Deleting iTunes Tracks from Playlists
I don’t know why it bugged me so much, but I always hated the fact that there was no easy (a.k.a. obvious) way to delete tracks from my playlist AND my library at the same time.
You know the situation: you’re listening to your playlist and come across a song that should never have been added to your library in the first place, let alone your playlist. Perhaps the song was ripped incorrectly, came from an ex-girlfriend you’d rather forget, or maybe you just developed a deep hate for the song’s melody – but whatever the reason is, the song just doesn’t belong in your playlist or your library.
Pressing ‘delete’ only solves half the problem – deleting it from your playlist. Deleting the song from your library takes another few steps. Sure, call me lazy, but being forced to navigate back to the library, search for the doomed song, and then deleting it is just too much work.
Enter the “secret” key combination: Option + Command + Delete
This secret key combination will not only delete a song from your playlist, but also ask if you want to delete the song from your hard drive as well. Problem solved.
Tomasz on August 12th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Alt + Delete is similar but in this case it first asks if you want to remove the item from the playlist (assuming you haven’t ticked the box so that it does not ask again) and then asks if you want to keep the file or move it to the trash.
Debbie on August 12th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
If I could only remember these keyboard commands when I want to accomplish this!
Fred Brunel on August 12th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
iPhoto has the exact same problem. Pressing ‘delete’ on a photo remove it only from your album.
Did this key combination works for iPhoto?
piminnowcheez on August 12th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
I love you.
This has been one of those low-grade annoyances that constantly comes up and irritates, but doesn’t quite cross the threshold of making me mad enough to set everything aside until I can find a fix for it. Now, you have set me free, my brother. Bless you.
drew on August 12th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
actually, just option+delete will do the same thing… i’ve been doing that for a while for the podcasts that i’ve heard. my playlist has podcasts that have a play count greater than 0, i select them all and hit option+delete. gone.
Seth on August 12th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
You can also just drag it to the trash icon in the dock. I’m sure the Apple engineers thought it was “the Mac thing to do.” I discovered it before the keyboard shortcut. (Although, I prefer keyboard tricks over mouse ones)
Nik on August 12th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Thank you so much for this. This has bugged me so much.
nosugrefneb on August 12th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Anyone have a way to delete tracks from the library without having to confirm the deletion of the file? That bugs me so much more.
Hello, I’m deleting it from my library. Of course I want to delete the file as well.
Ben on August 12th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Amazing. You are a saint.
THANK YOU!
Jono on August 13th, 2007 at 1:38 am
Yea, I press Option+Delete & then when the confirmation window pops up the M key (for Move to Trash).
Jacob on August 13th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Thank you! Works even in smart playlist, which allows me to build that not-played-in-5-years-and-very-low-bitrate playlist and then delete everything I want to get rid of at once! Excellent!
Andreas on August 13th, 2007 at 3:22 am
Thanks a lot! This is a life saver! Now if only I can remember the shortcut…
cr1sp on August 13th, 2007 at 8:34 am
As of iTunes 7.3 Option+Delete also works in the library main view, not only in playlists. (Before you had to press Command+Delete in the library view).
nosugrefneb on August 13th, 2007 at 8:37 am
That is pretty good, Jono…thanks a lot.
mikelite on August 13th, 2007 at 10:21 am
when deleting tracks from my iPod, I like to change the title to ” (delete) “. It shows up at the top, when I sort my library by Artist. I get the ridiculous satisfaction of deleting a massive chunk at once.
ljun on August 13th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
They should really give an option to make this the default! I ALWAYS want to delete the song off my computer when deleting from playlist.
As someone mentioned earlier, does anyone know if there’s an equivalent for iPhoto?
Jono on August 13th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
You can also set up a trigger in Quicksilver so it’s 1 hotkey/key press rather than a couple. There are ones from Kinkless & Doug’s AppleScripts.
JBagley on August 23rd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Oh boy, I know I’m looking for trouble for just thinking I could ask this question, but here goes…
What is the key combonation for iTunes on Windows?
*ducks*
Manuel Martensen on August 23rd, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Hey JBagley, that would be shift+del on windows.
At least i think it is, ‘cos i had to vnc into a pc at work, so obviously i used my apple keyboard while vnc-ing, but you will find out eventually.
Funny comment of yours, hehe.
Julian Schrader on August 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Thanks a lot!
This annoyed me so much I nearly filed it as a bug report… ;-)
Alex Moyler on August 23rd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Good stuff, I’m always miffed off at not being able to do that without going back to my main library.
lander on August 23rd, 2007 at 11:42 pm
sweeticles!
Jay on August 24th, 2007 at 3:48 am
Option + delete also works in iPhoto !
I love finding little features like this !
Brett on August 24th, 2007 at 6:22 am
You are my hero for the day!
I download lots of mp3s from blogs, and I keep track of where they came from by using playlists. Naturally, I don’t like all the songs. I had been using the little arrowhead links that show up when a song is highlighted to quickly jump me to the song in my Library. I have always been looking for this key combo.
Rory on August 24th, 2007 at 6:53 am
I knew about this a long time ago, but I didn’t remember and couldn’t be bothered to figure out by testing which of the modifier keys to hold down, so I always just held down all four (Command, Option, Control, Shift). It still worked fine. For those of you who have trouble remembering shortcuts, just try holding them all down. In general, deleting is strengthened or has no warning when modifier keys are held down.
smackfu on August 24th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Does this work for Smart Playlists, where you can’t delete the track from the playlist with Delete?
Manuel Martensen on August 24th, 2007 at 10:44 am
smackfu, that wouldn’t be so smart for such a smart playlist. i didn’t try though.
why don’t you try it?
Freeze on August 24th, 2007 at 11:47 am
THANK YOU!!!!
I’ve wanted this shortcut for so long!
Many blessings upon your house.
Cheers.
kanny on August 24th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
i use Cmd+delete followed by M to move to trash
smackfu on August 24th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Woo, I got a chance to try this on my home computer, and it does work for Smart Playlists. I have one for recently added stuff, and I’m always trying to delete things from it and failing. And now I can succeed!
Gary King on August 24th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
This is great! How did you figure this out?
grrowl on August 26th, 2007 at 7:46 am
This also works on smart playlists, and the shortcut in windows is SHIFT+DELETE. There doesn’t seem to be a way to bypass the “Are you sure?” dialog on windows.
Thanks for the tip!
Lordmike on August 27th, 2007 at 3:01 am
How do I do this on a macbook pro? No delete button. And option, I always forget that one.. is it the apple key or is applekey the command key? So alt could be option?
Julian Schrader on August 27th, 2007 at 4:56 am
Actually there is a delete key on the MacBook (Pro): Press [fn] + [backspace] = [delete].
Julian Schrader on August 27th, 2007 at 4:57 am
And yes, option and alt are the same.
Lordmike on August 27th, 2007 at 5:53 am
Aha ok, which means I need to press alt fn+backspace to do this? Sounds good enough for me. =) Thanks for the tip!
Julian Schrader on August 27th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Exactly ;-)
Bob on September 8th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
For some reason it dose not work on my mac. I have ver. 7.4.1(2) please help is there a settings I need to play with? it dose not work for me.
Bob on September 8th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
OK that is what I found in help:-
“If the item is stored in the iTunes Music folder (in the Music folder in your home folder)To leave the item on your hard disk, click Keep Files”
I do not keep music in the i-Tunes library because I noticed that it copies it from the location it was when you add it to the library. so you ending up with 2 files one in original location and another in Itunes library.So I disabled this feature.
Jamie on September 27th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I’m a little confused by all of this. You see, ever since I’ve used iTunes, 3 years or so, I have ALWAYS been given the Keep/Move to Trash dialog. I simply don’t understand what you’re all on about! I have never had to track down files myself and bin ‘em.
Never that is, until now. I bought a G-Drive to house my now gargantuan collection and downloaded the latest iTunes 7.4 or whatever. Now when I delete tracks I have the same problem as everybody else.
I wonder what’s changed!
Chad on November 29th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Thank you for your feedback above.
The problem that I am having is with my WINDOWS VISTA computer. Even though a few people so confidently identified the solution to Windows iTunes as SHIFT + DELETE…it doesn’t work that way for me.
Can anyone help me delete songs from my playlist and from my hard drive???
minikperi on December 12th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
This has been one of those low-grade annoyances that constantly comes up and irritates, but doesn’t quite cross the threshold of making me mad enough to set everything aside until I can find a fix for it. Now, you have set me free, my brother. Bless you.
Jarad Johnson on December 18th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Thanks! I had all my duplicate songs in a playlist (via Corral) and, to my knowledge, had no way to dispose of them.
This simple fix just saved me hours. You rock.
JonathanG on December 26th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
So I am having the same problem as Chad with vista. Shift delete doesn’t work.
oxy on January 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 am
Yes, It doesn’t work on my iTunes v 7.5 too!
I’m referring to Bob’s #38 & Jamie’s #40 reply that this
Option + Command + Delete Combo
doesn’t work with the latest incarnation of iTunes upgrade.
I wonder why??? Is this done on purpose? If yes why? Cos it’s such a little ’setback’ that’s annoying & u would have thought the nice folks at Mac’s workshop with their cutting-edge automators & workflows shortcuts to cover these tiny (but important) finishing touches…
Maybe someone can enlighten? Thanx.
Jon on January 4th, 2008 at 10:32 am
This tip was exactly what I was looking for. My itunes library got damaged and I had some relic podcasts which only showed up in the playlists when it got rebuilt. I could not figure out how to delete the entry for the longest time. A lifesaver.
Jon on January 4th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Chad I am also using Vista and shift+delete has worked like a charm. It seems you have to hold them down for longer than normal but it does work.
yellowbeard on January 5th, 2008 at 11:37 am
oh hell yes, this was a big problem for me when trying to get rid of crappy downloaded music auto added via NetNews Wire.
chadrick on January 15th, 2008 at 1:33 am
im in the same boat as chad #41 i have vista and i cannot delete song off my harddrive anyone know how when delete songs from my libary
Jim on January 30th, 2008 at 9:07 am
For all of those people having issues with the shortcut not physically deleting the files from your computers, I had the same issue and found a solution that worked for me.
If the files that you’re trying to remove from your library are not located in your “iTunes Music Folder”, as specified under Edit->Preferences->Advanced, then iTunes will not be able to perform any action on them. So to fix that, simply edit that setting to point to where your music files are actually held.
DarinD on March 15th, 2008 at 7:47 am
#50 worked for me in Vista. Very helpful! Thanks!
harry on April 10th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Thank you so much — sadly, the inability to delete from a playlist has troubled, or at least annoyed, me for years. Until now.
derico on April 19th, 2008 at 10:37 am
for all the mac users who don’t let itunes manage their music, here’s a little script to delete also the actual file(s) while deleting track(s) from playlists or the library:
tell application “iTunes”
set get_loc to get location of selection
try
tell application “Finder”
set copy_files to delete get_loc
end tell
end try
tell application “iTunes”
delete selection
end tell
end tell
if you use the script in playlists, it deletes the track(s) there and the file(s), but in the library the track(s) will remain. just clean out dead tracks and they’re gone!
have a nice weekend
Ravi on April 24th, 2008 at 1:31 am
I have vista and selecting the songs to be deleted and holding down shift and then pressing delete has worked very well so far. i was getting pissed of about not being able to delete songs just out of the playlists.
iTunes on July 14th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Also: ‘Show | View duplicates’ shows all songs you have twice, combined with the mentioned tip you can save a fair amount of HD space and clean up your library.
yman on October 13th, 2008 at 2:19 am
The new iTunes 8 is now screen reader friendly on both Mac and PC, or use your screen reader to purchase or download content from the iTunes Store. I got it from here: rosoftdownload.com/download/Windows/iTunes
Jason Kraft on November 16th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Thanks for that. I managed to make a smart playlist that held only my unchecked songs (which I wanted to delete), and was able to clean those out rather than command-selecting each unchecked item from my library.
Rury Galbraith on November 22nd, 2008 at 7:41 am
You are a life saver! Can’t believe I didn’t know this sooner.
Brence on December 11th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Thanks for the helpful tip, I have also blogged on this – it is such a handy shortcut to know!
http://simplerthanyouthink.blogspot.com/2008/10/delete-song-from-itunes-library.html
mike on December 14th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Thanks for the windows command, bugged me so much. <3 manuel.
Alix Van Rees on January 28th, 2009 at 11:15 am
I do not like opening iTunes and finding dozens of tunes that I don’t want but have
been placed there as promotion samples when I last synced with iTunes.
How can I delete these and stop it from happening?
Julie on March 28th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Bless you! I have been trying to delete some awful music on my son’s playlist, but it keeps coming back. It’s now gone permanently. :-D
Steven on March 28th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
NICE.
Great post, thanks.
Steven on March 28th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
One more thing… you know what I just realized?
I’ve always known about this trick… ALMOST.
See, I knew that command+delete would remove files from you hard drive, but ONLY if you were working from the library. But command+delete doesn’t work in playlists.
Apparently, option+delete works in both.
vorg on April 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Love! You saved 30s*3x/week*4w.in.month*12months*70years = 3.5 days of my life! :)
Jonni on April 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 am
You’ve played a blinder here mate.
Thank you!
Jenny on April 28th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Hi,
I have 7.5gig of music stored in my External F Drive. I tunes is synched to this drive as I don’t wish to store my music on my laptop.
I have been sorting through all my music files, and found that some folders on itunes don’t marry up with my F Drive.
With F Drive organised, I thought I would disconnect it, and the proceed to delete all the files on Itunes.
Only thing, when I attempt to copy over files from my F Drive back into Itunes, so that I have more flexibility at viewing and sorting my music, it saves the music on my pc hard drive which I dont want to happen.
Questions: How can I just copy over the Music Info titles and leave the music on my external F Drive? I have a back up copy of my music on another external drive, so I don’t need a backup copy on my pc as well ~ takes up too much space.
Currently I tunes is empty and everything is on my F Drive which is an external drive – Reason for this? I got rid of duplicates on my external hard drive as I feel its best to fix things at the “source”
Also a “expert” friend told me to change my download to High Quality MP3 instead of AAC format, will this take up more space on my hard drive?
appreciate your help
tks
brandon on May 19th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Ex girlfriends are nothing but drama
yarisma on June 28th, 2009 at 10:48 am
See, I knew that command+delete would remove files from you hard drive, but ONLY if you were working from the library. But command+delete doesn’t work in playlists.
Apparently, option+delete works in both.
Reply
connor on June 29th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
jason guthrie is my hero!
Deon on July 3rd, 2009 at 7:26 am
Hi guys. GREAT TIP!!!
Should spam the web with this (Ha Ha)
Just a little extra info.
If you have allot of duplicate songs in your library that you would like to delete, try this.
1) Download Itunes Dupes Barrier (mac)
2) Run choosing the option (create a new play list…..)
3) It will create the playlist in your itunes.
4) Now to that play list, select all and hit the magic keys
“Enter the “secret” key combination: Option + Command + Delete”
5) Now all your duplicates are gone.
6) Free tip use it if ya want.
Cheers
Deon on July 3rd, 2009 at 7:27 am
http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/iTunesDupesBarrier.html
link to Itunes Dupes Barrier
ricky on July 8th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
i must be the only one this hasnt worked for. everytime i put in that combination it says only files in the itunes music folder will be moved to the trash. where as all my music is on my hard drive. will it make any difference if i change the name of the folder in my hard drive?