keeping iTunes fresh

Hi all,

I just was thinking about Hazel operations pertaining to iTunes. Something along the lines of monitoring the iTunes DB directory for songs with a low rating/high skip count (using the "Other.." setting) and pruning them out of iTunes automagically, and perhaps moving them over to an archive/removal directory. This is more for my laptop where space is at a premium.. I could create smart playlists with the very same but as far as I know moving/deleting isn't possible on smart playlists..

I know hazel could move the files pretty easily, I was wondering if there was any functionality for removing them from the itunes database as well. I'm guessing that would probably be a fairly straightforward applescript exercise, so I might look into that as well..

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Interesting idea. Unfortunately, there's no built-in way of doing it. The removal part should be doable via AppleScript though I haven't actually looked at it for this specific purpose. If you make any headway on this, post back as I'm sure others would be curious as to how it turns out.

I read on Mac OS X Hints that you can delete a file in itunes by pressing option-delete when in other playlists.

Thanks for that info! I did not know that..

IDontDoWindows wrote:I read on Mac OS X Hints that you can delete a file in itunes by pressing option-delete when in other playlists.

Deleting files from within iTunes (e.g. with that Option-Delete shortcut) only works if they've been copied into the iTunes Music folder, which can be controlled with the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" option under the General section of the Advanced pane of iTunes Preferences. And certain imported content (e.g. iTunes Music Store downloads) is always copied there, overriding the option if it's unset (like I have it).

Apple still hasn't addressed the problem with large video files being stored under the single iTunes Music folder on relatively small disk volumes never intended for that purpose. I'll be surprised if this increasingly inadequate monolithic storage scheme doesn't finally get its overdue overhaul, somehow, with the next major iTunes release.

Does anyone have an AppleScript that can delete a given iTune's item from Hazel? I currently have Hazel deleting TV and Radio shows that I've added to iTunes (via Hazel) after 2 weeks. I'd like to also remove the entry from iTunes once Hazel moves the file to the trash. I had an Applescript that worked for a while, but it was very brute force in that it had to enumerate every iTunes item (I've got over 10k) for each file it needed to delete. Unfortunately, this script stopped working a few months ago, either due to a Hazel or iTunes update. Now I'm left with a growing number of exclamation marks until I manually run something like Doug's Super Remove Dead Tracks...

Mr_Noodle wrote:Interesting idea. Unfortunately, there's no built-in way of doing it. The removal part should be doable via AppleScript though I haven't actually looked at it for this specific purpose. If you make any headway on this, post back as I'm sure others would be curious as to how it turns out.