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iTunes "move to trash"

Z

zacl87

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2009
73
0
Does anyone else's iTunes never actually delete files when they click 'move to trash' after deleting in the iTunes browser?

I've just accepted this over the last 2 years or so I've had a mac, but now it really gives me the ***** considering the amount of music I don't use that is just sitting on my HD.

Is this a setting I've got wrong in either itunes or trash (or finder)? It surely can't be a horribly obvious bug?

My itunes is the latest but it's also been the case in older versions.

Ideas are welcome
 
It moves my my music into the Trash if I select to move it into the Trash.

You then have to empty the Trash yourself to actually delete them.

Or are you talking about something else?
 
Yeah mine literally does nothing. Doesn't move it to the trash can at all. I tried it again just before, moved to trash in iTunes then went to it's folder within the itunes branch or whatever and everything I had deleted in itunes was still there.

pretty queer
 
Just a short question: You're deleting the songs from the main library, right? Not from a playlist?

And another question: Do you get any warning windows when you delete the songs? If not, you could reset them in the Preferences (the tab with the gear icon on the right).
 
Yes deleting from the main library. Don't get any warning messages, only the options to move to trash etc.. I'm unsure what your suggesting I reset?
 
If you're getting the warning window, you don't have to reset the warnings.

So you're saying: you get the choice to move the song to the trash, you select "move to the trash", but the song is not moved to the trash, right?
 
zacl87 said:
Does anyone else's iTunes never actually delete files when they click 'move to trash' after deleting in the iTunes browser?
Click to expand...
  • You might try repairing permissions.
  • If that doesn't help, close iTunes and delete the following file:
    Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist
    Then restart iTunes.
  • If that doesn't help, perhaps a reinstall of iTunes would be appropriate.
 
No dice. I deleted com.apple.iTunes.plist, restarted itunes, everything loaded in again, found a song - this time when I clicked move to trash it did, I emptied the trash BUT i searched the HD and there was still a copy of the mp3.

I haven't changed anything to do with directories or anything, and I made it so itunes organises everything. Quite the conundrum..

Thanks for the idea's though.
 
zacl87 said:
I haven't changed anything to do with directories or anything, and I made it so itunes organises everything. Quite the conundrum..

Thanks for the idea's though.
Click to expand...

Are you sure you don't have duplicate copies of mp3s on your HD? Are you sure of the location from which you deleted it?

Try this:

  1. Find a song in iTunes that you want to delete
  2. Right-click and Get Info on the song
  3. On the bottom of the Summary tab, check the location specified by "Where:"
  4. Delete the file from iTunes
  5. Using Finder, go to the location you found in step 3
  6. Verify that the song is gone
 
Ahhh ****! Ok so I think all of my songs have been duplicated into an 'itunes media' folder whereas I save everything into just an 'itunes' folder.

I guess as the path of the mp3 was in 'itunes media' I can delete my 'itunes' folder without losing anything? As everything is duplicated?

And yes when I deleted it from itunes it was deleted from 'itunes media'
cheers
 
zacl87 said:
Ahhh ****! Ok so I think all of my songs have been duplicated into an 'itunes media' folder whereas I save everything into just an 'itunes' folder.
Click to expand...

That's because you probably have this checked in iTunes > Preferences:
Picture 1.jpg​
zacl87 said:
I guess as the path of the mp3 was in 'itunes media' I can delete my 'itunes' folder without losing anything? As everything is duplicated?
Click to expand...
If you imported everything to itunes using that setting, it's probably safe. As always, keep a backup, in case you delete something you didn't mean to.
 
Yeah sweet thanks heaps for that mate. I did have that checked, be a nice 20gb of space back for my hd!
 
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