Play Music Update: Can't delete audio files

ACADM

Well-known member
May 16, 2013
59
0
0
Hello, 1st post here so I hope it's in the right section. :)

So I got the latest Play Music update yesterday, and everything was going fine until I wanted to delete a podcast. I searched through the app high and low, spent most of today searching online (including Google's own help files, but the relevant sections haven't been updated to the latest release 15/05/13) and I still can't find a way to delete a audio file from my Nexus 4. Either Google have hidden it really well or they've removed the feature completely, I fear it's the latter. :(

If they have removed that particular functionality, then why would they do that? I don't remember seeing people complaining about being able to delete old files they no longer want, and I surely can't be the only person to use their phone this way?

I'm in the UK so I don't have all the other features that US users have got in the update, and I'm contract free.

Thanks for helping.
 
Same thing on Droid 4. I've just wasted an hour looking and had all my high school students looking. No luck. Someone help please!
 
Open the desktop version of Play Music in your browser, find the song (file, whatever) in My Library/Songs, click the menu button, select delete.
 
Thanks for the reply, however that doesn't answer my questions. I know files can be deleted via the web.
 
Your Nexus 4 can access the web, right? If the podcast you want to delete is in the Play Music cloud, you can delete it as per above. If the podcast is on your device, simply browse to the location on your SD card and delete the file from there.
 
Your Nexus 4 can access the web, right? If the podcast you want to delete is in the Play Music cloud, you can delete it as per above. If the podcast is on your device, simply browse to the location on your SD card and delete the file from there.

Maybe I'm not making myself clear, I'm talking about deleting audio files (that aren't stored in the Google Music Cloud) from the mobile device whilst being away from the pc, you know, mobile. I know I can plug the mobile device into the pc and delete files from the Podcasts/Music folder, but again that means having access to a pc.
 
Use a file browser app to simply browse to the location on your SD card where you have the audio files stored and delete the file from there. If you do not have a file browser on your mobile device, you can find plenty of free ones in the Play Store.
 
Use a file browser app to simply browse to the location on your SD card where you have the audio files stored and delete the file from there. If you do not have a file browser on your mobile device, you can find plenty of free ones in the Play Store.

That looks like it could be an acceptable workaround for the time being, I'll take a look at some file explorers to see if they can work.

Thanks.
 
Use a file browser app to simply browse to the location on your SD card where you have the audio files stored and delete the file from there. If you do not have a file browser on your mobile device, you can find plenty of free ones in the Play Store.

This doesn't work for me.

1.) The files are store locally on the device. I tried out an app called Sleep Recorder and it had a massive folder of .wav files. None of these files synced to my Google Play "Cloud"
2.) I've deleted these files from my internal storage (on my nexus 7) and the "sleepRecorder" album still appears in my Play Store library.

This is really frustrating because I can't remove this garbage from my playlist. So if I use Shuffle All, I get an error that the song cannot be accessed.

Googles Play Music "Delete/undelete music" on their Support page also seems to be outdated, their is no triangle or a "Delete" option.

I'm going to start flipping tables now.

(╯?□?)╯︵ ┻━┻

EDIT: After deleting the files, I got frustrated. I killed process, opened, refreshed library, etc. To no avail. After restarting my tablet, Play Music finally removed the garbage music!

I really think it's annoying Play Music randomly picks up audio files that were created by an app... Makes me wonder if my short ring tones are also in Play Music library............
 
Last edited:
Well I'm using the rather excellent ES File Explorer to delete audio files from my device, maybe you could give that a try?

Also Google Music Play has just updated, although I can't see any changes, and certainly a delete function hasn't been brought back.
 
Same problem here.

I've used my file manager to find the files and delete them, and they are no longer there.

However they still show up in the Play Music Manager library. When you selet the track it says it cant play them (obviously since I deleted the files). The only way to remove those tracks from appearing in your Play Music app is to restart the device (in my case Nexus 4)..that sounds like overkill to me.

I tried the refresh music option in the Play Music app but that only refreshes cloud based music not local storage.

I even tried force closing the app to see if that might make Play Music refresh the local library.

The only way I can see to get Play Music to remove deleted local tracks from the app is to restart!
 
I noticed this issue also. what a pain. Why create an app if I have to end up using a browser as a solution. Here is my solution :
I went to Settings, Application Manager, All, Google Play Music, Uninstall all Updates and reset to Factory.... Problem solved.
If it ain't broke don't fix it, Google. :cool:
 
Yeah I got the update today, thanks Google. :)

At the very least it shows that Google listens to its user base! ;)
 
YOU DA MAN! I went and got ES File Explorer and poof! files gone! Why these other Yayhoos wont listen to you is beyond me. Thanks for your help!
 

Latest posts

Trending Posts

Forum statistics

Threads
956,446
Messages
6,968,287
Members
3,163,548
Latest member
McChin