Why is iTunes duplicating my Voice Memos?

I utilize the Voice Memos feature on my iPhone and have noticed a recurring problem of iTunes duplicating my recordings. Note that the recordings appear duplicated only in iTunes and not on my iPhone. I haven’t figured out how to prevent this but have provided steps below for removing duplicates and synchronizing the proper recordings as I’ve found the process not very intuitive. I appreciate any insight into the cause and/or solution for this problem. I also welcome a simpler cleanup process. I’d love to be shown that I’m overcomplicating this.

MacBook Pro
Mac OS 10.6.6
iTunes 10.1.2
iPhone 3GS
iOS 4.2.1

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*UPDATE*

It appears something has changed regarding how iTunes synchronizes Voice Memos with an iPhone in 10.2.2 because the tedious method I mapped below no longer works properly. I had to switch to managing music manually and delete all Voice Memos from my phone manually via iTunes. Then, changed back from manual manage and synched. All Voice Memos returned to my phone but not timestamped correctly. Also, iTunes changed the naming convention of all my memos to the inferior method.

Moral of the story: record nothing.

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*Make necessary backups prior to making any changes and proceed at your own risk.*

1. Connect iPhone to computer
2. Open iTunes
3. Open Phone Disk (Free)
4. Open Finder window and select mounted drive for iPhone
5. Navigate to “Recordings” folder and copy entire contents to a folder on your desktop
6. Navigate to “Macintosh HDUsersYourUserNameMusiciTunesiTunes MusicVoice Memos” and copy entire contents of “Voice Memos” to a separate folder on your desktop
7. Open iTunes and select iPhone from DEVICES category
8. Remove tick from “Include voice memos” on the Music page for you iPhone
9. Add tick for “Manually manage music and videos” from the Summary page for your iPhone
10. Select OK/Apply/Sync when prompted (this will not delete your recordings)
11. Expand iPhone under DEVICES in iTunes and select “Voice Memos” playlist
12. Delete all contents of “Voice Memos” playlist on iPhone

13. Identify duplicate Voice Memos in iTunes (this can be laborious)

    Voice Memos can be accessed from two locations in iTunes. Your phone will be listed by name as an album in your music library regardless of whether or not your phone is connected. iTunes also creates a “Voice Memos” playlist. Deleting duplicates from a playlist will not delete audio files from your computer.

    Control+click any recording assumed to be a duplicate and select “Show in Finder” to review the actual file name. It may be helpful to choose File -> Display Duplicates.

    I’m not sure why iTunes has two separate naming conventions for voice memos or how/when it chooses one over the other. Below are examples of these naming conventions:

    20110203 183525.m4a    (preferred naming convention)
    20110203 183525 1.m4a  (duplicate)  
    2_3_11 6_35 PM.m4a     (duplicate/old naming convention)
    

    I prefer the first naming convention listed above as it allows for proper chronology listing from the year all the way down to the second. The third convention listed above makes locating a file by date/time rather cumbersome. The first is a much neater and efficient naming convention.

14. Delete all duplicate Voice Memos from iTunes and Finder (path provided above in #6)

15. After deleting duplicates, repeat step 6 to prevent having to sort duplicates in the case of a problem
16. Open Finder window and select mounted drive for iPhone
17. Navigate to “Recordings” folder and delete entire contents (first confirm backup folder on desktop is good)

18. Confirm Voice Memos app is closed on iPhone

    Double tap the Home button revealing recently opened apps. If Voice Memos app is listed touch and hold until apps begin to “wiggle.” Tap the red close circle in the top left of the app icon. Press the Home button again.

19. Synchronize iPhone with iTunes

20. Open Voice Memos app on iPhone to confirm all memos are deleted
21. Close Voice Memos app (see step #16)
22. Open iTunes and select iPhone from DEVICES category
23. Remove tick from “Manually manage music and videos” from the Summary page for your iPhone
24. Add tick for “Include voice memos” on the Music page for you iPhone
25. Synchronize iPhone with iTunes

Some of these steps may be able to be omitted but after wrestling with this for a while, I decided to be thorough. Also note that switching the tick back and forth for managing your music synchronization manually will apparently enable synchronizing movies, TV shows, and books. So, if you don’t want those synced, you’ll need to uncheck those.

Again, any help is appreciated. This is more work than it should be for such a stupid issue.