Using Automator to delete several playlists at once on Mac

I thought this might be useful for all those folks getting frustrated about not being able to delete several playlists at once.

I ended up with a bunch of empty playlists when trying to restore my Music library from a backup. I subsequently searched online, tried a few different things, and ultimately contacted support—who basically confirmed that there is no way to bulk delete playlists. Or to completely reset the Apple Music app, for that matter.

Out of desperation, I checked the Automator app that comes as part of the Mac OS. YES! One of its routines is "Remove Empty Playlists", with the description This action removes empty playlists from the main library in Music.

I tried this—IT WORKS. It doesn't (as the note says) remove smart playlists, but the regular playlists it will handle. Remember: they have to be empty.

And you won't have to dig very deep to find this:

1. Open the Automator app.
2. Click on "Library" in the left column (if it isn't already selected).
3. Scroll down the list in the second column until you get to "Remove Empty Playlists" with the Music icon next to it. (Or select "Music" in the left column to see only Music-related actions.)
4. Click and drag into the grey area that takes up most of the window.
5. This may not be strictly necessary, but on the line Workflow receives [dropdown menu] in [second dropdown menu], use the second dropdown menu to look through your applications and select Music.
6. Click on "Run" in the top right corner of the app. When it finishes, you'll see the green checkmarks with Remove Empty Playlists completed and Workflow completed.

When you check the left column of your Apple Music app, the empty playlists should be gone.

I hope this will be helpful, particularly since it seems that a lot of Apple customer service reps aren't aware of this as a possible solution. I wouldn't have thought of it myself had not dimly remembered the occasional article in Macworld extolling the virtues of Automator to simplify routine tasks.

Anyway, happy deleting! A screenshot for reference is attached.