When cleaning up my disk I deleted a couple of files from my music collection which iTunes was managing. Now when I try to sync a device I get an error message that it can't sync these files because they don't exist. The problem is that I can't find these files in iTunes any more to delete them. They don't appear when I search for appropriate terms. So, my question is how do I find them, and is iTunes hiding them from me in some "smart" way?
How to remove files from iTunes which have been deleted on disk
itunes
Related Solutions
Select all songs hold ⌥ and press ⌫. Confirm and they are gone.
You will need to use the manually manage music and videos option - otherwise, as you've already experienced, a sync will restore the deleted music to your device.
Steps for doing this are available at this Apple Support KB:
- Connect the device to your computer.
- Open iTunes.
- Select iPhone, iPad, or iPod in the
Deviceslist.- Click the
Summarytab and select "Manually manage music and videos".- Click Apply.
- Even when you have enabled manual management, you can still sync some content automatically. Select any content tab, such as Video, to enable automatic syncing for that type of content.
Another KB shows how to use this option to sync music for an iDevice with multiple computers. It also shows a picture of the screen that you'd see:
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Best Answer
For adding functions to iTunes you should look at Doug;s Applescripts. There is a script to remove dead tracks.