How to Delete Duplicates on iPhone and iPod
There’s no feature built into the iPhone or iPod that you can use to identify and delete duplicate songs. Instead, you have to locate and delete duplicates in iTunes on a computer and then sync the changes to your mobile device.
View and Delete iTunes Duplicates
The View Duplicates feature of iTunes shows all the songs that have the same song name and artist name. Here’s how to use it:
Toggle to Display Exact Duplicate Items
Display Duplicates is useful, but it’s not always accurate. It only matches songs based on the name and artist, which means it may show songs that are similar but not identical. If an artist releases an acoustical version of one of their non-acoustical hits, for example, Display Duplicates thinks the songs are the same even though they’re not, and you’ll probably want to keep both versions. In this case, you need a more accurate way to view duplicates. You need Display Exact Duplicate Items, which displays a list of songs that have the same song name, artist, and album. Since it’s unlikely that more than one song on the same album has the same name, you can feel confident that these are true duplicates. Select File > Library, press and hold the Option key (on a Mac) or Shift key (on Windows), then select Display Exact Duplicate Items.
When Not to Delete Exact Duplicates
Even the songs that Display Exact Duplicate Items displays may be different kinds of files or saved at different quality settings. For example, two songs might be in different formats intentionally—AAC and FLAC, for example—where you want one for high-quality playback and the other for its small size to use on an iPod or iPhone. To check for differences between the files, right-click the song and review the Song Info. From there you can identify the song’s file type as well as other advanced features. With that information, you can decide whether you want to keep both or remove one.
Sync iPhone or iPod to iTunes
After you remove the duplicates in iTunes, sync your iPhone or iPod to iTunes on your computer. An alternative to deleting a song is to configure iTunes not to sync the individual song to your device, instead of deleting it.
