iTunes Deleting Files Secrets
1. Deleting Files form within a Playlist
Lets say you have made yourself a playlist for sorting out some music and decide to delete half the files in the playlist: Pressing the "Delete" key won't work, as it simply removes the song from the playlist, rather than telling iTunes to delete it.
The trick is to press Option+Delete: Now you get the usual confirmation dialogue.
This also works with smart playlists.
2. Skipping the Confirmation
Don't need to be asked twice whether you really want to delete something? Hold down the Apple key and press delete. Can be combined with trick 1 for deleting from a playlist with Apple+Option+Delete
3. Quickly moving to the trash
The last thing you always have to decide when deleting files in iTunes is whether to Keep the original mp3 or whether to move it to the trash. "Keep Files" is marked blue and will trigger when you hit "Return" - but you can also quickly access "Move to Trash" by pressing "M" on the keyboard.
So a very quick way to trash a file, whether from a Playlist or the Library is: Apple+Option+Delete, followed by M.
4. Pressed "Keep Files" accidently? I *never* want to keep my files in the huge iTunes Music folder, but once in a while I accidently hit Return and -boom- that file is lost in the depths of the folder. How do you find all files in the iTunes music folder that are not in your library?
Easy!
Create a new Playlist in iTunes and then open Finder. Go to your Music folder (it's in your Home folder) and drag the "iTunes" folder onto the newly created playlist in iTunes. iTunes will add all songs from the iTunes folder to playlist: Songs that already exist in your library will simply get listed. Songs that were hidden in the iTunes folder so far, will get Re-Added to the library.
Now select the Playlist that now contains really all songs you have. Go to the "View" menu and select "View Options", check "Date Added" and select "OK". You can now sort the playlist by the a new column "Date Added".
All the files that were hitherto hidden in your iTunes folder have a "Date Added" that matches today (as they were just re-added) to the Library. Now you can use the tipps above to quickly get rid of them, or, ehm, rediscover your lost music.
Cheers
Andreas
Lets say you have made yourself a playlist for sorting out some music and decide to delete half the files in the playlist: Pressing the "Delete" key won't work, as it simply removes the song from the playlist, rather than telling iTunes to delete it.
The trick is to press Option+Delete: Now you get the usual confirmation dialogue.
This also works with smart playlists.
2. Skipping the Confirmation
Don't need to be asked twice whether you really want to delete something? Hold down the Apple key and press delete. Can be combined with trick 1 for deleting from a playlist with Apple+Option+Delete
3. Quickly moving to the trash
The last thing you always have to decide when deleting files in iTunes is whether to Keep the original mp3 or whether to move it to the trash. "Keep Files" is marked blue and will trigger when you hit "Return" - but you can also quickly access "Move to Trash" by pressing "M" on the keyboard.
So a very quick way to trash a file, whether from a Playlist or the Library is: Apple+Option+Delete, followed by M.
4. Pressed "Keep Files" accidently? I *never* want to keep my files in the huge iTunes Music folder, but once in a while I accidently hit Return and -boom- that file is lost in the depths of the folder. How do you find all files in the iTunes music folder that are not in your library?
Easy!
Create a new Playlist in iTunes and then open Finder. Go to your Music folder (it's in your Home folder) and drag the "iTunes" folder onto the newly created playlist in iTunes. iTunes will add all songs from the iTunes folder to playlist: Songs that already exist in your library will simply get listed. Songs that were hidden in the iTunes folder so far, will get Re-Added to the library.
Now select the Playlist that now contains really all songs you have. Go to the "View" menu and select "View Options", check "Date Added" and select "OK". You can now sort the playlist by the a new column "Date Added".
All the files that were hitherto hidden in your iTunes folder have a "Date Added" that matches today (as they were just re-added) to the Library. Now you can use the tipps above to quickly get rid of them, or, ehm, rediscover your lost music.
Cheers
Andreas
Comments
4. Pressed "Keep Files" accidently? I *never* want to keep my files in the huge iTunes Music folder, but once in a while I accidently hit Return and -boom- that file is lost in the depths of the folder. How do you find all files in the iTunes music folder that are not in your library?
Easy!
Create a new Playlist in iTunes and then open Finder. Go to your Music folder (it's in your Home folder) and drag the "iTunes" folder onto the newly created playlist in iTunes. iTunes will add all songs from the iTunes folder to playlist: Songs that already exist in your library will simply get listed. Songs that were hidden in the iTunes folder so far, will get Re-Added to the library.
Now select the Playlist that now contains really all songs you have. Go to the "View" menu and select "View Options", check "Date Added" and select "OK". You can now sort the playlist by the a new column "Date Added".
All the files that were hitherto hidden in your iTunes folder have a "Date Added" that matches today (as they were just re-added) to the Library. Now you can use the tipps above to quickly get rid of them, or, ehm, rediscover your lost music.
Thanks for this one. I've done that a few times.