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Apple to restore duplicate song search in forthcoming iTunes 11 update

Though the ability to identify duplicate songs has disappeared with the release of iTunes 11, Apple is said to be working on reinstitution the feature in a future update.

The departure of the duplicate song finder in iTunes 11 was noted as a "drawback" in Walt Mossberg's review of the software. But the Wall Street Journal tech columnist also noted that Apple officials indicated to him the function will "soon be restored in a minor update of the program."

In previous versions of iTunes, users were given an option called "Display Exact Duplicates." This feature would help users to clean up their music library by displaying songs that had multiple copies.

While that feature will reportedly return to iTunes 11, other functions removed from the latest update are not returning. That includes browsing album covers through the Cover Flow carousel, a feature that Apple told Mossberg was considered useful by "too few users."

Mossberg also experienced some album covers that were missing in the album view option in iTunes 11. He was told by Apple that this "rare bug" has already been solved, and will be fixed in a minor update that will arrive soon.

Apple is also said to be aware of a bug that can prevent Apple TV users from wirelessly streaming cloud-based movies to the set-top box. A fix for that issue is also said to be on its way.

iTunes 11 was released last week, bringing with it an overhauled user interface that aims to be cleaner and less cluttered than its predecessor. Despite a new look and feel, many of the features found in previous versions of iTunes remain or can be restored, such as the dedicated sidebar.