How to find duplicate music on a Mac

Asya Karapetyan
Content marketer, who specializes in Mac how-to guides
March 7, 2023
7 minutes to read

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 remove duplicate and similar music on your Mac.

how to Find duplicate music on Mac

Contents:

  1. How to find similar music in the Music app
  2. How to find duplicate music in the Music app
  3. How to find duplicate and similar music anywhere on a Mac
  4. FAQs

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

Use Duplicate File Finder from Nektony to quickly find and remove duplicate music in the Music app or on any storage, including external drives. Duplicate File 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.
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How to find similar music in the Music app

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

The Show duplicate items option in menu
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 music in the Music app

  1. Open the Music app.
  2. In the menu bar, click on File and select Library.
  3. Press and hold the Alt key.
  4. Select Show Exact Duplicate Items.
  5. 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 best 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 find duplicate music with Duplicate File Finder.

  1. Download and run Duplicate File Finder.
  2. Click Duplicate Music in the sidebar.
  3. Choose the folders you want to scan. For example, you can scan a Music Library or your Home folder.
  4. You will see the list of duplicate music on your Mac. Select unneeded copies and click to remove them. Duplicate File Finder showing duplicate music
  5. If you want to see similar music, switch to the appropriate tab from the top. Duplicate File Finder showing similar music

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 duplicate files, you can use third-party software like Duplicate File Finder. This free tool is perfect for finding and deleting similar or duplicate songs.


 


FAQs

How do I find and delete duplicate songs on my Mac?
What’s the easiest way to find duplicate files on a Mac?
Is there a free duplicate file finder for my Mac?
Can I manually find duplicate files on a Mac?

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