How to Delete Music from Your Computer Using iTunes

If you have duplicate copies of songs and your iTunes library is in complete disarray, you can organize your files fairly simply with iTunes. With a little time and effort, you can locate and delete files you never listen to and correctly name songs that have been mislabeled.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A computer with iTunes

1. 
    

   Incorrect names and genres are easy to fix. First, make sure that you are viewing the files in iTunes as a list. This makes seeing all the information a lot easier. To do this, click "View" on the main menu and then click "As List." Now that you can see all the files in a list, it will be easier to sort through them and change incorrect information.

2. 
    

   To change incorrect information, locate the file in iTunes, right click and choose "Get Info." Click the "Info" tab and change the Name, Artist, Genre, etc.

3. 
    

   Next, delete duplicate songs. iTunes may automatically hide duplicate songs, so you want to make sure that all duplicates are showing. Click "File" on the menu bar and select "Show Duplicates." This will display all songs that have duplicate copies so that you can delete extras.

4. 
    

   To delete copies, you can't simply right-click on one of the two files and choose "Delete," because that will only delete the file from your iTunes browser. The file will still exist on your computer's hard-drive, taking up unnecessary space. To delete it from your computer using iTunes to help keep track of it, find the file in iTunes and right-click, then select "Show in Windows Explorer."

5. 
    

   A new window will open on your computer with the mp3 file icon in it. Right-click on the icon and select "Delete."

6. 
    

   After you have deleted all duplicate files from your computer, iTunes may be confused as you have now deleted the song from your computer, but not your iTunes library. You'll need to update your iTunes library to reflect these changes; otherwise iTunes will keep searching for the duplicate song. To update, you have to reload your entire library again. Go to "File," choose "Add Folder to Library," and browse to the folder where your iTunes music is stored (usually under "My Documents" > "Music" > "iTunes"). iTunes will now re-load all of your music, minus the ones you have deleted.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure that you are deleting actual duplicates as opposed to songs that appear on the different albums or are re-mixed. You can tell this by viewing your library. Look at the names of the duplicate songs, and check that they are both from the same album. If they aren't, they may be two different versions and you may want to keep both.

[markelsoft]

on 8/20/2009 Try Dupe Eliminator for iTunes at http://www.markelsoft.com It safely finds and removes duplicates and missing files from your iTunes Music Library. Has many features including UnDelete.