Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

itunes song will not delete and I can't edit the info

I added some songs to itunes 9 and now i want to delete one of them. I tried using delete, right-click delete, and edit delete. The window that asks if i'm sure I want to delete the song from the library doesn't even pop up. It's like the song isn't even there. It still played when I clicked on it but I can't edit the info either. I'm unable to click on the info boxes and the tabs for lyrics and artwork are grey. Then I realized I should just delete the actual file from the folder. That deleted from the trash but now the song says it can't locate the file and I have an exclamation mark next to the song name and it still won't delete. I have over 5,000 other songs and have never encountered this problem. I've deleted other songs since using itunes 9 and it has been fine. Is there something wrong with the song file? Please help!

MacBook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.6.1), iTunes 9

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 1:25 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 5:28 AM

Sounds like you may have some sort of permissions issue where the OS is not letting you modify the iTunes data base file. Try closing iTunes, open Disk Utility (Applications -> Utilities) and repair disk permissions on the main drive.
Patrick
32 replies

Sep 27, 2009 4:10 PM in response to PT

I tried repairing the disk and it still didn't work. I later tried restarting the computer and it finally deleted. After adding some more songs, a few more files had the same problem and after restarting those deleted also. I'm not sure why this is happening but to anyone who has this problem, just restart and then they should delete.

Sep 29, 2009 5:47 PM in response to northcanon357

I'm having this problem too. It does not seem to be a permissions issue. I have found so far that restarting iTunes will allow me to edit a song I have previously been unable to edit.

This is happening with iTunes 9.0.1 (9) I can't say for sure that it wasn't happening under 9.0 - but I didn't notice it then.

I find that songs are uneditable after they have been downloaded to iTunes. Not all songs, just some, on an unpredictable basis. I don't know if there are other older songs with the same problem, or whether it's just new downloads that are being affected.

I've also noticed that it's impossible to delete one of these songs from a playlist.

So - in summary : Download an album ... 2 or 3 songs on the album will be impossible to edit (song info) and impossible to delete from a playlist ... restarting iTunes allows them to be edited ...

It's a really odd one.

Oct 2, 2009 9:37 AM in response to northcanon357

I had the same trouble with two songs. They wouldn't delete from iTunes even after deleting the MP3s from Finder then replacing them with copies of different MP3s (i.e. files with good permissions).

I restarted iTunes once and nothing changed, but then I quit Pollux (a music tag correcting program) and restarted iTunes again and this time it deleted the files just fine. Restarting my Mac was not necessary (and in fact was never done).

Feb 23, 2010 10:06 PM in response to northcanon357

Similar problem: I'm using iTunes 9.0.2 on my MacBook Pro, downloaded 6 TELESEMINAR RECORDINGS (one at a time, in one session) provided to subscribers (legal, permissions are not an issue), saved in the class folder. I clicked on each one, it opened in iTunes--but 2 of them won't allow me to edit title, artist, album, no matter what I did. This included clicking on the track in iTunes (the other 4 allowed me to edit, not these 2!); going to "Get info" - could not place the cursor to edit here, either (last 2 tabs were grayed out, as mentioned by a previous entry); tried to DELETE the tracks, to re-download them & start over--but it wouldn't even delete! Closed iTunes, reopened, & tried everything AGAIN--unsuccessfully.

Never had this happen before. Any suggestions? Thank you!

May 6, 2010 9:04 AM in response to CyberSinger

Same here, tried everything suggested under this subject and no way of fixing it.

Edit: Tried one last thing. File > Library > Organize Library > Upgrade to iTunes Media Organization

Did this, all the folders are changed, and now I can delete songs.

Message was edited by: onuryasar

itunes song will not delete and I can't edit the info

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.