How to search all subdirectory items in the main directory and provide a grouped report of all locations of Items

[RMC123]

I have a huge music directory and many subdirectories that have double and triple locations for certain songs. I would like to take one subdirectory at a time, and have Everything search the main directory for all locations of each item in the subdirectory and tell me the location for each item, and do this automatically by looping through all the items in the subdirectory. Google AI said that VoidTools could do the searches and provide the report that I could download into an excel spreadsheet. Can Everything do this, and if so, how do I do it? I have never used a tool like this and am a little overwhelmed with what I see. Any help would be sincerely appreciated.

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[void]

I assume you are trying to find duplicates.

Everything 1.4 is pretty limited with finding duplicates.
(it cannot search duplicates in a specific folder)
In Everything 1.4, include the following in your search:

"c:\my music folder\" dupe:

where c:\my music folder is your music folder.

Sort the results by name.
This will show potentially duplicated filenames.
(dupe: looks in your entire index, not just c:\my music folder)

From the File menu, click Export...
Change save as type to CSV
Choose a filename and click Save.
Open this file in Excel and go through the duplicate name results.



Everything 1.5 makes it easier to find duplicates.

In Everything 1.5, search for:

"c:\my music folder\" dupe-from:"c:\my music folder\my first subfolder" dupe:

where c:\my music folder is your music folder.
where c:\my music folder\my first subfolder is your first music subfolder.

This will show duplicated filenames under c:\my music folder where there is at least one duplicate from c:\my music folder\my first subfolder

From the File menu, click Export...
Change save as type to CSV
Choose a filename and click Save.
Open this file in Excel and go through the duplicate name results.

Repeat with the second subfolder, third subfolder and so on..

Finding duplicates in Everything 1.5

[RMC123]

Thank you! I would like to know where every duplicate is because there is a reason for the duplicates. I will download 1.5 and do as you have explained. Thank you so much for your help.

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[RMC123]

I installed 1.5, but it did not do what I thought it would do. Let me explain further. I have about 50 .mid files in a subdirectory called Geneva. I would like to take each .mid file in the Geneva subdirectory, and find all instances of each of the 50 .mid files in the Main Directory. I already know that I have three instances of the first .mid file, Aurelia, in the main music directory, but the script did not bring up any duplicates for Aurelia in the Main Music directory. I would think I would need some type of a loop script but not sure how VoidTools works. I hope I have done a better job of explaining.

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[void]

and find all instances of each of the 50 .mid files in the Main Directory

Are they directly in the main directory? -or are they in subfolders?

Please try the following search to find directly in the main directory:

"C:\My Music Folder\*" fileexists:Geneva\$name:

where C:\My Music Folder is your music folder
where Geneva is a subfolder in C:\My Music Folder

[RMC123]

The main Directory has many subfolders including the particular subfolder I would start with. Let me provide a two screen shots. The Main Music Directory attachment will show you almost all the subdirectories in the Directory. the Subdirectory in Main Music Directory Attachment shows the contents of one of the subdirectories. I would like to take each .mid file in the subdirectory and search for the title in every subdirectory of the Main Music Directory to find all duplicates, and then to do this for each of the .mid files you see in this subdirectory. I have about 15 subdirectories I want to do the same type of search with. Is this possible?

I did not try your recommended search as I saw your question and thought I needed to provide more information so that you would have a better understanding.

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[void]

Let's start simple and make sure we have the correct paths.

In Everything, search for:

"c:\users\owner\documents\music\"

Are all your midis found?

[RMC123]

Yes

[void]

The following search should show midis from anywhere in c:\users\owner\documents\music\ that have the same name as any file in the bob sorem's midi's subfolder:

"c:\users\owner\documents\music\" dupe-from:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\bob sorem's midi's" dupe:name

Do you see the expected results?

[RMC123]

Yes! This has given me the correct results. Thank you so much! I assume I can do this for each subdirectory I am interested in looking for duplicates. How to I put all this data into Excel?

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[void]

I assume I can do this for each subdirectory I am interested in looking for duplicates

Correct, just update

dupe-from:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\bob sorem's midi's"

to the next subfolder, for example:

"c:\users\owner\documents\music\" dupe-from:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\BVM music" dupe:name

To export to Excel:
From the File menu, click Export...
Change save as type to CSV
Choose a filename and click Save.
Open this file in Excel.

Alternatively:
Select all your files (Ctrl + A)
From the File menu, under the Copy Property submenu, click Copy as TSV.
Paste the results into Excel.

[RMC123]

I see. There is an export function and I can export as CSV and import into Excel. I got it.

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[RMC123]

Thank you so much for your help! This is really great and will save me hours of time.

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[RMC123]

I have an additional question. Is it possible to take the following search criteria you provided me:

"c:\users\owner\documents\music\" dupe-from:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\bob sorem's midi's" dupe:name

and add an additional operator at the end and continue the process leaving the first half of the criteria of the main music drive as is, and adding each subdirectory in succession separated by the operator so that I have one large list instead of having to do each subdirectory separately?

Google AI provided me with the following information, however, I do know if it is correct information:

The most straightforward approach, assuming your main music drive search c:\users\owner\documents\music\ already includes all subdirectories (which it should by default), is to rethink the query. The dupe-from operator is designed to compare files from the main search area against a different specified location.If the goal is to find duplicates within all the specified directories and list them as one group, the OR approach (Method 1) is the simplest way to get all the relevant files in the results list before applying the dupe:name filter.

Method 1: Use OR (|) to match multiple paths:
You can use the | operator to include multiple paths in the search results that dupe:name will work on."c:\users\owner\documents\music\" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\bob sorem's midi's" dupe:nameThis approach will list all files in both locations and then highlight the duplicate names among them within the results list.

If I follow Google's recommendation the search criteria would be the following I believe:

"c:\users\owner\documents\music\" dupe-from: | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\bob sorem's midi's" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\traditional hymns" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Genevan Psaltar" dupe:name (and continue on with each subfolder and put the dupe:name at the very end)

Is this correct or is there another way to arrive at the results Google AI says is possible?

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[RMC123]

I just ran the search criteria I just asked about and it worked with three subdirectories, therefore, I assume there is no limit on the number of subdirectories I can run the search on?

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[void]

I don't have an easy way to do this, I will consider multiple path support for dupe-from:

For now, it can be done with fileexists:

Code: Select all

"c:\users\owner\documents\music\" fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\bob sorem's midi's\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\BVM Music\$name:"  | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Christmas Music\$name:" 

| = OR

Add as many

| fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\<your-subfolder-here>\$name:"

as you like.

[RMC123]

I will work on this in the afternoon CST and get back with you on my results. Thank you for your reply.

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[RMC123]

I just now was able to run the search as I had a lot of work to do in the music directory before I could run the search. I used the following Google AI search criteria since I had already started it as mentioned in my prior post and it was so easy to add on to. If this would fail, then I would run the one you provided:

"c:\users\owner\documents\music\" dupe-from: | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\bob sorem's midi's" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\traditional hymns" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Genevan Psaltar" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\BVM Music" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Christmas Music" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Father of All Mankind" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Holy Archangel Hymns" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lappy Index Songs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Midi's in Genevan Psaltar" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Midi’s out of Temp File" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Music without words to Pull from" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Our Lady of America" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Patriotic midis" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Protestant Hymns" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\St. John the Baptist" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs" | "c:\users\owner\documents\music\Traditional Hymns" dupe:name

It brought back 2833 rows of data, and appears to have done the job, however, I still have yet to get into the details to verify. It will take me quite some time to get into the details to verify that the search criteria has done its job as the amount of data is very large, but when I have completed my work, I will let you know how everything went and if I had to revert to your search criteria.

Thank you very much for your help.

Best regards,
Rose Mary

[void]

dupe-from: without a folder will not work, please try the following search:

Code: Select all

"c:\users\owner\documents\music\" fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\bob sorem's midi's\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\traditional hymns\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Genevan Psaltar\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\BVM Music\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Christmas Music\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Father of All Mankind\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Holy Archangel Hymns\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lappy Index Songs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Midi's in Genevan Psaltar\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Midi's out of Temp File\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Music without words to Pull from\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Our Lady of America\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Patriotic midis\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Protestant Hymns\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\St. John the Baptist\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Lyrics and Docs\$name:" | fileexists:"c:\users\owner\documents\music\Traditional Hymns\$name:"