how to delete ALL my iTunes playlists at once?

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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

THANK YOU SOOO SOOO SOOO MUCH!!!

This has worked perfectly and saved me countless hours and days of frustration.....THANKS A MILLION for this - I am so grateful for your expertise. Purrrrrrr