Rec. for managing duplicate songs

[Miranova23]

Relevant: currently using WMP & Good Sync

So, somewhere along the line, nearly ever song in my library replicated itself. Possibly between keeping my music synced between desktop & laptop. These are usually stored in exactly the same location as the original, thus with a (2) added at the end of the file name. Sometimes, this happens more than once. 1 song I found replicated 6 times! But it never adds numbers higher than (4). From Windows Explorer, mind you, it does actually show several identical file names in the same location. I didn't think Windows allowed this. There is no difference between the original and duplicates, so far as I can tell.

Next strange thing, is that instead of correcting the spelling of an artist's name, it apparently has duplicated the artist so there is a correctly spelled directory, and an incorrectly spelled one. For example, I have 2 identical discographies: Hillary Duff & Hilary Duff. (Yes, I have some normal female tendencies lol)

Lastly, WMP is importing still other copies from the "_gsdata_" folder that GoodSync maintains.



Those are my problems.
BASICALLY what I'm asking for, is a method or program to help sort out and delete the songs ending in (#). (Windows Search takes "(2)" to mean anything with a 2 anywhere in the file name. Not so helpful.) And is there a good way to keep WMP from duplicating them again?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

A search program such as Everything from voidtools.com will immediately find any files containing (2). The found files can then be sorted by directory and deleted within the Everything screen.

Do all of these file names end with (2).mp3?? If so, a search using that term in Everything will be even more refined.

You could also use the MOVE command from a command prompt to move all files containing a certain text string to some other directory, from which they could then be deleted.

For instance, when in a Johnny Cash directory, the command "move *(2)* d:\temp" would move the song title "Folsom Prison Blues (2).mp3" to the D:\temp directory.

Can't help with WMP or how to prevent duplications since I don't use any syncing for my music collection. My only suggestion would be to not sync at all and to instead (perhaps once a month) manually copy all songs from one PC to the other. If you did that on March 31, any songs added to the source PC in April would not be available on the second PC until the next time you did the full copy, perhaps on April 30. That isn't perfect, but it's better than fighting synchronization problems.

 

[Miranova23]

Precisely! Worked like a charm, thanks!

I did read about doing cmd prompts for this, but didn't want to risk it & seemed messy for this.