Clean up Windows Media Player Music from Junk and Duplicate Files

The need to get rid of junk and duplicate music files is almost always imperative. Whether it be someone with several TBs of storage or someone with scarce storage capacity, there is never a logical reason behind keeping duplicate files unless they have been created as a backup, in which case they should be backed up in some other storage media rather than your internal HDD.

Clean Up Windows Media Player Duplicates

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Junk files, like duplicate ones, should also be cleaned up. After all, they get this name because they are unwanted. Therefore, it is better to clean them up altogether than have them sit in the Recycle Bin.

Gratefully, there is a way around deleting duplicate Windows Media Player music using the player itself. All you need to do is follow a few straightforward steps explained below, and you will be able to relieve yourself of these duplicates.

Cleaning Duplicate Music Files using File Explorer

1. First of all, open Windows Media Player. To do this, search for Windows Media Player and select it from the Best match section.
2. Once that it’s open, press the Ctrl + M shortcut keys combination on the keyboard so that the menu bar shows up.
3. Select File | Manage libraries and Music.
4. The Music Library Locations window will popup. This is basically a list of all the directories from which Windows Media Player gathers its music files, generating a library for you.
5. You can add all other directories that contain music so that a library comprising of all the music from your system can come into being. Simply select Add, select the folder and click Include folder once you’re done. Do this for all the folders you want to check for duplicates.
6. Click OK once you have added all the folders.
7. Similarly, you can also choose Videos, Pictures and Recorded TV if you want to scan them for duplicates.
8. Now that you have the list of all the music files, you can sort these files in an alphabetical order, which will help you spot any duplicates.
9. Once you’ve spotted a duplicate, right-click it and select Open file location. Once File Explorer has opened the exact location, you can easily delete the duplicate.
10. Repeat the above-mentioned step to remove all the remaining duplicates.

Cleaning Junk Music Files from the Recycle Bin

The music files can also be cleaned up from the Recycle Bin. To be able to clean up junk Windows Media Player music files, you can perform the following steps:

1. Go to the Desktop and lookup for the Recycle Bin icon. If you can’t find it there, type in Recycle Bin and select it.
2. Now you must be viewing all the junk music files. In Windows 10, you can sort the junk files by Name, Original Location, Date Deleted, Size, Item Type and Date Modified. For your ease, you can sort the files by Item Type.
3. Now you should be able to view all the music files grouped together into the kind they are, e.g. .mp3, .wma and so on.
4. Select all the junk files you want to delete and press the Shift +  Delete keys combination. Click Yes in the prompt to get rid of the junk.

These are some fairly simple, yet extremely handy steps one needs to perform to clean up Windows Media Player from duplicate as well as junk and files.