Delete songs from iTunes Library/Hard Drive directly from iTunes

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Level 1

8 points

Delete songs from iTunes Library/Hard Drive directly from iTunes

I have my library setup so that all the music is added to the music folder and then I add to the library manually in iTunes. I would like to go through and delete some songs from my library but I would also like them to be deleted from hard drive. Typically I will left click the song, click show in finder, cmd-delete in finder, and then cmd-delete in iTunes. Since I need to do this for 100s of songs in my library, it would be nice if I could directly delete from the hard drive and library inside iTunes. If anyone knows of any features, scripts, or what have you that I could do this, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help!

OS X 10.8.2 and iTunes 11

MacBook (13-inch Aluminum Late 2008), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Nov 29, 2012 12:54 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 2, 2012 4:06 PM in response to ndshah08

First you need to make sure that the music files you want to delete are in the itunes music folder (you can relocate this in the advanced section of iTunes preferences). If the files are in a different folder, deleting them will only remove them from the itunes library, but not delete the files from the hard drive.

Open itunes and select the songs you want to delete.

If you are looking at them in an iTunes playlist, then hold the option key and press the delete key.
If you are looking at them in the iTunes library, just press the delete key.

You should get a popup asking if you want to delete the song(s) from your iTunes library. If they are songs purchased from the iTunes Store, you might also get a question about deleting them from iCloud. Select delete song and you should then get another popup asking if you want to move the selected song(s) to the trash. Select delete song. Once you empty the trash they should no longer be in the finder or the iTunes library.

Hope this helps. I just tested it out with OS X 10.8.2 and iTunes 11.0

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Answer 2

ndshah08 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 2, 2012 4:49 PM in response to craigvolpe

Thanks for your response! Before I do this I have a question about how the organization of my music library will change.

1. If I change to using the iTunes music folder will the original copies of my songs in the Music folder be deleted?

2. When I add songs from the future, do I add it to the music folder and then add it to iTunes?

3. If I ever need to backup my music collection normally I would just copy the music folder to my external drive. Would I now have to copy the iTunes folder?

Thanks again for your help.

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