How to Find Duplicate Music on a Mac

Have you ever checked how many duplicate music files you have on your Mac? You might be surprised by how many you find. In this article, we’ll show you how to find and delete duplicate and similar songs on your Mac.

Contents:

Finding similar songs in macOS Music app
Finding duplicate songs in macOS music App
An easy way to find duplicate and similar music in any folder
FAQs

Tip – The quickest way to delete duplicate music on a Mac

Use Duplicate File Finder from Nektony to quickly find and remove duplicate songs in the Music app or on any storage, including external drives. This duplicate songs finder can also discover extra copies of other file types, including photos and videos. It’s free to use, though you need to pay for Pro options like merging similar folders or removing duplicate folders.

Duplicate File Finder

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Video Guide: How to find duplicates on a Mac

How to find similar files in the Music app (iTunes)

From your Applications folder, open the Music app.
In the menu bar, click File → Library → select Show Duplicate Items.
In the list of duplicate songs, choose unneeded songs and remove them.

Note Although the Music app calls these files duplicates, they are not exact duplicates. They might be from different albums, or they might be different versions of a song. We recommend checking each track before deleting it to be sure. So please, DO NOT mass select and remove all duplicate songs the Music app shows you.

How to find duplicate tracks in the Music app

Open the Music app.
In the menu bar, click on File and select Library.
Press and hold the Alt key.
Select Show Exact Duplicate Items.
This time, the app will show the list of exact duplicate songs in your Music Library. Select and remove useless copies.

Music app menu showing option to See Exact duplicate items

How to find duplicate and similar music anywhere on a Mac

The quickest way to find duplicate music on a Mac is to use an application called Duplicate File Finder, which is specially designed for this task.

Duplicate File Finder can scan a Music Library, any folder on your Mac, and even external drives. The app can find any type of duplicate item: documents, videos, pictures, text files, and more. It also has many other great features, like finding similar folders, merging folders, and organizing files on your Mac. For now, let’s see how to delete duplicate music files on a Mac with Duplicate File Finder.

Download and run Duplicate File Finder.
Choose the folders you want to scan. For example, you can scan a Music Library or your Home folder.
You will see the list of all duplicate files on your Mac. Choose showing music files only.
Select unneeded copies.
Click the Remove button and confrim.

Duplicate File Finder showing duplicate music

If you want to see similar music, switch to the appropriate section from the left panel.

Conclusion

Using Apple’s Music app, you can find similar and duplicate files using the appropriate option in the menu bar. If you want to get rid of all duplicate music and other types of duplicates, you can use third-party duplicate music finder like Duplicate File Finder. This free tool is perfect for finding and deleting similar or duplicate songs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find and delete duplicate songs on my Mac?

If you want to remove duplicate songs in the Music app, in the menu bar, select File → Library → press and hold the Alt key and select Show Exact Duplicate Items. If you want to find duplicate music anywhere on your Mac, use Duplicate File Finder from Nektony.

What’s the easiest way to find duplicate files on a Mac?

The easiest way to find any duplicate file is to use a special application called Duplicate File Finder. This app also finds similar media files and similar folders and even helps you merge folders to organize duplicates.

Is there a free duplicate file finder for my Mac?

Yes. Duplicate File Finder from Nektony is free to find and remove duplicates from Mac. However, it provides an in-app upgrade to the Pro version, which offers additional features for quickly removing duplicates and organizing files.

Can I manually find duplicate files on a Mac?

Yes. You can use Finder’s Smart Folder to manually find duplicates. Read this guide to learn how. However, note that this can be quite time consuming, as you’ll have to manually compare every file that seems to be a duplicate.