Trying to stymie constant duplicates and messed-up library

[Dozam]

So for a long time I have been having issues of unexplainable duplicate tracks showing up in my library when using any software. It has become very annoying and I was at a loss because I could never get it to stop. But I recently stumbled on something that may clear things up.

There were a few posts on the forums that discussed this and some users were indicating that it was probably caused by embedded cue sheets in files.

I'm having a few problems with this. I found a method that was supposed to use a custom tag to show any cue sheets on tracks and then using that tag to create an auto-playlist with only the tracks with cue sheets (based there being content in the tag)...but for some reason, it was placing all my tracks in that playlist. In addition to this, I see a lot of stuff about going into the tag editor and clicking on the edit cue sheet button to deal with the next step, but I have no such button. Does that only show up on tracks that actually have cue sheets?

So my main questions are: can I just stop MB from reading cue sheets so this doesn't happen? If not, how can I find the tracks that have cue sheets to remove them? And is there anything else that may be leading to the creation of duplicate tracks that I can address?

Thanks.

[psychoadept]

Yes, embedded cue sheets are known to cause problems with duplicates.

What are you doing to detect the cue sheets? As far as I know that's not possible, but I haven't worked with cue sheets much.

You can use the Manage Duplicates tool to put duplicates in a playlist. Since duplicates are the issue, maybe that will help locate the cue sheets.

And yes, the cue sheet button only shows up if there is a cue sheet. I don't know if cue sheets are indicated in the tag inspector, but if so that may be a way to bulk delete them.

[Dozam]

Well, what I found that was supposed to help find cue sheets said to create a custom tag called "Cue" (which I suspect is inconsequential) and to give it the following formula:

Cue = $IsNull(<FileCueSheet>,,<FileCueSheet>)

but when I did that it created the tag, but when I displayed it on my main "tab" all of my tracks just had "Cue =" in that column.

[psychoadept]

Well, "Cue =" shouldn't be part of the formula, just the $IsNull portion. But you should still have seen something after "Cue =" when there is a cue file, so if you didn't then it's definitely not working.

[Dozam]

Ok, so yeah changing that and checking the column for anything with data in that one, came up with nothing.

I'm confused though because it would appear that MB created new files when I imported my files. I only know this because I had date modified shown and many of the duplicates (if not all of them) showed the date I imported my tracks as their modified date, while the others (originals) had various dates... Any idea why MB would do that?

[psychoadept]

I'm confused though because it would appear that MB created new files when I imported my files. I only know this because I had date modified shown and many of the duplicates (if not all of them) showed the date I imported my tracks as their modified date, while the others (originals) had various dates... Any idea why MB would do that?

That one's beyond me, sorry. Maybe has to do with when the cue sheet was scanned?

[Dozam]

Ok, on further review it would appear that MB didn't create the tracks...somehow duplicates got created probably by iTunes, although I'm not certain how. But now my question is why did MB modify the files when importing them?

[Steven]

when importing files, the only case MB updates a file is if you have "calculate and write missing replaygain tags" set in the tags(2) preferences, the files didnt have replay gain tags and you had imported the files directly to your library and not the inbox

[Dozam]

Thanks, yeah I forgot I had messed with the replay gain.