How To Delete A Song In Itunes

krawfo said:

I'm a newbie so bear with me. This should be easy but I can't find a way to delete a song from iTunes 10.5.2. I've selected the song and tried the following:
Pressed the delete key
Pressed the backspace key
Pressed Option + Delete
Pressed Option + Backspace
CMD + backspace
No delete choice in the edit menu
Should I just go to the folder and delete the song?

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It depends on several things. First, are you deleting it from within a playlist, or from your Music listing? Is the file in your iTunes Media folder, or another location?

If you're looking at Music in iTunes, just click a song and press the Delete key. If you're in a playlist, press Option+Delete. If the song is in your iTunes Media folder (iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > iTunes Media folder location), you will see this dialog box pop up:
If the song is not in your iTunes Media folder, you won't get that warning and iTunes will not delete the file. If you want to avoid searching, before you delete the file, right-click on it and select "Show in Finder". Delete the file, then go back to iTunes and delete it from your library.

Glad you found the answer, but for the record in case someone searches another reason this can happen on a mac is that the disk permissions get messed up for some reason... in this case you must use the disk utility to verify and then repair disk permissions. happens to me every 6 months or so.

estockme said:

Glad you found the answer, but for the record in case someone searches another reason this can happen on a mac is that the disk permissions get messed up for some reason... in this case you must use the disk utility to verify and then repair disk permissions. happens to me every 6 months or so.

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Repairing permissions is recommended far too often when it isn't appropriate. Under normal circumstances, you rarely need to repair permissions. I've never had to do it on my 3 1/2 yr old MBP and it still runs like it did out of the box.

Repairing permissions only addresses very specific issues. It is not a "cure all" or a general performance enhancer.

Does Disk Utility check permissions on all files?

Files that aren't installed as part of an Apple-originated installer package are not listed in a receipt and therefore are not checked. For example, if you install an application using a non-Apple installer application, or by copying it from a disk image, network volume, or other disk instead of installing it via Installer, a receipt file isn't created. This is expected. Some applications are designed to be installed in one of those ways.

Also, certain files whose permissions can be changed during normal usage without affecting their function are intentionally not checked.

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To clarify, I'm not trying to suggest it is a cure-all or disputing anything you say. Just that on 2 occasions I have had my delete option disappear from itunes and, upon being told to try that, found a lot of permissions errors in my itunes library. I don't do a lot of tweaky stuff with my computer but of course it is possible this was my fault and it might be something to check for others.