Sort Duplicates

With Music Duplicate Remover you can easily find duplicate files on your computer by ID3 tags or by sound. But it is possible that from a pair of duplicate files you may want to keep a certain file, not just any one of them. Would you need to check and select all these files manually?

Music Duplicate Remover offers a set of simple, but helpful, rules for sorting duplicates. Open the "Grouping options" tab, next to the "Search options":

Here we can see four basic elements: a list of folders where duplicates must be preserved, a list of folders where duplicates must be removed, a file extension priority list, and a bitrate priority field. The elements are pretty simple and self-explainable:

• List of folders where duplicates must be preserved. Add folders to this list to let the program know that you want to keep files in these folders. If two duplicates are found and one of them is in a folder listed here, it will be listed as the main file. The other duplicate will be marked for removal. If both duplicates are stored in folders from this list, none of them is marked for removal (although they are listed in scan results, and you can mark for removal any of them manually).
• List of folders where duplicates must be removed. It's the opposite to the first list. If two duplicates are found on your computer and one of them is in a folder listed here, it will be listed as a duplicate and marked for removal. If both duplicates are stored in folders from this list, only one of them will be marked for removal.
• File extension priority. Here you can move formats up and down the list to specify how important they are. For example, if you prefer MP3 to any other audio format, move it to the top of the list. The program will automatically mark copies of the file in other formats as duplicates. If there is no copy in MP3, Music Duplicate Remover will look for the next important format. This list has no effect if duplicates are in the same format.
• Bitrate priority. A very simple list. Here you can specify whether you want to keep files with higher bitrates, with lower bitrates, or it doesn't matter.

Using these simple rules, you can let the program sort duplicates that it finds automatically. You will only have to press "Remove duplicates" to delete duplicate files from your computer.

It is possible to add folders to the "Duplicates" and "Non-duplicates" lists directly from the list of files. See the "Operations" column in the file list (where found duplicates are shown). Next to a main file, there is an icon that shows a folder with a green checkmark. By clicking it, you can add the folder of the main file to the "Non-duplicates" list of the above.

Next to a duplicate file, there is an icon showing a folder with a red delete mark. By clicking the icon you can add the folder of the duplicate file to the "Duplicates" list.

Note that the main file is shown as a root in the list, and its copies are shown as its "children" (with a shift to the right). You can use the "Expand all" and "Collapse all" buttons to show and hide duplicates.

If after playing duplicates or after checking their path you have decided that you need to swap them (put a duplicate as the main file), just click the "Swap" button in the "Operations" column, next to the folder with the red delete mark.

These options are also available from the contextual menu. Right-click a file from the list to get the following menu:

This menu can also be used to remove individual files from the disk or from the duplicate list.