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iTunes has never deleted music files...

C

Charla

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 20, 2012
18
2
Brisbane, Australia
Hi everyone, this is a long shot but I'm hoping some smart bunny out there may have a fix. For years, I have been deleting albums/songs from my very large iTunes library (primarily ripped from my old CD collection) as I refine what I want to keep. At least I thought I was deleting them - despite clicking 'delete from library - delete files' it turns out they disappeared from my iTunes library but remained in the Music folder.

So my question is - how do I actually delete the original files from iTunes? Is there a setting or process I have wrong? But perhaps more importantly, is there any way of making my iTunes Music folder (with everything I've ever owned in it) actually reflect my current library (with only selected music in it), i.e. can I select all files I've deleted from my library over the years and delete the source files from my Macbook?

Running OS 10.13.6 on a Macbook Pro, and iTunes 12.8.3.1.
Thanks in advance :)
 
itunes gathers info from a file source
in our cases this is in "finder"music-tunes-itunes media-music
you can delete files there that will effect the iTunes library.
i hoped this ansered your question
 
The only way I can think of is a bit convoluted. If you have a second computer, you can start with a fresh library on there, and use the Home Sharing feature to copy all the music from the first computer to the second. Because Home Sharing is part of iTunes, it'll only copy the files that are currently in your library. You could then copy this 'clean' Music folder back to the first computer.

Hopefully someone else has a better idea!
 
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MBAir2010 said:
itunes gathers info from a file source
in our cases this is in "finder"music-tunes-itunes media-music
you can delete files there that will effect the iTunes library.
i hoped this ansered your question
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply, I know this is an option but was hoping to be able to manage my music and delete files from the iTunes interface, rather than via Finder.
 
Nermal said:
The only way I can think of is a bit convoluted. If you have a second computer, you can start with a fresh library on there, and use the Home Sharing feature to copy all the music from the first computer to the second. Because Home Sharing is part of iTunes, it'll only copy the files that are currently in your library. You could then copy this 'clean' Music folder back to the first computer.

Hopefully someone else has a better idea!
Click to expand...
Cheers Nermal, it is a long way round but it's the best solution so far! I do have another Mac available so will give it a shot.
You may also know the answer to this one... I had always presumed the 'library' .itl file would reflect what I had chosen to appear in my iTunes library, regardless of what other files were stored in my Music folder. I have recently copied all my music folders onto a Synology NAS, but loading an exact copy of the .itl file from the NAS in iTunes brings up all the music I've ever owned and thought was deleted. If the .itl file simply points to the Music folder and everything in it, then what's the point of it?
I'll do some more research to see if I can understand it all better.
Many thanks again, time for me to do some Home Sharing!
Charla
 
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