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Detect Duplicate Candidates Ultra

Find the same audio file living in different folders in your library — matched by filename and exact audio length. Turn on Loose match to also catch suffixed variants — including ones sitting in the same folder.

What it is

By default, finds the same audio file living in different folders — matched by filename + exact audio length, and (by default) audio format too. With Loose match turned on, it also catches suffixed variants (e.g. Boom-01.wav and Boom-02.wav), and those variants can be sitting in the same folder. Distinct from Remove Duplicate Records, which handles dupes that were imported into the database multiple times.

Where to find it

Database menu → Detect Duplicate Candidates. Ultra edition only — the menu item is hidden in Free, Lite, Standard, and Trial.

On a Teams / shared (LiteSync) database the user must also be Curator or higher; otherwise the feature refuses to open. On a local database there’s no extra permission gate beyond being on Ultra.

Running a scan

  • Scope prompt. When you launch, you’re asked whether to scan the Entire Database or (only when 2+ records are currently selected) Selected Records (N). Either way the whole database is searched; “Selected Records” just filters the results to groups containing one of the selected records. With 0 or 1 selected, only the entire-database option is offered.
  • A cancelable progress dialog runs during the scan.
  • Cloud-based files and any HTTP or encrypted entries are excluded from scanning.

Results dialog

Two tabs: Duplicate Candidates (N) and Ignored List (N). A Learn more link in the dialog header opens this article.

Duplicate Candidates tab

  • Default keeper — Keep Newest (default) or Keep Oldest pre-checks every copy except the keeper in each group. Uncheck All and Reset Selection buttons sit alongside.
  • Filter box at the top — type to show only groups whose filename OR any member folder/path contains every typed word (case-insensitive, multi-word AND). The Groups/Records counts and the tab count update to reflect the filtered view. Filtering doesn’t reset checkbox or skip state; if nothing matches you’ll see “No duplicate groups match your filter.”
  • Group header shows: filename, length, copy count, an “Ignore” button, plus badges where relevant (see Match format and Loose match below). Click the filename header to skip the group for this session only; click Ignore to send it to the Ignored List permanently.
  • Copy rows show a delete checkbox, folder path, group color pills, import name, format (bit / channels / sample rate), and date added. Click a row to audition it from the start (waveform + playhead draw in the standard player); SPACE pauses/resumes; Right-click reveals the folder in Explorer/Finder.
  • Footer shows the current N records checked count next to the delete buttons.
Detect Duplicate Candidates dialog — Duplicate Candidates tab

Match format

Checkbox at the top of the dialog, ON by default. When on, two files only count as duplicates if their audio format also matches — bit depth, channels, AND sample rate — in addition to filename and exact length. Off = name + length only (more candidates, but two different files sharing a name and duration can appear).

  • Toggling re-groups the list instantly; it does NOT re-scan.
  • If, with Match format on, every candidate is filtered out, the list shows a hint suggesting you turn it off.
  • Never reads audio bytes — purely a grouping strictness control, no delay, no risk with offline files.

When Match format is off, any group whose copies don’t all share the same format gets an amber Mixed formats badge. Hover the badge for a tooltip suggesting you turn Match format on to split them apart.

Loose match

Checkbox next to Match format. When on, version suffixes are ignored when matching filenames, so near-identically named copies are grouped (e.g. Boom-01.wav and Boom-02.wav, or Boom.wav and Boom (1).wav). Duration must still match. Unlike Exact match, Loose match also groups suffixed variants that live in the SAME folder, not only across different folders.

  • Turning Loose match on reveals a row of separator toggle buttons — which character to ignore everything after the LAST occurrence of: -, _, (, ., and space. Defaults ON: -, _, (. Defaults OFF: . and space (space is off by default because it can over-match multi-word names like “Car Door Slam”).
  • A custom field lets you add one more separator of your own (a single character, e.g. [).
  • When multiple separators are selected, the name is cut at the last occurrence of ANY of them; trailing whitespace is trimmed. Only the final suffix segment is dropped.
  • Changing the Loose match toggle or any separator re-scans the database (you’ll see a brief “Re-scanning…” hint). This differs from Match format, which only re-groups in memory.
  • Each copy row in a loose group shows its individual filename next to its folder path, so same-folder variants are distinguishable. Exact-match groups (all copies share the filename) are unchanged.
  • Loosely-matched groups display an orange Loose match badge; hover it for a “review carefully — confirm these are real duplicates before deleting” tooltip.
  • Safety: loose groups are NEVER pre-selected for deletion — even with Keep Newest/Oldest active, every copy in a loose group starts unchecked.

Deleting

Two delete actions, both gated by safeguards that make accidental data loss hard:

  • Always keeps one copy per group — in 2-copy groups the checkboxes act like radio buttons (checking one unchecks the other); in 3+ copy groups, ticking the last unchecked copy gets reverted so something always survives.
  • Loosely-matched groups are never pre-selected — you tick each copy you want to delete by hand.
  • Both actions require a confirmation dialog before anything happens.
  • Audition before you commit — click any row to play it back so you can confirm what you’re keeping.
  • Delete Records — drops the records from the database; files on disk stay. Confirmation includes a “stop these files from re-importing” checkbox (on by default) that adds each deleted file to its folder’s _blacklist.xml so a rescan won’t bring them back. Disabled in Trial.
  • Delete Records + Files — also permanently deletes the audio files from disk and their waveform cache (NOT to Recycle Bin/Trash; cannot be undone). Confirmation warns to back up first. Requires the Delete Files permission. On a shared/team database also requires Curator or higher. Disabled in Trial. No undo.

After either delete, the open search results grid updates immediately to drop the deleted rows. Cloud-based files and any HTTP or encrypted entries can never be deleted from here — they’re excluded from the scan entirely.

Ignored List tab

Detect Duplicate Candidates dialog — Ignored List tab
  • Lists every group you’ve ignored on this database — filename, length, copy count, ignored-on date, and folder paths.
  • Un-ignore on a row brings just that group back on the next scan.
  • Reset Ignore List at the bottom clears everything (confirmation required).
  • If a brand-new copy of an ignored file shows up in a new folder, the group resurfaces for review.
  • The Ignored List is personal and per-database (tied to your OS user account + the active database). It doesn’t sync to shared/remote libraries. Renaming a database keeps its ignore list; deleting a database clears it.