Monday, July 18, 2011

Remove All Missing Songs from iTunes

This is how to quickly remove all dead tracks from iTunes:

1) Make a static playlist called “All Live Files” and drag your entire library into it. Be sure you 'DRAG' not 'copy' your files.

2) Make a smart playlist called “Missing Files” with the rules set as ‘Playlist’ ‘is’ ‘Music’ and another rule set as  ‘Playlist’ ‘is not’ ‘All Live Files’

3) ...the broken songs will not transfer and “Missing Files” will contain all those broken songs.

4) Delete the songs in the Missing Files folder:
Windows: SHIFT + DEL
Mac: OPTION + DEL

Source and thanks to: http://paulmayne.org/blog/2007/11/how-to-remove-broken-or-dead-tracks-from-itunes/
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. This post has been scraped in violation of that license if you are reading this post on other than http://www.digital-qa.blogspot.com/.

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61 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 1, 2011 at 8:20 AM

    After all my farting about with js scripts and la-di-da, finally, a simple solution that does what it says on the tin.

    Excellent! 11 out of 10 :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. beckysnyderNovember 1, 2011 at 8:29 AM

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 13, 2011 at 7:01 PM

    Chuuur :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 25, 2011 at 2:27 AM

    Awesome! thank you very much.

    MAZDASPEED 8

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 14, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    doesn't seem to work with iTunes 10.5.2.11 with iTunes match enabled

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousFebruary 17, 2012 at 7:11 PM

    Very helpful, worked perfectly, thank you :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMarch 23, 2012 at 4:31 AM

    it'ts really boring that I have to do all that just to remove missing files. i dont even know why I have itunes, at least winamp has an option to do that....

    ReplyDelete
  8. beckysnyderMarch 23, 2012 at 6:07 PM

    Thanks all, and LOL Anonymous @ 4:31AM today... I might need to change the title of the post to "A Pretty Quick but Boring way to Remove All Missing Songs from iTunes". Also surprised there is no option to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. kyriaMarch 24, 2012 at 2:41 AM

    thanks! i did this before and totally forgot how it was done.. thanks again :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJune 15, 2012 at 6:00 PM

    BRILLIANT!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. JohnJuly 3, 2012 at 6:24 AM

    Tip top solution!

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousJuly 14, 2012 at 3:32 AM

    Halleluljah ! Thanks ever so much for this tip

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousJuly 25, 2012 at 3:05 PM

    Worked perfect. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousAugust 11, 2012 at 9:41 PM

    what is a static playlist?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. beckysnyderAugust 11, 2012 at 10:58 PM

      There are 2 types of playlists you can make in iTunes. A 'Smart' playlist and just a regular playlist. The first part of Step #1 is to simply create a regular playlist (File > New Playlist) and name it “All Live Files”.

      Delete
  15. UnknownAugust 16, 2012 at 7:35 PM

    Didn't work for me. All files went into the "All Live Files" playlist. But when I created "Broken Files" with the above rules nothing happened. The playlist is empty???

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousAugust 18, 2012 at 9:37 AM

    I am able to create the list of broken links. But when I use delete, it just deletes from the playlist, not from the library?

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousAugust 18, 2012 at 8:01 PM

    Thanks a lot...!! Good Stuff...!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonymousAugust 20, 2012 at 10:13 AM

    Brilliant! It worked! Thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousAugust 23, 2012 at 12:29 AM

    Worked out perfectly!! Thank you so much!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2012 at 9:00 AM

    thanks so much for that! been trying for about a year to remove all my dead tracks. Had about 7000, now down to 3000 thanks to your help x

    ReplyDelete
  21. TejSeptember 22, 2012 at 2:50 AM

    This is not working as of Sep 22, 2012

    ReplyDelete
  22. beckysnyderSeptember 22, 2012 at 1:11 PM

    Hi Tej, I just tried it and it seems to be working. Hummmm... Maybe click "Check for Updates" under the Help tab to see if your iTunes is up to date?

    ReplyDelete
  23. AnonymousOctober 2, 2012 at 12:33 AM

    This is awesome. Worked a treat! Thanks so much.

    ReplyDelete
  24. StaincrossOctober 11, 2012 at 6:09 AM

    Does not work for me 10.7.0.21. Tested changing 2nd rule from 'is not' to 'is' and all the missing file results appear with the actual file results. I am assuming the missing files should not have shown in this test.

    ReplyDelete
  25. AnonymousOctober 11, 2012 at 12:26 PM

    Brilliant stuff. Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete
  26. peterOctober 16, 2012 at 6:30 AM

    thank you! been trying to figure this out. you got it down, hassle free.

    ReplyDelete
  27. AnonymousOctober 16, 2012 at 8:33 AM

    excellent, first time I've created a smart playlist but once i got my head around that it was simple!

    thanks :o)

    ReplyDelete
  28. m@tchl3zzOctober 22, 2012 at 3:31 PM

    Note that to add the songs to the "All Live files" playlist, you need to select all and drag. If you simply select all, right click, and choose "Add to Playlist", it doesn't work.

    Perhaps that's what Tej was doing?

    Thanks for this post, beck!

    ReplyDelete
  29. AnonymousOctober 25, 2012 at 10:14 PM

    Thanks so much, worked like a charm.

    ReplyDelete
  30. add dvd to itunes macOctober 28, 2012 at 7:11 AM

    Wow.. really help for me.

    ReplyDelete
  31. AnonymousOctober 28, 2012 at 9:36 PM

    awesome! now how do i delete duplicates?

    ReplyDelete
  32. beckysnyderOctober 31, 2012 at 6:26 PM

    Anonymous at 10/28 9:36 PM. In iTunes you can select File > Display Duplicates and then select the ones you want/don't want to keep.

    ReplyDelete
  33. adamNovember 7, 2012 at 9:53 AM

    ...How exactly am I supposed to delete them from my itunes if it's in a playlist... deleting in a playlist doesn't do anything to your actual library. Explain...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousNovember 23, 2012 at 11:07 PM

      A fix I just used, give all of your files the same rating (i.e. one star). Then sort by rating and they will all be grouped together for easy removal.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2015 at 11:56 AM

      It deletes them completely if you press Shift+Del

      Delete
  34. AnonymousNovember 9, 2012 at 5:37 PM

    Brilliant. It works just like described. Make sure to add all files dragging them manually to created playlist, not by right click. Thank you...

    ReplyDelete
  35. AnonymousNovember 28, 2012 at 3:14 AM

    I agree - you have to drag your songs from your library into the first folder; just adding them to the playlist won't work it transfers all the files including broken ones. But try again, and drag and drop, and it works like a charm.

    Thanks very much to all for their input.

    ReplyDelete
  36. AnonymousDecember 5, 2012 at 10:53 AM

    This sooo worked on iTunes 11.0

    Thanks a million for the super duper tip!

    ReplyDelete
  37. AnonymousDecember 31, 2012 at 2:19 AM

    Worked perfectly. Saved me so much time :)
    Thank you very much

    ReplyDelete
  38. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2013 at 7:58 AM

    Genius; way, way, way better than the various shareware and/or .js solutions. Simply genius.

    ReplyDelete
  39. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2013 at 7:57 AM

    thanks! works flawlessly

    ReplyDelete
  40. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2013 at 8:46 PM

    This doesn't seem to work at all, all the dead files reappear immediately when I turn Live Updating for my playlists on.

    ReplyDelete
  41. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2013 at 8:51 PM

    Ctrl-Shift-Delete will delete something from your library instead of just the playlist.

    ReplyDelete
  42. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 2:18 PM

    Works fine to clean out the files. But when I delete them from my playlist I still can not get them out of the library, which is where I want them out of in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  43. AnonymousJune 5, 2013 at 11:31 PM

    okay this is embarrassing....this worked great! but i don't understand WHY it worked..lol...can you explain it, so I can use smart playlists more effectively in the future?

    ReplyDelete
  44. AnonymousJuly 16, 2013 at 4:45 AM

    This is one of those times when i truly feel i should go down on the person who came up with such a simple and effective solution, with all my heart and skill and tongue.
    In order to please you, as you have me.

    ReplyDelete
  45. AnonymousJuly 20, 2013 at 9:35 AM

    Worked good dood. tnx

    ReplyDelete
  46. AnonymousJuly 27, 2013 at 2:00 PM

    This is a fantastic fix. So simple and works.

    ReplyDelete
  47. JKAugust 5, 2013 at 1:45 PM

    thank you thank you thank you. i would still love to know how 20 albums 'disappeared.' but at least now i know which ones to fix. 10 out of 10. this advice goes to 11!

    ReplyDelete
  48. beckysnyderAugust 6, 2013 at 7:45 PM

    Thanks JK... You know, I'd like to know how it works too but haven't take the time to think it through. Maybe someone else has?!

    ReplyDelete
  49. AnonymousOctober 5, 2013 at 7:02 PM

    Step 1 says "copy your entire library to the All Live Files playlist". Copy from where? The master Songs list in iTunes or the actual tracks on the hard drive?

    ReplyDelete
  50. beckysnyderOctober 5, 2013 at 8:13 PM

    To anonymous @ October 5, 2013 at 7:02 PM
    ...in iTunes!

    ReplyDelete
  51. StephanieOctober 6, 2013 at 11:58 AM

    sorry to bring up old post,
    but after having the smartlist with all the ! songs, its not possible to delete them from smartlist, it is possible to copy them to regular playlist and delete them, but they still exist in the main music library.. no?

    ReplyDelete
  52. UnknownNovember 29, 2013 at 11:36 AM

    I was just about to buy tune sweeper, then i found this, thanks

    ReplyDelete
  53. KundanDecember 9, 2013 at 4:35 AM

    worked like a charm....such a simple solution...this is what I was looking for since a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  54. UnknownFebruary 6, 2014 at 9:10 AM

    Worked perfectly!! Thanks so much, was doing it one by one and was taking forever. Awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  55. IamJoshOFebruary 9, 2014 at 12:56 AM

    Thank Thank Thank You! For years I've been meaning to do something like this. Very clever!

    ReplyDelete
  56. AnonymousMarch 21, 2014 at 1:12 PM

    Okay my mind was blown away how stupid I am an genius u r thanks!! It worked :) this is definitely life changing

    ReplyDelete
  57. AnonymousJune 7, 2016 at 8:55 PM

    Man thank you so much! after importing 1600 files the wrong way in ...all the folders disapeared and i had 100's of songs called just acapella ><.........

    ReplyDelete
  58. Michael BishopAugust 15, 2016 at 7:31 AM

    Don't forget to empty your trash - as iTunes is able to find them there!

    ReplyDelete

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