Clearing out duplicate notes, empty notes and clutter
Restored a backup twice, or imported the same notes again? Library Doctor scans your .jwlibrary file in the browser, finds duplicates and empty notes, and produces a clean copy.
Libraries collect clutter. Restoring a backup onto a device that already had some of the same notes, importing a shared set twice, or years of half-written notes that never got finished — each leaves something behind, and JW Library gives you no way to sweep it up in bulk.
Library Doctor is a free health check for a .jwlibrary file. It scans the backup in your browser, tells you in plain language what it found, and fixes what's fixable in one tap.
Step by step
Back up first — as always
JW Library → Personal Study → Backup and Restore → Create a backup. Keep this file; it's your fallback.
Run the health check
Open jwsync.org, load the backup and start Library Doctor. It examines the file's contents and structure without sending it anywhere.
Read what it found
Duplicates, empty notes and other clutter are listed plainly, with counts, so you can see the scale of the problem before you change anything.
Fix and download the clean copy
One tap applies the repairs and produces a new, cleaned .jwlibrary file. Your original is never modified.
Restore the clean file
Backup and Restore → Restore, and pick the cleaned file. Your library is the same, minus the clutter.
How duplicates happen in the first place
Almost always through a restore. If you restore a backup onto a device that already carried some of the same material — or restore the same file twice through different routes — the app has no way to know it has seen those notes before.
Merging is the way to avoid them
This is exactly why merging two backups is safer than restoring one over another: the merge detects material that already exists and keeps it once. The same checks run inside every merge, so a merged backup comes out clean even if the files going in weren't.
Frequently asked questions
- Will it delete notes I actually want?
- It removes exact duplicates and empty notes — material with nothing in it to lose. And because it writes a new file instead of editing yours, the original is always there to fall back on.
- Can it recover notes I deleted in the app?
- No. If a note was deleted in JW Library before the backup was made, it isn't in the file to recover — an older backup is the place to look.