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Smart shelves list items more than once if they are sold in multiple Amazon Country sites.
How can I stop smart shelves from listing items multiple times if they are sold in more than one Amazon country site? I was trying to create smart shelves to display everything I bought in a given month across all categories (CD's, Movies, Books). I set up a test smart shelf for June 2009 and I set the criteria for purchase date to be greater or equal to 6/01/2009 and less than or equal to 6/30/2009. It seemed to work, except I saw lots of duplicate items.
I checked on the duplicates and noticed that in each case, one showed the item details from amazon.co.jp (which is the site I intentionally selected when adding them), while the other one showed the details from amazon.com. With one CD in particular, there ended up being 5 duplicate copies all with amazon.com (US) listings and not even one with the amazon.co.jp listing that appears in the Library or Music views.
This is a big problem because I collect Japanese CDs and DVDs and I prefer the actual japanese listings and details, and do not want duplicates for items also sold as imports via the US site. I do also have CD's and DVDs that are not Japanese, and I use amazon.com for those items when adding them.
I do not see the duplicate entries any other place in my Library, only when I try and create a smart shelf.
I checked on the duplicates and noticed that in each case, one showed the item details from amazon.co.jp (which is the site I intentionally selected when adding them), while the other one showed the details from amazon.com. With one CD in particular, there ended up being 5 duplicate copies all with amazon.com (US) listings and not even one with the amazon.co.jp listing that appears in the Library or Music views.
This is a big problem because I collect Japanese CDs and DVDs and I prefer the actual japanese listings and details, and do not want duplicates for items also sold as imports via the US site. I do also have CD's and DVDs that are not Japanese, and I use amazon.com for those items when adding them.
I do not see the duplicate entries any other place in my Library, only when I try and create a smart shelf.
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?Here are a couple of examples of CDs that appear as duplicates because they are listed in both amazon.co.jp and amazon.com (in case you want to see it for yourself):
Search terms that work on both sites:
"keep on move on"
"love life hitomi" -
Inappropriate?I tried to replicate the problem, but after adding Love Life, I didn't have two Love Lives on the smart shelf.
If you add another CD, would it happen again?
Another thing to try...select one of the items on the Smart Shelf, then switch to the Music shelf. Whatever you selected beforehand will still be selected (although may be off-screen). What happens in this case?
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?Hi Fred,
Thanks for taking a look. Question, when you tried to replicate the problem, did you add the CD from the US or the Japan Amazon.com? All the CDs with this problem were originally added from the Japan store.
When I select one of the duplicate US listing CDs, and switch to the Music shelf, it is is not there. When I select the same CD from the smart shelf that has the Japan store details and switch to the Music folder, that same CD is selected.
Another oddity. I just deleted the CD "Love Life by Hitomi" from my Library. Now, the CD with the listing from the Japan store is gone from the smart shelf, however, the duplicate CD with the US listing is still there!
I just added it back to my library and the Japan version reappeared (as expected) in the smart shelf. The duplicate US version was still there (since it had never been gone), but no additional copies were added.
One CD that appears 5 times in the smart shelf is this one: JP ASIN: B0000AFOLD - the US ASIN is the same. Now every listing of this CD in my smart shelf is a US version, the Japan version which is in my library doesn't appear at all. I don't know if it is related, but I noted that there are 5 copies of this CD available on amazon.com (US) marketplace.
Well, it still gets weirder. This CD search string, "voice of earth alan" (JP ASIN: B001OFB88S) also has a duplicate US version only in the smart shelf. However, when I right-click on the US version, and select "View on Amazon (US)", it does not find it. I tried searching on the US site by title and the JP ASIN, but it does not appear to be offered at all on the US site.
**** Wow, while typing this, I think I have figured it out! ****
It appears that the extra listings in the Smart Shelf were from my Itunes folder. It looked like every duplicate item was generated from playing a song from that iTunes imported CD. The CD that appeared 5 fimes, had been played 5 times in June, and the Japan version didn't appear because it was actually purchased in April, not June.
This seems to be a bug.
It appears that it is counting an iTunes "Play Count" increment as a purchase in the Smart Shelf criteria. Once I turned off "Subscribe to my iTunes library", the "duplicates".
I guess if I want to use smart shelves with purchase date as the criteria, I cannot also subscribe to my iTunes library.
Not sure if it matters, but I am using Delicious Library 2.1.1 (v11434), iTunes 8.2 (23) on Mac OS 10.5.7 (intel).1 Comment
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This solves the problem
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Oops, this was cut off:
"Once I turned off "Subscribe to my iTunes library", the "duplicates", disappeared.
Is what I meant to say.
Also, it seems that it isn't just play count, but it is sometimes counting importing into iTunes as a "purchase" as well. -
Inappropriate?Oh, I also forgot to mention what led me to look at iTunes.
All the "duplicates" had a check mark in the "played/read" field, and I almost never remember to check that field in my regular library, but I had remembered actually listening to songs from those CDs on my iPod recently. -
Inappropriate?Looks like you found and identified that bug. :}
It probably shouldn't re-add iTunes songs based on play. Although, I don't see how iTunes songs got associated with ASINs. o_O
If you want to use smart shelves with purchase date as the criteria and subscribe to your iTunes library, just make sure to add the "Type is not iTunes Album"* to the Smart Shelf.
*or other iTunes types.
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This solves the problem
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Hi Fred,
Thanks for the hint of "not iTunes" type, it works very well. I didn't even know that was an option.
Oh and sorry about the ASIN confusion. The iTunes items actually do not contain ASINs.
I now realize that I only saw the ASINs from the US store when I right-clicked on the "duplicates" and chose "View on Amazon". It wasn't until I started coming across some that weren't sold as imports (and as such could not be found on the US store) that I started to realize that they weren't actually coming from Amazon.com. -
Inappropriate?Oh, and as for adding the songs again when they are played. They are not really "added", their purchase date just seems to be updated to the last time they were played. I was sorting by purchase date, so they would be added to that smart shelf, but they aren't actually added again to the overall library.
Actually, since I only actually listen to my music on my iPod and not via iTunes, I'm wondering if perhaps the problem with the purchase date results from when the play counts in iTunes are updated by an iPod sync.
