ITunes not delete songs from your hard drive while they're playing?

So, if I delete a song, it says "would you like to keep this file or delete it?" And I always want to delete it; I can't even imagine why I would want to keep files I'm deleting.
However, if you are playing a song at the time, or if you're listening to a podcast and it has finished playing, if you try to delete them, it will not delete the file even if you tell it to.
Is there a setting around this or is iTunes just as stupid as I think?
i.e. Is the only solution after you finish listening to a podcast to play some other random file and then delete it?
This became infinitely more annoying after iTunes decided that videos should automatically be played in the window instead of a new window, since now I have to make sure I'm picking another random file that ISN'T a video so I can actually see the original file and delete it.

I often want to remove files from my iTunes library, but keep them on my harddrive. That's why iTunes asks you if you want to delete it. Holding control down when you hit delete will at least get rid of the first dialogue box.
If you are trying to delete a song that is playing, it won't delete it because it is in use.
I assume the same is happening on your machine with podcasts. Your system thinks the files is still in use, so can not delete it.

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ITunes Match deleted songs from my hard drive. I had to re-rip them. How can I stop this from happening?

iTunes Match deleted songs from my hard drive. How can I prevent this from happening if I try it again?

iTunes Match can in no way be considered a backup service, this is due to the inexact nature of the 'matching process' (see https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4112, for more detail).
Loss of files from a Disk is certainly possible through media failure. However, the extent of iTunes Match capacity is solely to influence the content of the cloud. Perhaps there was a coincident, or pre-existing, failure of the disk which was simply exposed by the iTunes Match interrogation of the disk content.
There are certainly other services which depending upon your goal may work well. For example, Google Play with gBeats IOS App works very well. My use of Match is to synchronise across several computers and to drive Apple TV and an IOS device - other IOS devices still use sync for specific music and are complimented by gBeats for access to the full library when local mobile signal strength is high.
The strong advice to always start with a secure backup remains but if your primary concern is iTunes Match interfering with physical disk content you can relax - it simply does not have this ability. (Apology to Sherlock, further investigation required).

I've deleted songs from my hard drive, but not itunes. How do I find the missing file entries in itunes?

The problem I have is that there are songs in my library that are no longer on my hard drive. I've either removed them or renamed them. And now, when iTunes comes across one of these song entries it gives the the prompt to locate it. I know that there used to be a way to find all these, but with all the changes in itunes 11, I have no idea how to do it now. Is there an easy way to highlight and delete all of these entries?

"One of the benefits of Match, right? Saving hard drive space."
I would not use iTunes Match as a backup. There are too many bugs and I don't think that's what they intended it to be anyway. The main advantage of using it is to make your music available on OTHER devices, not to replace the music on your original computer.

ITunes deleted my songs from my HARD DRIVE!

iTunes not only has deleted a few files from my library, but it ALSO deleted songs off my hard drive!
I thought, "Well, maybe they just got moved around somehow." But, I thought about how much I go into my iTunes folder and then it dawned on me that I hadn't done that in about a month or so. The deleting thing started happening about a week ago. It's a few songs a day. Seriously. *?
I feel like if I'm spending several thousand dollars on Apple's products (computers, accessories, and music), Apple needs to be a little more appreciative.
If it's a bug in the new iTunes, then Apple needs to be sensitive to the fact that music is LOST permanently! It's frustrating to think about all the music that I've lost and PAID for. If I'm using the iTunes store and iTunes to buy/play music, then Apple needs to come out and apologize and reimburse for what was lost.
I can understand why some of you are frustrated that iTunes is deleting songs from your library, but is there anyone else who is having music deleted from their hard drive?
<Edited by Moderator>

I'm a bit upset, too. It's only deleted one song, but why did that random song go, and when will it happen to 100s of them?
I have the song on CD and can re-rip it, but that's not the point - it shouldn't go missing from the hard drive.
I've aleady resigned myself to backing up the ITL library file on a regular basis in case it gets mysteriously corrupted.
I'm not sure iTunes deleted this song, but it sure is suspicious.

I am trying to delete songs from itune 11 library and i want it to delete the song from my hard drive as well. All my songs are in the music folder but not in the itunes folder?? itunes did not prompt me to move file to trash nor is there an option??

I am trying to delete songs from itune 11 library and i want it to delete the song from my hard drive as well. All my songs are in the music folder but not in the itunes folder. itunes did not prompt me to move file to trash nor is there an option to remove file to trash bin. How can i delete songs from both the itunes and hard drive at the same time?

aespinoza2210 wrote:
could it be in the itunes folder or does it have to be in the itunes media folder, which is within the itunes folder??
A Espinoza,
The iTunes Media folder is set in Preferences > Advanced, and is the key to most iTunes folder organizational activities. So I doubt that the automatic deletion will work for files that are somewhere else within the folder structure.
However, I have not experimented with that issue in quite a while, so you are welcome to give it a try in iTunes 11.

Re-downloading iTunes purchases once deleted from your hard drive

OK - any help will be greatly appreciated.
I work abroad a lot and download iTunes purchases to watch while away. However, the files take up a lot of space on my MacBook Air, so, once watched, I've deleted them from my hard drive to free up space once I'm home.
Now, when I want to see them again, I go into iTunes, each episode has an exclamation point on the left hand side, no cloud icon to be seen, and when I click on it, I get the message:
The TV show could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
It can't be located on my computer because I deleted it from my hard drive to free up space.
So why can't I just re-download it from iTunes - I have, after all, paid for it?
Many thanks.

Good day Jane,
As you surmise, the exclamation point symbol next to the song in iTunes means that iTunes can not find the file containing the video. See this article -
iTunes 12 for Mac: Symbols used in iTunes
In order to download the content again you will need to delete it from iTunes before downloading again. To delete the song select it in your music and use the Delete key. See this article -
iTunes 12 for Mac: Delete songs, playlists, or other items
Once the video is no longer in your iTunes library, you can download it again using the steps in this article. Note that this assumes that the item is still available in iTunes in your location. Items that have been removed from the store will not be available -
iTunes 12 for Mac: Download previous purchases from the iTunes Store
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Safe computing,
Brett L

ITunes Doesn't Delete Movies From External Hard Drive

I have all of my iTunes media on an external hard drive. However, when I just tried to delete a movie (from within iTunes), it removed the movie from iTunes, but the actual mpeg file is still on my external hard drive. Is there something I'm doing wrong, or am I going to have to manually delete content from external hard drive? Thanks.

When you delete an item from your iTunes library, iTunes will give you the option to delete the file too, but *only for items that are located in your iTunes Media folder.* So, assuming your iTunes Media folder is on your local drive, what you are seeing is the correct behavior.
The best procedure in this case is to right-click the track in iTunes, choose Show in Finder, and delete the file within Finder. Then go back to iTunes and delete the track from the library.

How do i put the song from the hard drive back in the new itunes library?

I had a laptop with music in the itunes library. I put the music from there in a hard drive. I bought a new laptop. How do i put the songs from the hard drive back into the itunes library on my new laptop.

A possible cause is a problem with the file places.sqlite that stores the bookmarks and the history.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_places-database-file

Moving songs from external hard drive to Itunes library

I have a bunch of songs on an external hard drive, but my itunes library is on my pc.....I tried to add some of these songs to my library (i played the songs and they were automatically added to the library)....but when i inplugged the external hard drive from my pc and tried to play the songs from the library, it would not let me play them.....an error message came up that stated that the library could not find the device from which the songs came from....why is this?....is there another way to add these songs from the hard drive????

why is this?
The Windows version of iTunes doesn't copy content to the iTunes Music folder when importing from another hard disk by default. Connect the drive and choose Consolidate Library from th Library section of the File menu.
(36713)

HT4914 if you use iTunes match in order to create space and remove music from your hard drive, does that happen automatically when you subscribe and upload your music or is there another step to remove the music from your hard drive once you've uploaded t

if you use iTunes match in order to create space and remove music from your hard drive, does that happen automatically when you subscribe and upload your music or is there another step to remove the music from your hard drive once you've uploaded to iTunes match?

Welcome to the Apple Community.
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I backed up my itunes folder to an external drive, then deleted it from the hard drive, then restored to the hard drive, but now can't see the files, playlists

I backed up my itunes folder to an external drive, then deleted it from the hard drive, then restored to the hard drive, but now can't see the files, playlists

Was the entire folder copied including the iTunesLibrary.itl file?

How do I Delete music from my hard drive but keep it on my ipod?

My hard dive is full, I have an external that I am dumping a lot of files on, including music. I have enough space to maintain all of my music on my iPod but not my computer. I want to clear some of the music off my computer but I still want to have it on my Ipod. Anyone know how to do this?
Windows XP Pro

You simply have to change the update option of your iPod to "manually manage music and videos". Connect your iPod and in iTunes go to Preferences>iPod, you can amend the option there: Managing content manually on iPod
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Something else to be aware of when using an iPod in manual mode is that the "Do Not Disconnect" message will remain on the display until you physically eject the device. In that case use Safely Remove Hardware icon in the Windows system tray on your desktop or check this link: Safely Disconnect IPod

My hard drive crashed and i lost all my rippped cd songs from the hard drive. Luckily they are all in icloud but how do i get ripped music from icloud to redownload back to the PC all in one go???

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Hi,
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I can not transfer date from one hard drive to another, I keep getting an error because I have two of the same file names and one file name is in caps and I cant change the file name

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If it is more then you can do manually and you can't change the name on the source you will have to reformat the destination as case sensitive.
Btw this group is for discussion of the Support Communities itself, you;d do better posting to Lion group. I'll see if a host will move it.

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ITunes not delete songs from your hard drive while they're playing?

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