Comments on: How to Remove Broken Songs from Your iTunes Library [Windows]

By: Likeninja

Likeninja — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:10:00 +0000

Just ran into the same issue with not being able to delete from within the playlist… Solution was to use CTRL+SHIFT+DELETE after selecting all of them. Hope that helps.

By: Thilak Rao

Thilak Rao — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 08:20:00 +0000

Thanks Colealexander3823!

By: Deroo

Deroo — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:09:00 +0000

alt-shift delete to recycle bin

By: Sheila Mika

Sheila Mika — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:36:00 +0000

IF YOU ARE LIKE ME I DO NOT USE THE CHECK FEATURE ON I TUNES EVERYTHING STAYS CHECKED SO TO EASILY DELETE FILES I OPEN THE MISSING FILES PLAYLIST AND SELECT ALL FILES RIGHT CLICK AND SELECT UNCHECK THEN YOU CAN SORT IN THE MUSIC LIST AND DELETE ALL AT ONCE.

By: Jason69

Jason69 — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:25:00 +0000

The problem with this is … you can’t delete from within a playlist. This was stated in the post above and is the reason for “making this very difficult”.

Please show my ignorance and prove me wrong.

By: Zaphod0

Zaphod0 — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Thanks!

By: Shefr8g876

Shefr8g876 — Sat, 21 May 2011 01:45:00 +0000

Yes correct, select all songs with dead links in “Missing” smart playlist, rate them 5 stars but make sure your full music library is all unrated. Then sort your Music library in Ratings, all 5 stars with missing will show, then select them either CTRL or SHIFT down, DELETE!!

By: Thilak Rao

Thilak Rao — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 10:35:00 +0000

I’m glad it fixed your problem

By: prsdow

prsdow — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:25:00 +0000

Just a big thank you to RAI and THEARNSTER between the two of you my rpoblem of 1600 dead links was solved really grateful

By: Marta

Marta — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:01:57 +0000

@rairairaiiii Thank you a lot. It worked!

By: Marta

Marta — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:01:57 +0000

@rairairaiiii Thank you a lot. It worked!

By: TheArnster

TheArnster — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:13:39 +0000

There's a problem in that you can't delete files from within a playlist. Following the method suggested by rairairaiiii in the last post certainly separates the good tracks from the dead links. The ideal solution to then delete the dead links would be to change the properties of all the tracks in the "Missing" playlist.

After some playing around I've discovered that if you add the column 'rating' to your view and give all the tracks in the "Missing" playlist the same rating (say one star) you can then sort the main music library by rating, highlight all songs with one star and delete.

Note, this will require you to remove all star ratings from the "All songs" playlist first. This can be done by selecting all and removing ratings for multiple items.

If you're fond of the ratings system then tough! This is the only property that can universally be given to all the tracks with broken links as it seems to be the only one that doesn't involve amending the underlying file (which, of course, doesn't exist in these cases).

Can't believe this is something so problematic for so many people but apple haven't implemented what would be a very simple fix. Why can't we group all the exclamation marked tracks?!?!?

By: rairairaiiii

rairairaiiii — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:36:20 +0000

Wow you've made this very difficult.

Here's the easy way.

1. Create a regular playlist called "All songs".
2. Drag all songs from Music Library to this playlist
3. Create a smart playlist called "Missing" with rules: Playlist - is not - All Songs
4. Delete all from this playlist

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:36:15 +0000

I think the author meant “All Live Songs”, not “All Song Files”.

By: jake

jake — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 02:11:28 +0000

where is “all songs files”? is it a normal playlist we have to create ourselves, or a location in the computer or itunes..? help please. thank you.

By: Tabbi

Tabbi — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:01:14 +0000

You have to select Shift (or Command) & Delete.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:16:56 +0000

Followed your guide and managed to get all the dead music files listed in the “Missing Songs” playlist but when I select all and press delete nothing happens. I checked iTunes help and it says that deleting files from a playlist does not remove them from a library.

Am I missing something??

By: How To Remove Broken Songs From iTunes Library | One Tip A Day

How To Remove Broken Songs From iTunes Library | One Tip A Day — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:14:23 +0000

[...] to Thilak for an excellent tip. Â Definitely my favourite one for a long [...]