Itunes and "!"

So I have decided to go from Zune to Itunes because I really like the new Ipod Touch. Thus far, all I have been having is problems with Itunes that I never had with Zune. First off I wanted to delete some songs to make space on the new Ipod and I go to itunes and there are literally hundreds of "!" and the songs I just deleted are still there. Does apple think i'm this dumb? I deleted the files I do not want them in my library! Do I really have to delete them all from the Itunes library now?

I also noted you cannot delete tracks off itunes and expect them to come off the hard drive. Why? Does apple expect us to have infinite hard drive space? Can I select folders for itunes to monitor so I don't have to manually ad songs every time? I have multiple music folders and I moved those into the Itunes directory on the C drive and now I have 2 of every song and thousands of "!" next to songs and itunes telling me I have 30gb of music when I really have about 15gb. This is just really getting to me since I thought apple was always about simplicity and it just working when literally everything is going wrong for me right now. Any help?

Never manage your music via the Finder or Explorer. If you want to delete songs, delete them from iTunes itself. To delete a song from the library, just hit delete. To delete a song from the library as well as the hard drive, hit command+option+delete.

Looking as you have a PC, I don't know the procedure for watching folders (on the mac we can use Applescript).

To delete duplicates, go to View > Show duplicates. Note that it might show you duplicates by they are really one is album version and the other is a live performance.

You muddled it up to begin with so that's where simplicity ends. Always manage your music using only iTunes.

goobimama said:

Never manage your music via the Finder or Explorer. If you want to delete songs, delete them from iTunes itself. To delete a song from the library, just hit delete. To delete a song from the library as well as the hard drive, hit command+option+delete.

Looking as you have a PC, I don't know the procedure for watching folders (on the mac we can use Applescript).

To delete duplicates, go to View > Show duplicates. Note that it might show you duplicates by they are really one is album version and the other is a live performance.

You muddled it up to begin with so that's where simplicity ends. Always manage your music using only iTunes.

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Thank you for the reply. I do not know what you mean when you say to do command+option+delete as I do not have a command button on my keyboard nor UI. I also don't have a "show duplicates" button.
They are not different files I checked to see if they were live and every file has a duplicate.
I tried removing iTunes and re installing but somehow some settings stayed and I got the same stuff when I re installed it. Is there anyway to completely restore Itunes? And if there is no way to delete files from computer from Itunes I am not going to bother with it, that's just ridicules

Forgot you were on Windows. I think the shortcut for deleting is Ctrl+Shift+Delete (delete, not backspace). And the Show Duplicates menu comes under the File menu in Windows. I'm not sure whether this has changed, so you might have to dig around in the menus.

Deleting iTunes is not going to do anything. If you want to start fresh, delete the iTunes folder from your Documents/My Music folder. That's where the library file resides.

If you have any problems, do let me know.

goobimama said:

Forgot you were on Windows. I think the shortcut for deleting is Ctrl+Shift+Delete (delete, not backspace). And the Show Duplicates menu comes under the File menu in Windows. I'm not sure whether this has changed, so you might have to dig around in the menus.

Deleting iTunes is not going to do anything. If you want to start fresh, delete the iTunes folder from your Documents/My Music folder. That's where the library file resides.

If you have any problems, do let me know.

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Ok thanks. I tried the Ctrl+Shift+Delete and all it does is delete from library. I did delete the main itunes folder that was in my music folder and it seems im starting over. There are no songs in my itunes at all. I have multiple music folders and want them all to be under a monitored folder. How should I add them to my library?

If you delete the library folder, obviously iTunes will start over.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to auto-add music in Windows. On the mac we use applescript on folders.

For you I'd highly suggest you let iTunes manage your music. In the advanced options, select the "Let iTunes manage music for me" option turned on. This will copy any song added to the library into iTunes' own music folder, and sorted under Artist/Album. This way you don't have stuff scattered all over the place. I think the Ctrl+Shift+Delete thing will work if you have that turned on, because I just tried it on a PC and it worked (throws up the option to just delete the song, or move it to trash).

goobimama said:

If you delete the library folder, obviously iTunes will start over.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to auto-add music in Windows. On the mac we use applescript on folders.

For you I'd highly suggest you let iTunes manage your music. In the advanced options, select the "Let iTunes manage music for me" option turned on. This will copy any song added to the library into iTunes' own music folder, and sorted under Artist/Album. This way you don't have stuff scattered all over the place. I think the Ctrl+Shift+Delete thing will work if you have that turned on, because I just tried it on a PC and it worked (throws up the option to just delete the song, or move it to trash).

Click to expand...

Alright I consolidated my library so that itunes manages it and It copied all of my music into the itunes music folder and I have the option to delete and send to recycle bin now. Lets say I download a folder with songs from a concert. How should I add that? Should I have the program I use to download music put finished downloads in the itunes folder or keep it the same?

The only way to add new music into iTunes, is to drag that folder into the iTunes window. Not the iTunes folder, but the iTunes application. You can also use the File > Add folder to library command.

You can also use this little utility I found after some googling. iTunes Folder Watch. Use at your own risk as I haven't tested it yet.

Oh and one more thing, get a mac! iTunes on a mac is so much better than iTunes on Windows

goobimama said:

Oh and one more thing, get a mac! iTunes on a mac is so much better than iTunes on Windows

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your help everything is running smooth now. I may consider that