Find items and duplicates

You can quickly locate items in your library or a playlist.

Find an item in your iTunes library or a playlist

  1. Choose a category to search from the Library pop-up menu. To also search a playlist, click Playlists and select the playlist.

    To search song comments, make sure the Comments column is displayed (choose View > View Options).

    You can’t search radio listings.

  2. Click the search field in the upper-right corner of the iTunes window and type search criteria for the item you want to find.

    The search field in iTunes

    As you type, iTunes displays a list of items that match the criteria you entered. To see your search results in the iTunes window, press the Return key.

    To see all your items again, delete the text from the search field (or press the Escape key).

    Tip:  To delete text quickly, click Delete icon, an X inside a gray dot in the Search field.

    The search field with text typed in and an arrow pointing to the delete icon

Find duplicates

You can find every instance of a song by the same artist anywhere in your iTunes library. For example, the same song could appear on the artist’s album and on a movie soundtrack.

You can also search for exact duplicates, in which the song, artist, album, and version are all the same (if, for example, you inadvertently imported the song twice).

Select an item and do one of the following:

  • Find every instance of a song by the same artist from any album in your library: Choose View > Show Duplicate Items.

  • Find exact duplicates: Press the Option key and choose View > Show Exact Duplicate Items.

To see all items again, click Show All at the bottom of the iTunes window.