XBOX Music app - duplicate song entries

[justin071894]

Just got my Lumia 920, on the Xbox music app, I added my cloud music collection, but when I synced my music from my computer, it gives me the option to play those songs in the cloud and also on my device. So now I have each sing for every album on my phone twice.

 

[wstrnsky99]

I have the same issue on my HTC 8X. Very interested in resolving this soon.

 

[ryan.kruger]

Unsync from your computer.

OR, turn off Xbox music.

 

[Guitarpik]

How do you even get it to play music from the cloud? Where do I need to upload my music to?

 

[dermotf]

One is the copy on your phone and the other is the cloud copy. When viewing your list of songs, tap the word "All" and select "Phone" or "Cloud Collection"

 

[zombiwoof]

I don't know if this work around has been posted or not, but this is how I fixed the duplicate track problem. When I first got my 920 phone I used the "drag and drop" method to load my music much like the Droid X, I soon discovered that I was getting duplicate tracks in my music listing in Nokia Music app. Mind you not all albums had duplicates which really puzzled me. Anyhow, this work around will require you to get your hands a little dirty. When you connect your phone you will see the phone listed under windows explorer, click the phone listing, then click on the music folder. Here is where all the music is stored, by default you will see the tracks or albums which ever you used. This is where it got confusing I did not see any duplicate tracks here, then it came to me. Turn on the "see hidden files" attribute in explorer and take a look again in the music folder on your phone and you will see 4 folders now. What I did was went in to each folder and deleted their contents, (you can't delete the folders themselves because they are protected).
Once you clean those folders out, get out of explorer and go to Nokia music on your phone and it should be empty of any music. I have nearly a terabyte of music on an external hard drive, I don't store to the cloud for this reason. I don't download music unless I use Amazon or CDBaby. Once you verify there is no music, use Nokia Music on your PC to import your music from an external source or whichever you use. Download the Windows Phone app for your PC and just follow the app to get to Nokia Music. After that I had no problems with duplicate tracks again. Hint though if you are particular as I am about your music use an mp3 tag editor (Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor (ID3v2, MP4, OGG, FLAC, ...)) taking care of tag info will really help in keeping your music tidy. My desk at work is a disaster zone, but I like tidy music. I hope this helps anyone who may have this issue.

 

[spyderzWPC]

I had this issue here is the quick fix

connect to phone to pc
enter unlock code on phone
browse to the phone
browse to music folder
set your computer to see hidden files
browse to the artist folder
delete the artist that has duplicates
delete the songs off your phone
drag and drop the same songs back to your phone

It appears that file keeps a list of all the songs per artist, this file writes itself when you drag and drop songs on to your phone/

this is pretty much the same thing zombiwoof said just tried to make it a little shorter.

The duplicates are usually streaming versions of songs you have on your phone.

 

[ajlevitz]

When trying to delete the hidden file entries, does anyone else get this error? "The delete operation has failed. The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected."

 

[RuleOfSines]

When trying to delete the hidden file entries, does anyone else get this error? "The delete operation has failed. The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected."

Yes. When that happens I tried deleting the items through the interface on the phone itself, that worked. I've found though whenever I sync from the PC to the phone, I have to completely wipe out the phone and copy everything over, or I get all sorts of errors during music playback.

 

[rianash]

I tried zombiwoof suggestion. It worked for me. Thanks.

Using L620, and no xbox music cloud. Storing songs in SD card.

I opted for "show hidden files" in explorer (Vista). In the \music\album (or something like that) in the Phone memory (not SD card), I deleted the album files which songs double/triple listed (not all). Unplug the phone and plug back. After seeing that the songs of those albums disappeared from the SD card, I dragged and dropped again the albums from PC harddisk to the phone SD card. Now, no duplicate entries.

Rgds,
rianash

 

[OzRob]

I tried zombiwoof suggestion. It worked for me. Thanks.

Yes, this works to reset the music database and give a clean list initially. If you try to add more songs via drog & drop (or some other sync method) you will probably find the duplicates issue reappears.

 

[bl0p]

I am brand new to the smartphone world. Before my Lumia 520 phone I did not have a smartphone. As such, I am also new to this subreddit, but I have spent a few days searching for a resolution to this issue, without any good write-up, so I apologize if I overlooked a previous solution to this issue.

I recently have come across the song duplication issue on the XBOX Music app. After searching this sub, as well as the wpcentral forums, I have found a suitable solution to the issue.

(For clarification, I am using a Lumia 520 phone with Windows 8.0.)

First off: How do I delete non-functioning and duplicate tracks that are listed in my phone?
Delete duplicate tracks/artists/albums off your SD first. Now open up your phone's HD on explorer. Go to 'Music' and you'll find files under 'Albums' and 'Artists' that were either duplicates or non-functioning album or artists files. Delete them here now and they'll no longer exist on your phone. You can check right after doing this to make sure. You may need to go to Properties->::click on:: hidden files, in order to view all files that need to be deleted. I advise you keep any files you don't want deleted that are not duplicates or non-functioning.

This next step may not be necessary and I advise against it if you are trying to keep some of your files on the SD card (again, which are NOT present in duplicates or non-functioning). In fact, it may not be necessary at all in the first place, but it won't hurt unless you just really want to keep certain files

If you are exclusively using your SD card for music and videos, I might suggest you format it under settings->phone storage->::click on:: SD card->format SD card->YES. It will ask whether you'd like to store new pictures, music and videos on your SD->YES (I imagine most people are using SD card for this kind of storage.)

At this point, if you go to your XBOX Music app, you should find it is completely empty if you formatted. If you still find non-functioning or duplicates, make sure you deleted all hidden files and any strange or unknown files under ARTIST or ALBUM in your phone's HD.

Next: How do I add music without causing track duplication?

You'll need to download the Windows Phone app for desktop. Download and install it. From now on this will be the only way you'll add music or video files to your computer. If you've previously selected under settings to use your SD card as your primary storage device for pictures, music, and videos, they will automatically be saved here in the future using the desktop app.

After installation, make sure you click on 'Sync music'. (I believe at some point during installation it will ask you how you how you want to sync--I chose iTunes, but WMP and manual are options, but I can't attest to whether that will ultimately solve the duplication issue. It works for me using iTunes.)

After your desktop app/music folder/music software are synced, all your music/media folders will be listed on the desktop app.
Restart your desktop app. Restart your phone.

At this point, you'll probably want to do a trial run, particularly with an album that you know always creates duplicate tracks on your phone. I suggest using the search bar as a quick and easy way to find the artist or album you're looking to add, as the desktop app interface is very slow when browsing.

Check your album of choice and select the black 'Sync' button at the bottom right in the desktop app. It should upload only the number of files that there are tracks.

Check your XBOX Music app. You should now only have the one album you have synced, with no duplicate tracks.

Trouble Shooting:

Make sure you check on 'Hidden' under 'Properties' to view hidden files in your Music, Artist, or Album folders on your phone, to make sure you have deleted the music you no longer want. Any files under Artist or Album you do not recognize should also be deleted.
If you already had the Windows app for desktop prior to following the above procedure, it will still try to sync files you previously had on your phone. If do you not want these files, you will have to uncheck them manually on the desktop app. If you do want them, they will be synced without duplication.

Final thoughts:

This appears to be an SD-specific issue. It's my opinion that track duplication happens because your phone tries to sync files that are added to your SD card automatically. It stores this sync data on the phone's HD drive regardless of whether the files are stored on your HD or SD card. When you access these files on the XBOX music app, it displays the synced information from the HD and the information from the SD, leading to duplicate files. When you delete the files manually from the SD card in explorer, it does not delete the sync files on the HD, and so you then continue to see non-functioning tracks. By using the sync function in the Windows Phone app for desktop, it still creates these sync files on your phone's HD, but now it knows not to create duplicate tracks on the phone/music app, and it then deletes these synced files both from the SD AND the phone's HD when you remove them using the desktop app, thereby cleanly removing your tracks from your XBOX music app.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope it works for you, as it took me a bit of research and then trial and error to finally get a flawless system going. If anyone has any suggestions or questions I will happy to edit or clarify to the best of my ability. As I said before I am new to the smartphone world, but the above system worked great for me, and I hope it will for you too. The most important thing is to make sure you delete all those visible AND hidden files (ALL OF THEM) within your phone's Artist and Album folders under Music, then only use the desktop app for adding files.

TL;DR: Manually delete ALL duplicate and non-functioning files on your SD AND HD. Install Windows Phone app for desktop and use exclusively for file transfers to SD. No more duplicates or non-functioning tracks. Thanks.

 

[mrssunshine1]

Hi, I have a nokia lumia 620 and use xbox music to download albums. I have a similar problem in that I have some albums with duplicate tracks and one album has quadruple tracks can anyone explain how this happened and please give me a step by step solution as I am not an IT guru. Thanks