Duplicates Detector

Command status: ready ✅

Docs status: reviewed ✅

Ease of use: 4/5 😌

Overview

The Duplicates Detector is a Rekordbox music library cleanup assistant. It scans your Rekordbox XML collection and your music directory, identifies duplicate tracks using metadata and audio analysis, and helps you safely clean up duplicates by updating your Rekordbox XML file — without touching your actual audio files.

At the end of the process, a new XML file (e.g. rekordbox-export-no-duplicates.xml) is created, ready to re-import into Rekordbox.

Parameters

Path to Rekordbox XML file:

• The path to your exported Rekordbox collection (usually rekordbox-export.xml).
• This file will be read by the program but not modified.

Path to your music directory:

• The folder containing your actual audio files.
• This is where the tool scans for duplicate files.

Similarity threshold (0–1):

• Defines how closely two tracks must match to be considered duplicates.
• Default: 0.85 (a good balance between accuracy and flexibility).
• Higher values = stricter matching; lower values = more potential matches.

Export results to file:

• Optionally save a detailed Markdown report listing all detected duplicate groups.
• If no path is given, no export is made.

Step-by-Step Process

1. Smart Scanning And Analysis

The tool looks through your entire music directory and loads all tracks from your Rekordbox XML file. Each file is analyzed: for every track, the detector prepares data for duplicate detection, using embedded metadata and file properties.

2. Duplicate Detection

The tool compares all tracks against each other to find likely duplicates, based on:

• Title similarity
• Artist similarity
• Filename similarity
• Duration and file size comparison

Each potential match is scored and grouped according to similarity strength.

3. Optional Export to File

If you requested an export to file, the detector does it.

4. Interactive Review & Decision

For each group of duplicates, you’ll be guided through an interactive review process.

You’ll see detailed comparisons for:

• Title, artist, and filename
• File paths, size, bitrate
• Exisiting cue points in Rekordbox

You can respond with:

• 1 → Keep the base file (delete the duplicate)
• 2 → Keep the duplicate (delete the base; duplicate becomes the new base)
• s → Skip this entire group
• q → Quit the program immediately

Every decision automatically updates your Rekordbox XML file:

• The unwanted track is removed from the collection.
• All playlist references to the deleted track are replaced with the kept one.
• No audio files are deleted from disk — only the XML structure changes.

You can stop anytime safely; your progress up to that point is preserved in the new XML file.

5. Safe Cleanup

After all groups have been reviewed:

• A new Rekordbox XML file is saved (e.g. rekordbox-export-no-duplicates.xml).
• This file reflects all your keep/delete choices.
• You can then re-import it into Rekordbox to sync your cleaned collection.

If you wish to remove the actual duplicate files from your disk, use the Orphaned Files Detector afterward — it will locate and optionally delete files that no longer exist in your XML.

Impact on Files

What Gets Created

• A new Rekordbox XML file with duplicates removed and playlists updated.
• An optional Markdown report listing all duplicate groups and their metadata.

What Stays Safe

• No audio files are deleted from disk, nor are they modified
• Your original XML file is never overwritten; only a new one (****-no-duplicates.xml) is created.

Safety Notes & Recovery

Before you begin:

• It’s recommended to back up your rekordbox-export.xml file before starting.
• You can stop the process safely at any time using Ctrl+C or by entering q during review.

During the process:

• Nothing is removed automatically — every change requires your explicit input.
• Real audio files remain untouched.
• If you make a mistake, simply re-import your original XML file into Rekordbox.

After the process:

• Re-import the generated -no-duplicates.xml into Rekordbox.
• Use the Orphaned Files Detector later to clean up unused physical files if desired.