Can someone tell me how I can delete custom Genres that I am not using in iTunes9? My list has gotten long enough that it is annoying and I'm trying to get my library cleaned up.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Deleting erroneous Genres in iTunes 9...
- Thread starter MacLadybug
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don't know of a way to delete unwanted genres, even in iTunes 8. If they're standard genres, you can't change them, AFAIK. If they're ones you created, they'll disappear when there are no songs that have that genre.
Are you talking about the drop-down list that you see when editing tag information:
Or the genres that appear in the brower list when looking at your library:
Are you talking about the drop-down list that you see when editing tag information:
If I go in to edit the genre in the "get info" section on a song/album, then I get this insanely long list of genres... default and custom ones. I'd like to delete the custom ones that I don't use. Is there a way to do that?
I don't believe you can. I've never heard of any method of getting rid of the default genres.
I think it's mostly a question of how to delete custom ones. I have tons of custom genres (things like "Hip hop/Rap," "hip hop/ rap," and "Hip-Hop Rap"). I've gone through my entire music library and changed all the genres and made them "Hip-Hop/Rap" as it should be, yet the bad genres are still in the list.
The non-standard genres are easy to remove. As soon as you no longer have any song with the custom genre "Rap-Hip-Hop", for example, that genre will disappear from the drop-down list. It will remain as long as there is even one song in the library with that genre.
No it won't. Maybe that's what it's supposed to do, but I have combed my iTunes library, tried making smart playlists, everything. But the genres with absolutely no songs or video files tied to them just don't disappear.
Not sure as I don't have a copy of iTunes handy to try with, but I thought that the custom genres merely existed by virtue of there being songs with that genre tagged, i.e. if you edit all the relevant tracks such that a genre is not in use then unless it's one of the defaults I thought it disappeared. It's been so long since I did this that I might be completely wrong, in which case I apologise, but I thought it worth mentioning - worth a try!
Well can you guys check your iTunes and tell me which of these is the default:
Hip Hop/Rap
or
Hip-Hop/Rap
Blues
or
Blues/R&B
Books
or
Books & Spoken
Hard Rock
Hardcore
or
Hardcore Metal
Indie
or
Indie Rock
R&B
or
R&B/Soul
Hip Hop/Rap
or
Hip-Hop/Rap
Blues
or
Blues/R&B
Books
or
Books & Spoken
Hard Rock
Hardcore
or
Hardcore Metal
Indie
or
Indie Rock
R&B
or
R&B/Soul
I just tried it. I had a collection of songs with the custom genre "International".
- I clicked "Music" on the top left bar, to display my whole library
- I made sure I did not have only Duplicates showing
- I clicked the "Genre" column to sort by genre
- I selected a song and did "Get Info"
- I clicked the Genre drop-down and "International" was on the list.
- I then selected all the songs with "International" and did "Get Info"
- I changed the genre for all songs from the custom "International" to the standard "World" genre
- I then selected a single song and did "Get Info"
- I clicked the Genre drop-down and "International" was gone from the list.
If that doesn't work, you may have a corrupt library, permissions that need to be repaired, or something wrong with your iTunes installation.
Thank you!
Boy now I feel silly. The genre in the iTunes music store is listed as Hip-Hop/Rap, but the default is Hip Hop/Rap, as you listed. I just went through my library and changed things to how they were listed in iTunes and assumed it was the default. Thanks for the clarification. I hope Apple fixes their mistake...
I did that today trying to clean up my library, but the custom un-used genres still show up. I guess mines corrupt... now how do I fix that. Crap.
I'm very antsy about my genres. Pretty much most of them are my custom ones. I don't use the drop down list nor have I found a reason to use it. I just type in the genre, I edit more than one track at a time anyway.
My genres are;
Rap/Hip-Hop
Electronica
Trance
House
Dance
Pop
Alternative
Rock
Orchestral
Soundtrack
Easy Listening
New Age
Jazz
R&B
Country
Comedy
Latin
Ringtone
Reggae
Holiday
Oh, and then in my library that I use when I do dj mixes, the only different genres are Instrumental, and A Cappella.
My genres are;
Rap/Hip-Hop
Electronica
Trance
House
Dance
Pop
Alternative
Rock
Orchestral
Soundtrack
Easy Listening
New Age
Jazz
R&B
Country
Comedy
Latin
Ringtone
Reggae
Holiday
Oh, and then in my library that I use when I do dj mixes, the only different genres are Instrumental, and A Cappella.
Alternative & Punk, AlternRock, Club, Acid Jazz and a few more I would like to remove from the list... Any ideas?
Click on Music, make sure you're not showing only duplicates, sort by Genre, find the songs that have those Genres and change them to something else. As soon as the last song with "AlternRock" has been changed to something else, AlternRock will disappear from the Genre list. If non-standard genres appear on your list, it's only because there is at least one item in your library with that genre.