iTunes - Deleting Songs - File Cleanup - Help

[VanMac]

Hey.

I have my iTunes library on an external drive.

I'm deleting a bunch of old music that I dont listen to in order to free up some space.

Couple of questions:
1. For some albums, I deleted them from iTunes, but I did not delete them from the hard drive(I did not get prompted, as iTunes was confused at the time and did not think the external drive was plugged in). Is there a way to figure out what files exist on the hardrive that were deleted in iTunes so that I can clean them up? Some utility maybe....

2. Many of the albums have a separate cover art jpg in the directory that does not get deleted. Is there a utility or easy way to scan the disk and clean these up as well?

Thanks in advance.

 

[GGJstudios]

Is there a way to figure out what files exist on the hardrive that were deleted in iTunes so that I can clean them up?

Yes, quite simply.

1. Uncheck all songs currently in your entire iTunes library.
2. Use File > Add to Library and select the music folder on the drive where you have music files you want to delete.
3. When you add that folder, it will not add items already in your library (it won't create duplicates), but will add anything in that folder that doesn't exist in your library.
4. It will also check every item added, so you can simply create a Smart Playlist that includes all checked items, like this:
   
   
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5. Then you can simply highlight everything in that list, press Option+Delete and remove them from your library, this time selecting "Move to Trash" to delete the files on the drive.

2. Many of the albums have a separate cover art jpg in the directory that does not get deleted. Is there a utility or easy way to scan the disk and clean these up as well?

This is why I prefer to add cover art directly to the music files, rather than having them in a separate folder. I'm not aware of a simple fix for this, but you might check out Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes, which is a great resource for managing your iTunes tags and files. They might have something close to what you need.

 

[VanMac]

Thanks GGJ. I'll give that a whirl.

cheers.