iTunes question?

Question

Having added newer, higher bitrate versions of some songs the original overwritten files still show up in iTunes. I can track down and delete the duplicate entries individually of course, but is there a way to rescan the music folder and rebuild the library from scratch? It would sure save a lot of time. Just scanning the folder adds new songs but doesn't delete the old versions, even though they're not there anymore.

Answer 1

To rebuild from scratch you would first need to delete the existing library files. If you delete these files, iTunes will create new, blank library files when you start the program.
You can then simply rescan your music files (as you have already done) to recreate the library.

Note however that if you delete the library files then any playlists, song ratings, comments and other information you created will be lost

If you wish to delete the library files then the default locations are:
Mac OS X
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml

Microsoft Windows
\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl
\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml

The two different iTunes library files serve different purposes - the Music Library file is used for sharing your llibrary and contains some but not all of the data in the other file.