Bulk delete files with name rules?

[Mike Lowe]

ITunes went crazy and started duplicated files, so now I have things like:

01 Band - Song
01 Band - Song 1

Both of the files are the same and they are both MP3. I'm trying to find a way to bulk delete files by giving a command such as this:

Delete MP3 files ending in (space) 1

Is this possible? I'm using Vista.

[tyketime]

Do both files have same date/time stamp?

[Mike Lowe]

No, different.

[johnnyshaka]

I seem to remember iTunes having some sort of "delete duplicates" option...I could be dead wrong, though.

[Buccaneer]

You should be able to do exactly what you said. Open up a command window, go to the direction and type in del "* 1.mp3"

[tyketime]

Do all duplicates have same date/time stamp? If so, you could do a search for files with that date/time stamp, and then delete from the Results window.

[Pumpy Tudors]

You should be able to do exactly what you said. Open up a command window, go to the direction and type in del "* 1.mp3"
lol command window you are so old rofl

[Autumn]

Just shred the appropriate punchcards. No problem.

[Mike Lowe]

Thanks guys.

I'm sort of lost at the command window thing. Where is that?

Also, not all of the files are the same file type.

LASTLY...

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good, free, music file converter? I'd like one that REPLACES/OVERRRIDES the old file and not one that creates a worthless duplicate like ITunes does.

[Toddzilla]

copy the files to a linux server and whip up a quick perl script to delete the duplicates based on file name. that's what i'd do

[Mike Lowe]

How do I access a linux server? You're talking to someone who is having trouble renaming music files here...

[Mike Lowe]

Actually, scratch the Linux server. I wont waste your time; unless it's a 2 min job I likely wont bother haha.

See previous post by me for where I'm stuck at!

[Surtt]

Nice little utility that I use, lets you find and mass delete duplicate files.

Duplicate File Finder 1.1.0.3
hxxp://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/Duplicate-File-Finder.shtml

[Mike Lowe]

Ok, well I cleaned up the files.

Now, I just need some audio file conversion software that will OVERRIDE the file and not simply duplicate it.

Does ITunes allow itself to be setup this way?

[terpkristin]

Ok, well I cleaned up the files.

Now, I just need some audio file conversion software that will OVERRIDE the file and not simply duplicate it.

Does ITunes allow itself to be setup this way?

I don't think so, explicitly. But I think you can change the destination folder for the new files, which would keep them separate, and then delete the ones in the old location.

/tk

[Young Drachma]

Ok, well I cleaned up the files.

Now, I just need some audio file conversion software that will OVERRIDE the file and not simply duplicate it.

Does ITunes allow itself to be setup this way?

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do. What are you trying to override exactly?

And for future reference for someone else who happens upon this thread in the future or something, a Windows search for all of the files in a particular folder with the string "copy *.mp3" would've given you all of the files with that name and extension and then you could just Ctrl + A to select them all and then hit delete and they'd go to the recycle bin.

[Mike Lowe]

So my Grand Cherokee only likes .MP3 files for its hard drive.

I have mostly mp3 on my computer with iTunes, but some are .m4a which my car will not recognize.

I am simply trying to replace any file that is not mp3 with a file that is mp3. I have no use for the others so I'd love for iTunes (or other software) to be able to just replace the m4a file.

[Young Drachma]

So my Grand Cherokee only likes .MP3 files for its hard drive.

I have mostly mp3 on my computer with iTunes, but some are .m4a which my car will not recognize.

I am simply trying to replace any file that is not mp3 with a file that is mp3. I have no use for the others so I'd love for iTunes (or other software) to be able to just replace the m4a file.

ITunes can't convert m4a to MP3. There are some varying degrees of sketchy programs out there, I guess. But I always just use tunebite (http://audials.com/en/tunebite/index.html) and even though I paid for it, the same copy has been mondo useful for converting pretty much whatever audio related for years now, especially if you have a lot of stuff to convert.

[cartman]

ITunes can't convert m4a to MP3. There are some varying degrees of sketchy programs out there, I guess. But I always just use tunebite (http://audials.com/en/tunebite/index.html) and even though I paid for it, the same copy has been mondo useful for converting pretty much whatever audio related for years now, especially if you have a lot of stuff to convert.

I've had a lot of success with the open source app Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforget.net). The 1.3 version with the FFmpeg plug in can convert M4A to MP3.

[terpkristin]

ITunes can't convert m4a to MP3. There are some varying degrees of sketchy programs out there, I guess. But I always just use tunebite (http://audials.com/en/tunebite/index.html) and even though I paid for it, the same copy has been mondo useful for converting pretty much whatever audio related for years now, especially if you have a lot of stuff to convert.

Yes it can. If you change your import settings from AAC (iTunes default) to MP3, then right-click on any m4a version (edit to add: or any group of m4a songs--i.e. multiple songs can be done at once) and the option that used to say "Create AAC version" will change to "Create MP3 version."

Also edit to add: When I was using the HTC Not-So-Incredible, I did this to an entire playlist to ensure that the songs would work on my phone (which they didn't but that's because the default music app was terrible and didn't like large libraries).

/tk