Find missing tracks in iTunes

Nov 25, 2011 by Derek    No Comments    Posted under: Tech

Sometimes something that should be so simple ends up being rather tricky. Such was the case recently when I decided to clean up my iTunes library and delete any missing tracks from my library (you know, those bothersome ones with the exclamation mark on the left that practically laugh in your face. “Ha”, they say “You may have deleted me but you’ll never find my brothers”. I just want to punch them all in the face. But, I digress.).

Unfortunately it’s not the most straight forwards problem to solve, there is no built in “Display missing tracks” menu item. So we need to get crafty. Here’s the solution I used.

1. Create a new playlist (Ctrl+N) called “Not-Missing”.
2. Drag your entire library into the playlist. (Ctrl+A to select all then click and drag).
3. Create a new Smart playlist (Ctrl+Alt+N) called “Missing”.
4. Match the following Rules:
   • [Playlist] [is not] [Not-Missing]
   • [Media Kind] [is] [Music]
   • No Limit to results
   • Live Updating is selected

Now check out that playlist called “Missing”. It should have all the missing tracks. You’ll have to delete the tracks from your library (not directly from the playlist) but now you at least know what you’re looking for.

This works because you can’t add missing tracks to a regular playlist, then we use a smart-playlist that filters the not-missing tracks from your library.

As always, give me a shout in the comments if you’ve got questions.

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