userremoved
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: how to delete ALL my iTunes playlists at once?

Got a problem guys

 

I'm using iTunes 10, and everytime I add an album of music it creates a playlist automatically for the album.

 

I recently added a large directory of music and it automatically created several hundred playlists in my itunes.  I discovered I could only delete them individually, which is a nightmare.

 

So then I tried outright uninstalling iTunes.  I uninstalled, rebooted, downloaded a fresh itunes 10, re-installed and started itunes back up and all my library and all my playlists somehow re-appeared.  I want to uninstall EVERYTHING on iTunes and start fresh.  So I uninstalled again, removed all my temporary files on my computer, rebooted and re-installed and all my itunes **** re-appeared again on the fresh install.

 

How do I either mass delete playlists, or install a 100% fresh version of iTunes with no playlists?

 

Thanks.

iPhone 4

Posted on Oct 26, 2015 10:37 AM

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userremoved

Q: how to delete ALL my iTunes playlists at once?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by AppleDak,

    AppleDak AppleDak Jul 27, 2012 10:43 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 10:43 AM in response to userremoved

    Hi,

    this is one more of Apple's weird functions/bugs, whatever.

    just click on the first one (playlist), and then keep the "backspace" (←)button pressed until all are gone.

     

     

    Cheers

  • by drtunz,

    drtunz drtunz Dec 28, 2012 12:24 PM in response to AppleDak
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 28, 2012 12:24 PM in response to AppleDak

    Thanks Appledak. I had the same frustrating problem with about 900 empty "playlists."  I got tired of holding down the delete key and used a piece of scotch tape to keep it depressed. But all 900 are now gone.

  • by P Willis,

    P Willis P Willis Nov 12, 2013 9:09 PM in response to userremoved
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 12, 2013 9:09 PM in response to userremoved

    Yeah, a simple "Shift" > Select > Delete or a "Select All" would be a welcomed change Apple.

  • by oemb1905,

    oemb1905 oemb1905 Jul 25, 2015 9:01 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 25, 2015 9:01 AM in response to userremoved

    With the new iTunes 12.2.1, this is painfully long as each Playlist takes about ten seconds to delete and the beach ball spins.  Apple, this really needs to be fixed.  Playlists are only more difficult now than before.

  • by tjmeaney,

    tjmeaney tjmeaney Oct 29, 2015 12:47 PM in response to oemb1905
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2015 12:47 PM in response to oemb1905

    hey! I've had this problem for years and I seriously gave up till today. Thought Id take another stab at fixing this.

     

    I had so many playlists I literally would have had to hold the delete button down for a week.

     

    I found an automator function! Its actually built in. Not sure if its new or not. But its running right now and Im really hoping this works...

     

    -TJ

  • by cjamigo,

    cjamigo cjamigo Jan 12, 2016 3:08 PM in response to tjmeaney
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2016 3:08 PM in response to tjmeaney

    I used Tune UP and it created hundreds of playlists in iTunes.  synced my music with my iPad and they are, as expected, all there too.  I've deleted the unwanted playlists with the delete button.  But now when I try to sync to the iPad again, they all reappear on the original iTunes on my Mac.  So I've been deleting them one at a time from the iPad (really slow process).  Any idea how to delete them all on an iPad mini?

  • by ansikun2,

    ansikun2 ansikun2 Sep 27, 2016 6:11 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 27, 2016 6:11 AM in response to userremoved
    1. Close iTunes.
    2. Navigate to one of the following locations depending on your operating system:
      • Mac OS X: /Users/username/Music/iTunes/
      • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\
      • Windows Vista: C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes\
      • Windows 7: C:\Users\username\My Music\iTunes\
      • Windows 8: C:\Users\username\My Music\iTunes\
      • Windows 10: C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes\
    3. Right-click “iTunes Music Library.xml” and select “Rename“. Give it a name of “iTunes Music Library.old“. Do the same thing for the “iTunes Library.itl” file.
    4. Open iTunes. The library, playlist, ratings will then be cleared out. New “iTunes Music Library.xml” and “iTunes Library.itl” files will be created.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Sep 28, 2016 11:14 AM in response to ansikun2
    Level 10 (86,680 points)
    Apple TV
    Sep 28, 2016 11:14 AM in response to ansikun2

    The original issue in this thread was caused by two factors, first the user would have to have generated .m3u files with some other software, typically WinAmp. Secondly at the time these threads started appearing iTunes went from ignoring .m3u files when importing a folder to creating a playlist for them. Simply wiping the library and then re-importing the media folder is going to give the same results. Either the .m3u files need to be found and deleted first, or add the media back using iTunes Folder Watch. An alternative approach, for Windows users, is my script KillTopLevelPlaylists.

     

    tt2