iTunes and deleting music off the HD

[Big A]

I had a bunch of random music on my HD, that becomes a pain to sift through when I am trying to put a playlist together for my gym iPod, so I moved it to a different folder, because I thought that it would disappear in iTunes when I synced the original folder again.

Well, all that it did is put an exclamation point to the left of those selections in iTunes, and then it, of course can't find the song when I click to play it. I can delete them one by one, but we are talking several thousand songs, so that will take forever.

I looked through all of the menus and settings, and there is nothing that will just batch delete them. Am I just missing them, or is the only option to delete iTunes, and then re-load, and let it run for another 45 minutes to re-import the original folder?

I've got the same problem with duplicate songs, and I found where it will list all of the duplicates, but again, no batch delete. This one is a little more complicated, because the duplicates are in the folder on the HD that I am linked to, so without a batch delete option, my only option is to sift through and delete one by one.

Any suggestions?

[Txstang1]

You should be able to go in through the C; drive directory and locate the .mp3 files through there and be able to do a mass delete, or move to another drive, etc. I just did this the other day because I got tired of pluggin my iphone into the car to listen to my music. Of course you cant move the music from the ipod to the HD in the car, so I had to put them on a jump drive first. hope that helps.

[Big A]

You should be able to go in through the C; drive directory and locate the .mp3 files through there and be able to do a mass delete, or move to another drive, etc. I just did this the other day because I got tired of pluggin my iphone into the car to listen to my music. Of course you cant move the music from the ipod to the HD in the car, so I had to put them on a jump drive first. hope that helps.

That's exactly what I did, though I moved the music to a different folder that isn't seen by iTunes. The problem is that all of those songs still show up in iTunes, so I have to sift through them, whether they are playable/syncable, or not.

I think my only option is to delete the entire list in iTunes, and then re-link it to the HD file. It'll take a while, but at least I can go do other things.

More importantly, what about the duplicates? I seem to remember that an older version of iTunes would actually delete or move the duplicates, this current version just shows them.

[Txstang1]

That's exactly what I did, though I moved the music to a different folder that isn't seen by iTunes. The problem is that all of those songs still show up in iTunes, so I have to sift through them, whether they are playable/syncable, or not.

I think my only option is to delete the entire list in iTunes, and then re-link it to the HD file. It'll take a while, but at least I can go do other things.

More importantly, what about the duplicates? I seem to remember that an older version of iTunes would actually delete or move the duplicates, this current version just shows them.

Ok, I misunderstood. I remember seeing an option in itunes where it gives you options on what to do with duplicate files, but I dont remember where or how to find it, so no help from me.

This is the exact reason I hate itunes. It's a pain in the ass to manage your music. You should be to do more that just deleting them one by one or a mass delete and re-install.

[Big A]

Ok, I misunderstood. I remember seeing an option in itunes where it gives you options on what to do with duplicate files, but I dont remember where or how to find it, so no help from me.

This is the exact reason I hate itunes. It's a pain in the ass to manage your music. You should be to do more that just deleting them one by one or a mass delete and re-install.

A quick web search found a program on CNET that finds duplicates on the HD itself, with the option to do a mass delete, so I think I'm covered there.

Once I run that, I'm going to re-install iTunes to get rid of the "missing" songs. Yes, it's a PITA, but really no other option that I am seeing.

It's making me realize how small this 8GB iPod is, but it does the job, and hasn't been killed my my sweat or the steam room yet.

[Big A]

Well fuck, I got the HD cleaned up, re-installed iTunes, and all of the un-linke songs are still in there.

[Tx Redneck]

Did you delete the iTunes folder? Where's your music located that iTunes is looking?

[Big A]

Did you delete the iTunes folder? Where's your music located that iTunes is looking?

It's all on a rmovable hard drive, so I just unplugged the drive, and deleted everything in iTunes. Since it didn't have access to the folder, it just deleted the titles in iTunes, otherwise, it was trying to delete the music itself. The same could be done by moving the folder on the PC HD to somewhere inaccesible, for anyone that's got everything on their PC.

The key is to have all music that you want on iTunes sorted and file properly, before intstalling iTunes, I didn't realize how ineffective iTunes is at managing music. It's now re-syncing to the "new" music folder, so all of the moved titles should be gone. It's still syncing the info...

I alo found a couple programs to find and delete the duplicates of the HD itself first, as well as clean up all the empty folders, so I shoul be good to go.

It's now making me nervous to have everything on this little 400GB removable HD, so I'm gonna run up to Frye's and get something gigger and permanent to copy everything on, and backup my work stuff as well, which I should have done a long time ago.

[Redd]

im in the same boat as you kind of

I moved all my songs from old computer to a external HD.. I keep all my itunes on the external so every time I want to add music I plug the external in but next go around I get the ! next to songs and have to add the folder again.

I rarely download music so I dont fuss much over it.

[Big A]

im in the same boat as you kind of

I moved all my songs from old computer to a external HD.. I keep all my itunes on the external so every time I want to add music I plug the external in but next go around I get the ! next to songs and have to add the folder again.

I rarely download music so I dont fuss much over it.

I downloaded iTunes itself on to the external HD as well, run it from there, and have the new stuff DL there as well, so it always stays synced up.

[Chas_svo]

I like my iPhone and iPad, but I f'cking hate iTunes. I write software for a living, and if I ever pushed something that bad, I would be fire. It's sad that the best improvement would be just a checkbox to allow you to use the idevice as a thumbdrive. It would be much better.

[Binky]

You can sort itunes using the exclamation column.

Delete this from the list in itunes.

If you want that music back in itunes, go to file /import folder and choose the root of the folder where you moved the music.