Apple - How do I resolve duplicate "in the cloud" songs in iTunes 11?
Like Harry reported, the problem can be dealt with by disabling "Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases". But then you don't see your Cloud-based music if you haven't downloaded everything.
I found that re-enabling this option seemed to reconnect with Cloud and resolve the duplicates problem without losing any history.
Preserve meta data
Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes hosts a huge list if AppleScripts useful for managing iTunes. Of particular interest in this case are
- Copy Tag Info Tracks to Tracks
- New Last Played Date
- New Last Skipped Date
- Add or Subtract Play Count
Especially the first one seems to be very interesting in your case.
Replace tracks
You should be able to
- redownload the tracks by clicking on the iCloud icon
- transfer any meta data manually or with the AppleScripts listed above
- delete the current copy (the one not marked yellow in your screenshot) from iTunes and your hard drive
General note
To be on the safe side, make a backup copy of the titles in question first and run some tests using just a few tracks
I solved this in the following manner.
Go to Preferences, then to Store, then uncheck the box that says "Show iTunes in the cloud purchases"