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

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. Definitely my favourite one for a long [...]