Pro works..well maybe but really no....

[grassy]

For finding *exactly* identical folders it product works however, the product doesn't have a dial to back off the algorithm to lets say, 75% likeness. For instance, I have a lot of music. For me, the following directories are identical:

The band - greatest hits
The band - greatest hit
The band - the greatest hits

To this package, no. All unique. You catch my drift.

If you sort on content, then you get a mass confusion of a bunch of different albums that have identical songs.

Am I missing something /

[DigitalVolcano]

Did you try the 'Similar' options when in audio mode?

[grassy]

No. Even though the folder or directory content are MP3s, the scan is not about the files. It is about the directories. The possible duplication within normal albums over an artist's lifetimes including including the compilation / best of / live albums would make this search in to a dogs breakfast.

Once I can find the duplicate album names, that I can do the rest.

I used the 'similar" box and to ignore content. Doesn't work. This should be a "necessity" on a pro version.

Thanx

[abrasion]

For finding *exactly* identical folders it product works however, the product doesn't have a dial to back off the algorithm to lets say, 75% likeness. For instance, I have a lot of music. For me, the following directories are identical:

The band - greatest hits
The band - greatest hit
The band - the greatest hits

To this package, no. All unique. You catch my drift.

If you sort on content, then you get a mass confusion of a bunch of different albums that have identical songs.

Am I missing something /

In your 3 examples are the 3 folders binarily identical data, simply with different names or are you talking about actual different rip / encodes of the music by this artist?

Personally I think JPG and MP3 'approximation' searches are far more difficult for a developer to impliment and really sticking to a good old fasioned binary identical is good enough (for me) admitedly I'll find less but this way I can be damned sure I'm deleting the right data.

[grassy]

That is a bit of a problem.

Sometimes the directory has different content or different number of songs, sometimes identical number of songs with different bit rate or size. It truly is a bit of a bugger.

Because of the footprint of my directories, i have decided to go in a bit of different direction ...mostly to limit space. Hard drives are cheap but not that cheap and you really need 2 of everything..that is if you don't want to rebuild it when a drive goes.

Thank-you for your input.

Grassy

[abrasion]

A duplicate file finder can only be so clever to make up for your mistakes or lazyness (trust me, I know I'm very lazy and make a HUGE mess on my drives)

The fact this groups folders in the pro version alone makes it very useful. Can save hours over a duplicate file finder which only isolates duplicate files, then you spend 15 minutes tagging all these files when you could've just isolated an entire directory can go.

What's important is that you have confidence it made a genuine match and that the developer definitely targeted the highest level grouping of duplicates.
(which reminds me, I must test a bug)

[DigitalVolcano]

For finding *exactly* identical folders it product works however, the product doesn't have a dial to back off the algorithm to lets say, 75% likeness. For instance, I have a lot of music. For me, the following directories are identical:

The band - greatest hits
The band - greatest hit
The band - the greatest hits

There is a 'Find duplicate folder names' scan option on our to-do list. Coupled with fuzzy/similar text matching I think this will help in situations like this where the main factor is directory name and not files . (eg Folder names are all in the format 'Artist - Album' as in your case)