iTunes Song Deletion Question

[VMan]

Anybody know if there's a way to delete a song off your hard drive directly through iTunes, rather than trying to find the individual song in a folder and deleting it manually? When you typically hit the 'delete' key on a song on iTunes, it removes it from your library, but doesn't get it off the computer.

If there is, it would save a ton of time getting some crappy songs off my computer that I don't listen to at all.

Thanks.

 

[CoryB]

Check your preferences. Whenever I delete song files it always pops up with a question asking whether I'd like to keep the file or delete it as well. It is possible you set it to auto-keep files rather than asking each time.

 

[DNW]

If the song is stored in the iTunes Music folder (inside the iTunes folder in the My Music folder in the My Documents folder), you're asked if you also want to delete the song from your hard disk. To leave the song on your hard disk, click No. To permanently delete the song from your hard disk, click Yes.

If the song is located outside the iTunes Music folder and you want to delete it from your hard disk, you must manually delete the song by dragging its file to the Recycle Bin. If you're not sure where the song file is located, select the song in iTunes, and choose File > Show Song File.

It depends on where the songs are stored.

 

[Aaron]

If you right-click on the song in iTunes there is a little "Show Song" feature that will find the song on the hard drive and bring it up in whatever folder it is in. However, if you have a lot of music (which I know you do) and you haven't defragged your hard drive in a while this may take some time. Hope this helps.

A.

 

[Dakota rube]

VM, it is as simple as CoryB implied: from iTunes, with your Library selected in the left window (Source), simply select the offending song and delete. As CoryB pointed out, if you've asked iTunes to warn you before deleting a song, you'll get a dialogue box asking if you want the file moved to the trash, or merely deleted from iTunes. If you tell it to move the file to trash (or recycle bin in windoze), it'll be gone once you empty trash.

Just make sure you have your Library selected, not a playlist.

 

[VMan]

Thanks for the replies.

However, I cannot find the option in the preferences menu where it asks if you want to keep the file or not. The weird thing is that when I add a song recently and then delete it from iTunes I do get that popup message, but I do not get the message when deleting a song I added a long time ago, and it doesn't actually delete it from the HD.

Aaron,

Thanks for the tip - works for individual songs, but seems slow on my comp and would take forever to get rid of ~3000 unwanted songs.

 

[Dakota rube]

VM, another question: is all of your music in your iTunes Music Library? Or is it scattered around the hard drive. I'm guessing iTunes is only deleting the files which are actually in the iTunes Library.

You could try to consolidate the library, which will copy a bunch of files into one centralized location. And if your iTunes prefs are set to "keep iTunes Music Folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library", all your mp3s should be available for iTunes to "manage" from then on.

 

[VMan]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

VM, another question: is all of your music in your iTunes Music Library? Or is it scattered around the hard drive. I'm guessing iTunes is only deleting the files which are actually in the iTunes Library.

You could try to consolidate the library, which will copy a bunch of files into one centralized location. And if your iTunes prefs are set to "keep iTunes Music Folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library", all your mp3s should be available for iTunes to "manage" from then on.

I have music in multiple folders, and I don't really use the iTunes Library folder, unless it's for a CD ripped into itunes.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Dakota rube]

^^^I'm just fishing VM. As everyone here can attest, Dakota ain't no expert. At anything.