Can MP3TAG be used to identify duplicate files in different sub-directories if a listing is done from the top level Music directory?
If not, this would be a great feature that would help to further cleanup and organize a music library by matching all tags in duplicated files and would attract many DJs like me. It would be worth the cost.
DJ Blade Sparx
No MP3tag does not show duplicates.
See this thread that has more or less all the hints how to get closer to a result:
Yes, Mp3tag can in fact be used to find duplicates in different sub-directories. ohrenkino gave wrong advice. To accomplish the task, simply click on "Change directory" icon and select the initial directory you wish to compare against. Next, click on the "Add directory" icon to add the second directory you wish to compare with. Now you will have two directories in Mp3tag. Then just click on the "Filename" column heading to sort the column. Now you can see all the duplicates and delete them as you like or manipulate them any other way your like. There are several ways to solve problems. If ohrenkino is reading this thread, please retract your advice.
I still stand to my opinion as you have to compare the files visually - there is no indicator that there may be duplicates for a files - and you do not see only the alleged duplicates but all the files.
There is no dedicated function in MP3tag called "Show duplicates" or something similar.
You are right that it is possible to load several directories.
The way that you described is one way, another would be to drag&drop directories from the Windows Explorer into MP3tag while pressing the Ctrl key.
I fully agree with ohrenkino.
MP3Tag is an really really cool tool but its an tag tool that does not deal with relation between files or audio content.
Just showing content of two directories and visual manual comparison or sorting by Title Filename Artist and "hope" duplicate Songs are shown among each other is not the best way.
If it's working for you, ok. you can do like that but keep thinking outside the box, see it in an bigger picture.
I don't know why really "everything" need to be done with mp3tag.
There are a lot of tools to do that containig fuzzy logi, accoustic fingerprinting and so on to do that in semi-manual or automatic mode.
It's like washing my socks by using the thermomix (my wife would kill me if I would try) : would work somehow, but surely not the best way 
This may be suitable for your specific needs.
But this is far away from "finding duplicate files".
Detecting duplicate files would include much more checks then only list similar looking filenames.
Example:
You have two songs
01 - ABBA - Waterloo.mp3 (in 192 kBit/s mp3 quality)
and one - by error wrongly renamed Ozzy Osbourne Song in another directory - called
01 - ABBA - Waterloo.mp3 (in 320 kBit/s mp3 quality)
If your only check is the visual similarity of the filename you will delete the wrong song with high probability.
Detecting duplicate files must do much more:
So NO, @ohrenkino gave NOT a wrong advise. Mp3tag can indeed list filenames. But Mp3tag can not find duplicate files in a useful manner.
This is just a manual sorting of files. The same can be done for Title, Artist, Album, or any other field. You can load any directory to do this, including the full parent of a music folder if you choose.
But this is not the same as finding duplicate songs. Often there are songs with the same title, but by different artists, or at least could be from a different album. So besides checking filenames, looking for duplicates also requires checking for duplicate tags as well. This is not something mp3tag can do.
I use foobar2000 & SQLite plugin + script for this purpose. It places in Duplicate playlist only dublicates, that have same MD5 flac tag or another tag
@viviancels: You wrote a script that creates a MD5 for every song an then write this Hash into a sqlite database?
So even if the same duplicate song is just a millisecond shorter it will not be detected as same song?
If the song inlcludes only one different character in one of its tags it will not be detected as same song?
MD5 hashes are fine to detect absolutely identical tracks (files). But this is a very strict method to detect duplicate songs and will not find duplicate songs from the same artist on different albums or even different encoding formats.
No. I can't write scripts. One person gave me the script. Look topic: Topic: Filtering Duplicate FLACs Using MD5 Hash. There are 2 scripts: one for asctive playlist and second for media library.
Also there is plugin Create Audio MD5 Checksum - it can create checksum for decoded or undecoded audio stream from flac. If flac file dont has MD5, I reconvert it to flac in EZ CD Audio Converter or another converter. MD5 appears when converted to flac.
Lossless codecs, that can write md5 to metadata (except Monkey's audio) are written to the md5 file of the data decoded in the PCM.
Duplicates found in the foobar2000 I usually throw in mp3tag, where I already look at tags and covers to decide which file to leave
It happens that the tracks differ in tails, silence at the beginning and at the end of the track, and the audio stream itself is the same. This shows the plugin for foobar2000 "Bit compare". I have not yet learned to use it well, as I do not fully understand what it shows. In extreme case, you can use the Dynamic Range plugin and also see the frequency spectrum in the program. Then you already need to search for duplicates not for the MD5 tag but for the Title or Artist tags using the same SQLite plugin. If the tags differ slightly, then it will not work, and it remains only to look with your eyes and search manually
forgett about md5 or bit comparison.
Just acoustic fingerprint would work in any case including different codecs (lossy too), silent space at begin and end of the song, changed tags
FLAC files include the md5sum of the uncompressed audio data by default. It's in the STREAMINFO block.
I was just using this a couple of days ago to dedupe FLACs ripped from a video game by two different sources and it worked beautifully. It'd actually be pretty nice to have read access to that data in MP3Tag.
Which programs can use acoustic fingerprint when searching for duplicates?
Google will find a lot of programs specialized for finding duplicates on different ways.
Feel free to read and try, some apps can do analyse audio content means acoustic analysing / fingerprinting.
For fingerprinting, you can use my free mediapurge >Featurs< >Download< >Short Video how to do<
It's an very easy to use wizard that gives you control about what do you want to do. At last step you can watch search result and choose what to do.
Note: If you want to use mediapurge for formats except mp3 wma wav and so on, you need to download external decoder at configuration menue before you start.
Feel free if you have any questions.
This method also highlights tracks that do not have duplicates. After adding folders, I clicked on the MD5 column
Who are you asking?
I think that @MotleyG, @MP3Freak_Peter, @LyricsLover (and me) all stated that you have to compare the files visually/manually and that there is no function im MP3tag to find, select or delete files as part of a "find duplicates" function. MP3tag does not compare data between files.
This means: you yourself have to select the files that you want to delete
I replied this post: Find Duplicate Files in Different Music Directories - #3 by senior-mp3tag
Visualy is not an options, because there are hundreds and thousands of duplicates
Now I am completely puzzled.
I think that in that post that you answered to it was suggested to
To "see" the files is visual comparing to me.
Again: there is currently no way to let MP3tag detect duplicates.
To Identify duplicates I use MS Excel. I load all directories in MP3Tag, then export the entire list, including all the tags as well as the Path and Filenames to a csv file. Open it in Excel, sort the list into an order that will identify the duplicates and use the function capabilities of Excel to identify the duplicates. I take the list of dupes and delete the files I don't need and I'm done. If you have a large list like I do this save scrolling through the list in MP3Tag to find them.
