Originally Posted by
Tartarus I know from own experience there is a header that shows if it’s an MP3 file, protected m4a file or other kind.
Just try and find it. I am currently not next to my computer, so a screenshot will have to wait until I’m home.
You should make a playlist with all duplicates and sort on name and delete the MP3 version.
Sorry but I don't think you're quite following by drift. I did find the header (it's called "Kind"). However this won't serve the problem purpose I've described, because iTunes only lists *one* copy of each song -- either the iCloud Music Library-downloaded copy, which is M4A, or the un-matched original, which is MP3. iTunes does not list *both*. So in the file system it looks like this:
Happy Birthday Song.m4a
Happy Birthday Song.mp3
Some Other Song.mp3
...but in iTunes it looks like this:
Name | iCloud Status | Kind
---------------------------------------------------------------
Happy Birthday Song | Matched | AAC audio file
Some Other Song | Uploaded | MPEG audio file
So if I were to delete all of the "MPEG" items, I'd be deleting only all of the non-matched original files, and losing data. Bad.
I'm starting to think there's no way to fix this in iTunes itself, but that a utility or script is needed to delete the .m4a songs when there is a .mp3 with the same name in the same folder.