Select the Song or Album to Delete

When you no longer like a song or album, or need to free up some hard drive space on your computer or iPod, you may decide to delete songs in iTunes.

Deleting songs is a very simple process, but it also has some deceptive elements that could cause you not to actually delete the file and therefore not save any space at all. Luckily, making sure you truly delete a file is a snap.

To begin deleting a song, start by going to your iTunes library and finding the song, songs, or album you want to delete.

• To delete a single song, click on it once.
• To delete multiple songs next to each other, hold down the Shift key while you click them.
• To delete multiple, non-contiguous songs, hold down the Command key (on a Mac) or the Control key (on Windows) while you click the songs.
• To delete an album, click on the album title.
• To delete all music by the artist, click on the artist's name.

When you've selected the items to delete, you can do one of three things:

1. Hit the Delete key on the keyboard
2. Go to the Edit menu and choose Delete.
3. Right-click and choose delete (on a Mac) or Send to recycling bin (on Windows).

Note: Deleting songs from iTunes will remove them from your iPod the next time you sync your iPod. If you just want to remove a song from your iPod, but keep it in your iTunes library, you need to sync only selected songs.

Here's where things can get a little tricky. When you hit the delete key, iTunes pops up a window that lets you decide what to do with the file: will it be deleted for good or just removed from iTunes?

Your options include:

• Keep File - Choosing this option can be result in a confusing situation. If you choose it, the song or album will be removed from your iTunes library, but not from your hard drive. This means that the file or files will still be stored on your hard drive, still taking up space, but not available to play through iTunes or sync to your iPod/iPhone until you add it back to your iTunes library. This is because iTunes is basically a listing of files stored in a specific place on your hard drive (the Music folder), but doesn't actually store the files themselves. So, there are reasons to choose this option, but make sure you understand what it entails before you do so.

• Move to Trash - This option should be chosen when you want to completely delete a song or album. This will move the files to your trash or recycling bin. The files will be completely deleted next time to empty the trash/recycling bin.
• Cancel - If you've changed your mind and no longer want to delete the song or album, click this button to end the operation.

And you're done! If you chose Move to Trash, iTunes no longer has a listing for the song or album and has moved the files to the trash, where they'll be deleted. If you chose Keep File, the song has been removed from iTunes but not your hard drive.

Either way, the selected files will be removed from your iPod/iPhone the next time you sync it.

What we've learned so far will help you delete a song from iTunes if you're viewing your entire library. If, however, you're viewing a playlist and you want to delete a song from inside the playlist, the process is a little different.

Normally, following the previous steps results in the song simply being removed from the playlist, not deleted from your computer.

If, however, you're looking at a playlist and decide you want to permanently delete a song, there's no need to go back to your full music library.

Instead, select the song or songs you want to delete and hold down the Option + Command + Delete keys at the same time (on a Mac) or Option + Control + Delete (on a PC).

You'll get a slightly different pop-up window in this case. This window asks whether you want to delete the item and lets you know that the song will still be accessible in iCloud, but nowhere else (unless you redownload it). Make your choice and the song will be deleted from both the playlist and your hard drive.