces or applications during Purge
- Updated Help pages
- Minor performance enhancements

v1.1.4 (nov 26 '07):
- Changed keyboard equivalent for "Delete" function to Command-Delete, added "Delete Selected from Dupin" menu command
- Added "Sort by Dupe Groups" toolbar button
- Redressed issues with AAC files encoded using ABR
- Fixed problem with moving files from striped RAID to Trash
- Fixed rare problem with listing playlists
- Fixed rare problem causing inaccuracies when filtering by "Volume"
- Fixed rare problem causing inaccuracies when filtering by "Shortest Filename"
- Minor performance enhancements

v1.1.3 (nov 8 '07):
- Fixed sorting problem caused by date errors with some localizations (German, Dutch, et al)

v1.1.2 (nov 1 '07):
- Fixed string coercion error some Leopard users were seeing at startup
- Fixed problem with Get Dupes sorting when a track's Sample Rate is "Unknown"

v1.1.1 (oct 30 '07):
- Fixed "compilation error" some users were seeing at startup

v1.1 (oct 29 '07):
- Compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
- Remembers last selected playlist in playlist popup and in "Selected to Playlist..." panel
- Added option during Purge to remove tracks just from the selected source playlist
- Playlist popup refreshes when its Library Matrix button is clicked
- Command-P replaces Spacebar as shortcut for Play/Pause
- Added "Selection to New Window" option in multi-selection contextual menu
- Catches error if file to be played cannot be found
- Fixed issue with inaccurate examination of "Movies" master playlist
- Fixed issues with playlist popup display
- Several other minor performance fixes

v1.0.3 (oct 10 '07):
- Filter processing speed greatly increased
- Return keypress while "Looking for..." search field is focused initiates "Get Duplicates"
- Added recent items and "Clear" sub-menu to "Looking for..." search field
- Filter Controls window closes when filtering begins, unless set otherwise in Preferences - Fixed problem with file path displaying instead of file name
- Addresses error on launch when attempting to identify User volumes mounted at /
- Works-around rare problem with errant carriage returns and/or line feeds embedded in iTunes' library XML file
- Minor performance fixes

v1.0.2 (oct 4 '07):
- Fixed delay and stall issues occurring during Purge that some users were experiencing
- Fixed issue with Purge not proceeding when tracks selected; now allows Purge of selection
- Will display alert if iTunes is somehow inaccessible during Purge
- Minor performance fixes

v1.0.1 (oct 1 '07):
- Fixed issue with displaying dates according to International preferences
- Fixed issue with displaying playlist names
- Minor performance fixes

v1.0 (sept 27 '07):
- initial release